In the church we have a doctrine called "inspiration." And the English translation of 2 Timothy 3:16
that I just read, uses the term inspiration. But I think that we must make a distinction
between the use of the term inspiration here, and the way it's used theologically in the
history of the church. Because, as Dr. B.B. Warfield once pointed out so eloquently, the
real meaning of this text here in 2 Timothy 3:16 has to do not so much with the way in
which God communicated His information to us through the human writers, but rather the
emphasis in this text is on the source of that information. What Paul is saying, he
uses the word Theopneust (I'll write that out in English) in the Greek here when he
says "all scripture is given by inspiration." Literally what this word means is God-breathed.
And it means that which God has breathed out, rather than that which God breathes in.
Now, I was just ready to give my next sentence after finishing that sentence and I noticed
that in between that last sentence and the next sentence I had to pause...and take a
breath. Because in order for me to speak I have to have breath in my lungs, and while
I'm speaking, if I continue to speak and don't take a breath while I continue to speak pretty
soon I start squeaking like a mouse and I run out of breath...I have to breathe, because
when I speak I'm breathing out, and in order to breathe out I must first breathe in. Now
the force of what Paul is saying here is that he is saying that all of Scripture is breathed
out from God.
Now when we breathe out that means we are involved in expiration, not in the sense of
dying, but we expire at death because we breathe out for the last time, and we don't breathe
in anymore. But to breathe out is expiration, whereas to breathe in is inspiration. So really,
if we were getting real technical here, we should translate this phrase that all Scripture
is given by expiration.
Now, so what? What's the difference between an expiration and inspiration here? Again,
the point that I'm jealous to make here, is that what Paul is saying when he insists that
all of the Scripture has been breathed out by God, he is saying that it's ultimate origin
is in Him. It is His word. It is His speech. He is the One who is the source of these writings.
And so when we talk about the doctrine of inspiration, we're talking about the way in
which God superintends the writing of sacred Scripture. That God does not just act, and
let people respond with their own insight, and their own imagination to set forth their
view of what God has done, but that God is working by the Holy Spirit to superintend
that record to make sure that the record that is written is His Word.