Why The Bible is of Immeasurable Importance
No other collection of writings has impacted human history like the Bible. From the flowing prose of the opening Genesis narrative, to the stories of love, pride, and brutality found in the historical books, to the hauntingly beautiful Psalms, to the profound literary elements of Job, to the no-nonsense narrative of Mark, to the brilliant logic of Paul, to the literary excellence of Hebrews, and to the rich imagery of Revelation, the Bible has entertained, enlightened, and convicted its readers for thousands of years.
For the Christian, the Bible is of the utmost importance for growth- and it alone has the right to dictate the believer’s faith and practice. R.C. Sproul had it right when he said in Everyone’s A Theologian that Scripture is “norma normans et sine normativa.” That is to say, it is the norm of norms with no norms; it is the standard of standards that judges all other standards. This authority alone should motivate the believer to memorize, learn, declare, meditate on, and delight in Scripture. But, here are three more reasons, which have been adapted from a beautiful sermon on Scripture from John Piper, on why the Bible is crucial to the Christian life.
1. The Bible is crucial to living a holy life.
In the longest chapter in the Bible (which, ironically, is about the Bible), the author opens up the second stanza of his poem and asks in Psalm 119:9, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” Two verses later, he affirms the Word’s ability to sanctify by saying in verse 11, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
Read that again.
He stores up the Word so that he MIGHT NOT SIN against God.
The natural overflow of storing up God’s Word is sinning against Him less.
Jesus, in John 17:17, prayed that his followers would be sanctified in the truth, and then says, “Your [that is, God’s] word is truth.” Why would Jesus pray we would be sanctified according to God’s Word? Because Jesus knew there are beautiful things in God’s Word and we will be radically transformed when we behold them (Psalm 119:18)!
2. The Bible shows us that we can’t see those glories (the ones that help us live a holy life) without God’s help, and thus motivates us to ask Him to illuminate us.
The Psalmist cried out to God in Psalm 119:18 and asked Him to, “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” We’ve already determined that when we see these wondrous truths, we’re changed. There is a massive problem, however.
As sinners who are totally depraved, deserve God’s wrath, live according to the flesh, and are in need of spiritual rebirth, (Romans 1:18, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23a, Romans 8:5–8, 1 Corinthians 2:14–16) we, left to our own devices, are incapable of discovering the Glories of God in Scripture. It then makes perfect sense to see why the Psalmist would pray to have his eyes opened. Because we are “darkened in understanding, excluded from the life of God because of… ignorance… because of the hardness of [our] heart,” we need to implore God to enlighten us and illuminate our darkness so that we can behold His Glory in His Word (Ephesians 4:18).
We will never see the beauty of spiritual reality without God’s illumination.
-John Piper
3. The Bible motivates the elect to radically depend on God through the Gospel.
This is beautiful. When God enlightens us so that we see the beauty of the Gospel for the first time, he imparts faith to us and we are never the same. While an unbiased reading of Scripture may give someone a slight intellectual grasp of the Gospel, only the “illuminated elect” can respond in the faith God demands.
That’s the power of Scripture. It’s able to “make you wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). When God illuminates and imparts faith, clear revelation of the Gospel enables us to respond according to His Sovereign Will.
The most beautiful thing about Scripture is that it always points to the Gospel.
With these three things in mind, I challenge you to make Scripture- and the glories revealed through it- the top priority of your time, the sole source of profound mediation and radical obedience, and the sole dictator of faith and practice in your life.
