After we are saved, in order to have spiritual growth, we must know the Bible. For two thousand years Christians have acknowledged one thing, that no one can know the Lord well without knowing the Bible.
The spiritual inheritance which God has given to us includes, on the one hand, the invisible Holy Spirit and, on the other hand, the visible Holy Bible. On the one hand, the Spirit is within us; on the other hand, the Scripture is outside of us. A proper Christian must be balanced in these two sides. If we only have the Holy Spirit within but do not have the Scripture without, we will make mistakes easily. If we only have the Scripture without, but do not have the Holy Spirit within, we will become dead, without vitality or livingness.
A Christian is like a train which needs motivating power within and tracks without. Having these two aspects—the inward and the outward—coordinating together, the train can move, even move very well. This is exactly true of the Holy Spirit within us and the Holy Scriptures outside of us. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit within and you also know the Bible without, then, as a Christian, you are living and stable, and you are also active and accurate. You are a Christian who is living and stable as well as active and accurate.
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 is God’s breathing His thought and His word through His Spirit into and out of the writers. Hence, the Bible contains God’s elements and carries His flavor. As Christians, our greatest joy, or shall we say, our greatest 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 out of God. The word, “men spoke from God, 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 means being carried along as 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 mouths.
Second Samuel 23:2 says, “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.” This word was spoken by David. He told us that the words he spoke were the speaking of the Spirit of God through him, and that it was God’s word that was in his tongue. Not only the Holy Spirit spoke through him, but also God’s word was in his tongue and was spoken from his mouth. This is the Bible.
The Old Testament is God’s speaking in the prophets; the New Testament is God’s speaking in the Son, our Lord Jesus (Heb. 1:1-2). Hence, whether it is the speaking of the prophets in the Old Testament or the speaking of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament, both are God’s speaking and both are of God.