In the next section of the book, Ward will then move to write about “a theological outline of Scripture in its relationship with God, focusing on Scripture’s role in the relationship with each of the persons of the Trinity.” (p. 13) In this section, he is going to make the argument for what he calls “speech-act theory” (pp. 57-60) we as Christians can use this as a powerful tool when we are talking about the doctrine of Scripture.
Ward is going to move from biblical, theological and lastly, he will write about God’s Word from “a doctrinal outline of Scripture.” (p. 17) In this section, Ward will cover “Scripture’s necessity, sufficiency, clarity and authority (including inerrancy and infallibility).” (p. 17) Ward writes with clarity and illustrates just how important it is for us to keep these attributes of God’s Word.
The final section of the book is seen as practical theology as Ward will end with a call for us as the readers to apply what he has written to preaching and our private reading of Scripture. He will deal with the misunderstanding of sola scriptura. Ward wants us to be encouraged to preach the Bible and we can be confident that we are not just speaking empty words by human authors but that we are ambassadors speaking the very words of God when we open up the Bible to preach.
Ward is able to make his argument clear. He does persuade me on the way that I need to see that all three persons of God are an activity in the words of God. The Father speaks the Words, the Son is the Word of God in the flesh and the Spirit continues to have a role to play in both the authoring and the preservation of Scripture. I had never read how all three are involved in the Words of Scripture. I knew that all three were involved and Ward was able to persuade to see how God and the Scriptures are in a relationship.
The strength of the book is that Ward is able to remind the reader of the conservative Reformed view of Scripture by pointing us to Calvin, Turretin, Warfield and Bavinck with quotes. He reminds us that this is not a new idea but has been something that has been held as a view of Scripture for years. Another strength is how Ward builds from the biblical outline to the theological outline, to the doctrinal outline as Ward buildings from one to the next that is one of his strengths.
The first quote comes from the summary where Ward is showing us how he has made the arguments in the book, “The central biblical, theological and doctrinal arguments of this book can be summarized briefly.
Scripture, by which we mean the speech acts performed by means of the words of Scripture, is the primary means by which God presents himself to us, in such a way that we can know him and remain in a faithful relationship with him. Once we are clear on this definition of the nature of Scripture, we can say something important and true, even though at first sight it seems perhaps dangerously close to making an idol of the Bible: Scripture is God in communicative action.
Theologically Scripture is the means by which the Father presents his covenant to us, and therefore the means by which he presents himself to us as the faithful God of the covenant. It is also in the words of Scripture that the Word of God, Jesus Christ, comes to us so that we may know him and remain in him. And it is through the Scripture, which he authored, preserved and now illumines, that the Holy Spirt speaks to us most reliably. All this is what we are saying when we confess, simply that, ‘The Bible is the Word of God.’
Doctrinally Scripture is necessary, because of the character of God, and because of the covenantal form in which he chooses to relate to us. It is sufficient as the form in which God’s covenant promise is made to us. It is clear, in that God’s voice speaking through Scripture gives us sufficiently solid grounds to base on Scripture alone our knowledge of God, our trust in him, our hope and our actions. All of this amounts to an exposition of what it means to say that Scripture is authoritative, since to speak of Scripture’s authority is really shorthand for speaking of the way in which the sovereign God chooses to speak authoritatively to use in and through Scripture.” (pp. 177-178)
The second argument is, “For the great revealed truth we must trust, explain and defend is that the one who is the Word of life (I John I:I) speaks to us words of life (John 6:68). He gives us Scripture as our word of life: the trustworthy, clear and sufficient means of knowing him and remaining in covenant relationship with him, in the power of the Holy Spirit, right up until the day we no longer need it, because then we shall see face to face.” (p. 179) Ward made the arguments that we need to see that Scripture is trustworthy, that it is clear and sufficient for us to be in a covenant relationship with God.
The first insight from this book that I need to apply is the section The Son and Scripture: the words of the Word - Jesus and the Bible as both ‘Word of God’. Ward writes “A book is not a person and a person is not a book; the necessary safeguards to ordering ‘Christ as Word’ and ‘Bible as Word’ appropriately in relation to each other are already there in this rather obvious fact.” (pp. 71-72) “Paying full and wise attention to Scripture as the written Word of God is crucial if we wish to worship and follow the Word-made-flesh, the Son of God, rightly.” (p. 74) I need to watch when I am talking about Jesus as the Word of God and the Bible as the Word of God. It could be confusing to people.
The second insight is found in The Holy Spirit and Scripture: the God-breathed Word - The inspiration of Scripture - The Spirit as the author of Scripture. The insight was when Ward is writing about the inspiration of Scripture. Ward writes “Consequently it is arguable that we should drop the term ‘the inspiration of Scripture’, as the phrase so easily leads to confusion.” (p. 83) This was the first time I had read about dropping the term the inspiration of Scripture. I thought why would we do that and then Ward went on to write about people wanting to drop the word but then he gives a good reason to keep using the word to help us understand why we should this word. Ward writes
“Scripture is then said to be ‘inspired’ in the sense that Christians find it spiritually inspiring.” (p. 84) I want to always see the Scripture as God’s Word that is inspired and inspiring me.
