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If there’s one thing that ought to be clear to all people everywhere, it’s that there is a God. The evidence for God’s existence is overwhelming. It ought to be evident that we are not here upon this earth because of blind chance; we are here because there is a God who made mankind to inhabit the earth. I believe a person has to choose not to believe in his existence. “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1 ESV).

The Scriptures tell us that we were made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). I may not know everything that is involved in that, but one thing that must be involved is the fact that we are rational beings. We were created with minds that are capable of taking in and processing information. This ability may have many uses, but I believe its main purpose is so that we might come to know the God who made us. He did not create us the way we are and then simply leave us alone. He created mankind with the intention of making himself known by communicating with us.

That is precisely what God did in the Bible. The Bible is more than a collection of 66 books written by 40 or so men over the course of about 1400 years. It is the word of God. That is what is meant when we talk about the inspiration of the Scriptures. This expression comes from one of the letters Paul wrote to Timothy: “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3:16 NASB). Other translations capture the meaning even better: “All Scripture is God-breathed” (NIV) or “breathed out by God” (ESV). In other words, God spoke it. God may have used various men to write the Bible, but it contains the very words of God.

That fact is mentioned many times in the Bible. For example, David said, “The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2 ESV). But God did more than use the biblical writers as flesh and blood dictation machines. Each book still bears the impression of the man who penned it. The words of the Bible are couched in the language and style of the men who penned them, but they’re actually the words of God himself. God used those men in such a way that what they wrote were not their words but his.

 “²⁰ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. ²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20–21 NIV).

Peter’s point is that the Scriptures are not a product of the reasoning of any human being. These men were not recording what they thought about things. They “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21 NIV). The Holy Spirit (i.e., God) was the force behind the message, not the prophets. Therefore, what was recorded were the words of God, not man.

Do we truly appreciate what we have in the book we call the Bible? It’s remarkable that the one who created all things and is all-powerful wants to communicate with us, and yet that is what he’s done. What’s even more remarkable is the fact that he’s communicated with us because he wants to have a relationship with us. The Holy Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15 ESV). Let us recognize their value and live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4 ESV).