Read Genesis 31, Esther 7, and Matthew 22.
This devotional is about Matthew 22.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, the American church struggled over the implications of the doctrine of inspiration. The fact that the Bible is the inspired word of God should not be controversial among Christians because 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful….” So, if it is Scripture, it is God’s word. God saw to it that his message was written down for us.
But does inspiration mean that God’s word is without error? That was the question that people, in the early 1900s especially, debated. And although the issue is resolved for most Christians in America, there are still some who question or at least wonder about this question.
The idea that God’s word is without error is called “inerrancy.” Inerrancy is an implication of inspiration. If God breathed out Scripture as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, then doesn’t that imply that scripture should be free of mistakes? Shouldn’t God’s word be true in every way, including historical facts, prophesies fulfilled, what it says about human nature, what is and is not sin, and a host of other issues of truth?
The answer is yes. If the Bible is God’s Word, then it is free of any kind of error. Three of the things Jesus said here in Matthew 22 show that he believed in inerrancy.
First, he told the Sadducees that THEY had embraced error because they did “not know the Scriptures….” The implication is that knowing Scripture would have kept them from error. Why? Because Scripture is God’s word and it is, therefore, without error.
But, secondly, in verses 31-32, Jesus addressed the fact that the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection–anyone’s resurrection. They believed that this life is all you get and, when you die, it’s over. But Jesus used the Bible and a question to confront their resurrection-denial. He said, and again, this is in verses 31-32, “But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Jesus’s argument there turned on the issue of the tense of a verb. God said, “I am the God of Abraham,” not “I was the God of Abraham.” That seems like a very small distinction to us, but not to Jesus. To Jesus, it was proof that the dead live on spiritually. If he thought the Bible contained errors-or might contain errors–Jesus could not have used that Old Testament quotation to make a point about the resurrection.
Thirdly, in verses 41-45, Jesus argued for the divinity of Messiah based on what David wrote in Psalm 110. Psalm 110 is a Messianic psalm which begins, “The LORD said to my Lord…” Jesus quoted that Psalm here in Matthew 22, then he drew the point in verse 45 which says, “If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” The answer, of course, is that Messiah would be both God and man, which Jesus was. But Jesus asked the question that he did because he believed that David’s words in Psalm 110 were inspired by God and, therefore, truthful and without error.
If the Bible is not inerrant, it is impossible for us to trust it as God’s word because we don’t know where the errors are. But, the Bible is God’s word and God’s word does not contain mistakes. So don’t let anyone nullify God’s word by saying that one of the Bible’s writers was just ignorant or mistaken. You can trust God’s word–all of it–for your salvation and for your daily life with God.