The last and most important factor in ranking the Bible as the most distinctive book is its influence upon men. Although the Bible is a great treasure as far as its literary, philosophical, and historical contribution to humanity are concerned, the greatest value of the book lies in its great influence upon individuals. Through its pages man is exposed concerning his true condition before God. The word of God is like a two-edged sword that pierces through the reasonings and natural excuses of man and convicts him of his sins before God (Heb. 4:12). Saint Augustine was an undisciplined and licentious man in his youth, but his mother prayed for him while he was growing up. After living a wanton life for many years, one day at the age of thirty-one he read the Bible under a fig tree and came to the portion that says, “Let us walk becomingly as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in fornication and licentiousness, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts” (Rom. 13:13-14). These words convicted him of his sins, and he repented to the Lord and became a great servant of Christ.
Throughout history many famous people have been inspired to believe in Christ through reading the Bible. The French emperor Napoleon, after being defeated and exiled to the island of St. Helena, confessed that though he and other great leaders founded their empires upon force, Jesus Christ built His kingdom with love. He also confessed that though he could rally men to die for his cause, he had to do so by speaking to them face to face, whereas for eighteen centuries countless men and women had been willing to sacrifice their lives for Jesus Christ with joy without having seen Him once. The reason that so many have been willing to give up everything to follow Christ and to be martyred for Him is that they have seen the Christ revealed in the Bible. The Bible has become the source of inspiration for many to believe in Christ. Although many kings, emperors, and governments have tried throughout the past two thousand years to stamp out the Bible, beginning from the Roman emperors of the first century and continuing down to the communists of this century, no power on earth has been able to take away man’s attraction to this book and the wonderful person it contains. The Christ revealed in the Bible is as fresh today as He was two thousand years ago. No biography of any man on earth has changed as many lives as the life of Jesus Christ.
For Christians the Bible is a constant source of teaching and revelation. It convicts, corrects, and instructs the Christian in righteousness and equips him for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). It affords him life-transforming power that changes his disposition and transforms his soul. It gives him power to overcome sin and Satan, and it feeds his spirit with the heavenly food. It is a believer’s spiritual milk (1 Pet. 2:2) and his bread of life (Matt. 4:4). Many Christians at times experience tribulation and sickness, but when they read a portion or a sentence of the Bible, they have the enduring strength in their hearts, and they receive unspeakable comfort and thus obtain hope that is beyond their expectation.
The reason that the Bible is different from all other books is that its nature is divine. The Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). This tells us that the Scripture did not come out of man’s thought, man’s mind, but, rather, it was God’s breathing His thought and His word through His Spirit into and out of the writers. Hence, the Bible contains God’s element and carries His flavor. A Christian’s greatest joy and blessing is to be able to contact God and taste Him daily through the word of His breath.
Since the Scripture is God’s breathing His word out from men through His Spirit, no word of the Scripture can be of man’s will; rather, men were borne by the Spirit and spoke from God. The word “men spoke from God while being borne by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21) has a twofold meaning: first, men were borne by the Spirit; second, men spoke from God. In the original Greek, being borne by the Holy Spirit refers to being carried along like a ship by the wind. The writers of the Bible received God’s inspiration, and they were under the power of the Holy Spirit, being borne and carried along by Him to speak out God’s word. Furthermore, when they spoke, they spoke from within God. It was the Spirit of God carrying men along to speak, and it was also men speaking from within God. In other words, it was God speaking His own word from within men through their mouth.
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