The Living Word

When it is affirmed that the Scripture is inspired by God, it does not mean that the writers sat down with their pen and the Holy Spirit took their hand to write the words.  They were not literary zombies, but real flesh and blood men who took to the task of writing through their own set of experiences, their own intellect and reasoning, and whatever biases they carried with them.  They did not lose control of themselves, nor did some invisible ghostly spirit take over their bodies.  Instead they were men who wrote under the influence of the Holy Spirit. 

 

The Holy Spirit did indeed use these human writers to pen a Word that transcends every other word ever written by men and women like us.  Each writer was chosen because of the unique contribution his writings would make to the whole collection of writings about the work of God in the world.  Writers who lived in different times zones, different places, and whose view of God was their own wrote as the Spirit gave them inspiration and then the Divine Author worked to bring these words together in a way that came to be known as Holy Scripture. 

 

When I was a young man in seminary learning things about the Word that were supposed to give me a clearer understanding of what was authentic and what was an add on, I figured I knew more than I really knew.  Now, after so many decades of living with this Word, I am amazed at how much more there is to learn and how little I really know.  One of the things I have come to understand about this Word we call Scripture is that it was brought into being by the One who has created everything including me and as a small part of that creation I am in no position to figure out what the Inspired Spirit had in His mind and heart when He was doing this work of creating the Living Word.