We’ve already spent some time looking at the relationship between the inspiration of Scripture and the authority of Scripture. In that article, I promised to develop the doctrine of authority a bit deeper, which brings us here. We begin to understand the authority of Scripture when we understand the character of the God who penned it. Two of his characteristics are especially relevant: His truthfulness and His authority.
Think about this for a bit. If the Bible is inspired, but God is not true, can it be trustworthy? Hardly. The Bible cannot be more true that its Source. Therefore, though the Bible may be inspired, it is only true if God Himself is true.
The same goes for the authority of Scripture. The Bible is weak and ineffective if the God who gave it is not in charge. We need a God of authority for His Word to have any authority. A true Word requires a true God; an authoritative Word requires an authoritative God.
Thus we have two assertions and two logical conclusions:
- The Bible is true, therefore it must be believed.
- The Bible has authority, therefore it must be obeyed.
God is True
God is true. To be true is, as Webster’s says, “[to be] in accordance with the actual state of affairs.”1 That is, to be true is to agree with reality. God is never wrong. Everything that comes from Him is right and correct. When He speaks, He declares things as they actually are. He knows no deception, no falsehood, no ignorance, no incorrect information. He can only ever speak truth.
But God’s truthfulness goes beyond just agreement with reality. People can only be called truthful if their testimony about reality is correct; we have no power to define it. To put it simply, if I count three cookies in the cookie jar, when there are in fact five, my understanding of reality is incorrect. And I have no power to change that fact (short of making another batch of cookies). If someone kindly points out that there are five cookies in the jar, I can either stubbornly insist that there are, in fact, only three cookies, or I can adjust my belief to match things as they actually are. I cannot change the truth; I can only accept or reject it.
But God is not like us. He does not just agree with reality, He defines it. He is the essence of truth. God does not just conform to a higher standard of truth, some outside measure which He has to match. God is the standard of truth. He sets the bar. He declares what is and is not reality. What God says is true. Always.
David, in 2 Samuel 7:28, praises this truthfulness. “O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are true.” This praise follows God’s covenant with David, a covenant which included the eternal establishment of David’s kingship (fulfilled finally in Christ). David rests his confidence in God’s covenant in the fact that God always does what He says—that God is true. The apostle Paul, in Titus 1:2, agrees with David when he simply says, “[God] cannot lie.” Truthfulness is not just something God does—truthfulness is who He is.
God’s Word is True
Our belief in God’s own truthfulness, combined with our understanding that Scripture is from God, naturally leads us to believe that God’s Word is also true. If the Bible is God’s word, and God only tells the truth, then the Bible we have must be entirely true.
This is the logical conclusion, but it is also the clear biblical conclusion. In John 17:17, Jesus prays for His disciples; “Sanctify them by Your truth: Your word is truth.”
This verse is interesting because Jesus does not use the adjectives alēthinos or alēthēs (“true”), which we might have expected, to say, “Your word is true.” Rather, he uses a noun, alētheia (“truth”), to say that God’s Word is not simply “true,” but it is truth itself. The difference is significant, for this statement encourages us to think of the Bible not simply as being “true” in the sense that it conforms to some higher standard of truth, but rather to think of the Bible as being itself the final standard of truth.…Thus we are to think of the Bible as the ultimate standard of truth, the reference point by which every other claim to truthfulness is to be measured.
Wayne Grudem2
The Bible Must be Believed
So then, if what is written in the Bible is the standard of truth, what it says must be important. In fact, not only is it important, it is most important, above any other standard. We must believe that the Bible stands above every other human writing, scientific discovery, or mystical experience. Regardless of what we read, see, think, or feel, the Bible dictates our beliefs.
Though it is possible for our understanding of Scripture to be untrue, it is impossible for the Bible to be untrue. If our conclusions are incorrect, the Bible is not at fault, we are. When it is rightly understood, Scripture is always true. Thus it must direct everything we believe.
Again, this is anchored in an understanding of God’s character. If God is true, His Word is true. So we learn about what is true by studying the Bible. If we want to know God, we must study Scripture. We cannot have good theology, keep a pure gospel, or live God-honoring lives without submitting ourselves to the true Word. The Bible shows us things as they actually are, because God sees things as they are. To truly know God, we must understand His Word. If we compromise this doctrine, we not only deny the truthfulness of the Bible, but we deny the truthfulness of God Himself.
Truthfulness and Authority
The truthfulness of Scripture undergirds our understanding of the authority of Scripture. If the Bible stands above every other truth claim, it follows that it also stands above every claim to authority. Its place as the ultimate source of truth also positions it in absolute authority. The truthfulness of Scripture means it determines what we believe and why. And, as it has the right to dictate what we believe, it also has the authority to dictate how we live.
- “True,” Merriam-Webster, accessed December 2, 2019, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/true.
- Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 83.