Theology Thursday: What is the purpose of Scripture?

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
What is the purpose of Scripture?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
Why did God give us the Bible?

Let’s continue our semi-regular look at the scriptures to help us understand not just what the Bible says but what the Bible is.

So far, we’ve thought through the authority of Scripture, the canon of Scripture, the inspiration of Scripture, and the translation of Scripture.  

Today, let’s think through the purpose of Scripture.

First, we should be reminded what our Holy Scripture is not:

It’s not a how-to script for a better life, it’s not a roadmap for personal discovery or self-improvement, and it’s not an encyclopedia with the answer to 100% of life’s questions (even theological and spiritual questions!). It’s certainly not a manual for health, wealth, and happiness.

Following the moral and behavioral instructions presented throughout Scripture absolutely can and often does lead to a more stable, more intact life (there is wisdom for life and relationships found in every one of the 66 books of our Bible), but greater earthly success, greater relational cohesion, and even greater self-fulfillment and satisfaction is not the main reason God revealed his will through these inspired writings.

The Bible cannot be used like a dictionary to search and locate a specific verse for a particular question or problem in life; it is the grand narrative of God’s design for the world he created, the world he saved, and the world he is going to redeem and renew. The whole arc of scripture contributes to this revelation - the creation, the fall, the selection and preparation of God’s people, the incarnation of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection, and his promised redemption at the end of history - and all of it must be considered and weighed whenever we’re reading the small sections.

The Bible can and should inform how we live (of course!), but more than that, it can and does inform us about who God is, who we are because of him, how he is working to bring us into his presence forever, and what we are to do in response.

Therefore, I think we can summarize the purpose of Scripture like this: the Bible exists for us to know God, to grow in love for him, to grow in love for others, and to provide the hope of salvation.

Know God
When we read Scripture, we come to recognize that all of it was written by God’s people, primarily to God’s people.

So one purpose of Scripture, perhaps the first and foremost purpose, is for the people of God to come to know God: his character, his actions, his will, and his desires and intentions for his people (the church).

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he prays a specific prayer for them: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Ephesians 1:17). God gave us the Bible so that we could know him, and we come to know him mostly through consistent, deep time in his word.

And not only did God give his people the Bible so they could know him better, he gave the world the Bible so they could come to know him in the first place. Our Scripture is the primary tool of discipleship for Christians, and it’s the primary tool of evangelism for those who are not yet Christians.

It’s through regular immersion in prayerful Bible study that our faith is realized and solidified, and the object of our faith (the triune God - Father, Son, and Spirit) is made known to us.

Love God
If the primary purpose of Scripture as a whole is for us to know God, perhaps the primary purpose of Scripture’s commands is for us to love the God we now know.

Love is God’s preeminent characteristic; it’s the thing he most is, the trait that most perfectly and fully defines his very nature and essence, and the actions that flow from his nature and essence.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1st John 4:16).

The moral and behavioral instruction in Scripture - the 10 Commandments, basically the whole book of Proverbs, Romans 12:9-21, the “Golden Rule” in Matthew 7:12, and a bunch of other stuff in a bunch of other places - is not aimed at making us better people in the eyes of the world but aimed at making us more holy in the eyes of God.

God created humans in order that we could dwell with him in eternal glory. He loves his creation, and desires for his creation to love him back. When we do - when we love God through worship, adoration and honor, and obedience - we are responding in the only appropriate way to the God who loved us so much he sent his very son to suffer and die on our behalf.

Sin is the opposite of love, and our perfect God cannot tolerate sin. And yet he wants us - sinful, rebellious, distorted, guilty us. He wants us to be with him, so he came to be with us in the person of Jesus to make that possible.  

Scripture tells the story of a loving God, a God whose very character defines love. We love because he first loved us, 1st John 4:19 tells us. He loves us, and if we love him, we also…

…Love Others
When we love others in the name of Jesus, we extend the same grace, patience, kindness, and compassion that God extends to us, and we do so as a reflection of God’s love in our world. Christian discipleship is the journey of growing evermore like our Savior (Be holy as God is holy, says 1st Peter 1:15-16) and serving as a mirror of our God in a world that needs to see him.

Creation itself was the first act of God’s love, and history is filled with numerous others. The most remarkable and consequential example, though, is the incarnation of Christ. The Bible tells us that God’s love is most known through the arrival, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus: This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1st John 4:10).

Jesus died for us. His love was nothing if not sacrificial; he put us ahead of his comfort, ahead of his preferences, ahead of his desire for self-preservation, even ahead of his own life. Our love for others is to be the same.  

In Matthew’s gospel, when Jesus is asked what aspect of the Old Testament teachings is most important, he answers:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Many churches sum up their mission this way: Love God, Love People. That is the purpose of the Christian life, and that is the purpose of the revelation of Scripture.

When we read Scripture, we encounter the God of love, and we develop a Spirit-empowered desire (and, over time, ability!) to love God and love others.

Provide Hope
Broadly, God gave us the Bible so his people could know him, love him, and love others in his name.

But more narrowly, the purpose of the biblical Scripture is to provide hope for believers. And not just a general or vague hope for a better tomorrow or a “better place,” but the specific hope of salvation for sinners and the reconciliation of relationship with God.

Biblical hope is not wishful thinking; it’s not “I hope the Bears win today.” It’s the certainty that the God of the universe will keep his promises because he always has before and he will again. Biblical hope is not “fingers crossed,” it’s “thumbs up.”

Scripture exists to shine a light in the darkness of our fallen world and our human condition - a condition that separates us from God and without him condemns us to eternal death. It provides the narrative of redemption, and the guidance humans need in order to accept the invitation God offers to us to come to saving faith in him.

God wants a big ole family - billions of adopted children! - and provides the terms of adoption: belief, repentance, confession, baptism, persistence. In a word: faith. By God’s grace we are saved through faith.

Those of us who have accepted this offer of salvation have the hope - the rock-solid certainty - of a life-filled future; a future in the glorious presence of our loving God for all eternity. This is true because of who God is and what he has done, and we know this truth because of his words laid out for us in Scripture.

Paul to the church in Rome summed up this purpose of Scripture: For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope (Romans 15:4).

That’s why he gave us the Bible.

To know God and make God known!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.