On the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus shows the two disciples, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,” that the content of Scripture all points to him (Luke 24:25–27). All the law, the sacrifices, and the types point to Jesus.
Jesus had told the Jews in Jerusalem, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). We often assume that Scripture’s bearing witness to Jesus is restricted to content. This makes sense, but perhaps more is going on that can transform the way we read the Bible.
It is the way Scripture is given as revelation that points to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, the only begotten. Let’s engage the doctrine of the Trinity to see how the eternal generation of the Son parallels the giving of Scripture. Once we grasp this, it will transform the way we read the Bible as the living Word of God (Heb. 4:12).
Scripture Is the Word of God in the Spirit
John 1:1 famously teaches, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John deliberately opens his Gospel with echoes of the Genesis 1 creation account. “In the beginning, God. . . . And God said . . .” (vv. 1, 3). When we compare these texts, it becomes clear that the Son is referred to as the Word of God because he is spoken eternally by the Father.
The Father speaks, and the Son is the Word spoken. But what about the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is there in Genesis 1, “hovering over the face of the waters” (v. 2). The Spirit’s involvement in creation is spelled out for us in Job 33:4 and Psalm 33:6. Both verses speak of the Spirit as the breath of God by which creation came into being. In other passages, like Ezekiel 37, John 3, and even John 20, the Spirit is compared to or referred to as the breath or wind.
When we piece all this together, we have vivid, biblical imagery that helps us understand the triune God. The Father is the Speaker, the Son is the Word spoken, and the Holy Spirit is the breath on which the Word is spoken. Many of the church fathers, men like Irenaeus of Lyon (ca. 130–202), Gregory of Nyssa (ca. 335–95), and John of Damascus (ca. 675–749), pick up on this imagery, but they all sound a note of caution not to push the characterization of the persons of the Trinity too far because of potential dangers.
We’ve seen that Scripture itself allows us to speak of the Trinity in this way, but it is only hinted at here and there. Like the church fathers, we need to follow Scripture with care.
The Son is eternally generated by the Father; he comes from the Father in a way that is like the family relationship, but there is no moment before the generation of the Son began, since this generation is without beginning or end. Hebrews 1:3 teaches that it is like the radiance of the sun and the sun itself. The Son is the radiance of the Father’s glory.
Scripture Is God-Breathed
How does all this relate to the way Scripture bears witness to Christ? The apostle Paul answers our question clearly: “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16, NIV). The word “God-breathed” (theopneustos) occurs only here in all of Scripture. It is an adjective with a verbal ending that perfectly demonstrates the parallel between the Son and the Scriptures.
The Son is the Word of the Father spoken in the breath of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture is the Word of God. It is “God-breathed,” and the breath is the Holy Spirit. That’s why Paul calls the Bible the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:17). The parallels between the Son and the Scriptures run deep, beyond the common designator “Word.”
The Bible often refers to itself as having attributes usually associated with the divine nature, things like perfection, omnipotence, eternity, and having the authority and power to give and take life and to save (e.g., Pss. 19:7–11; 119:89; Isa. 55:11; Heb. 4:12–13). The Son is the essential Word of God, and Scripture is the declarative Word of God.
The Son is the essential Word of God, and Scripture is the declarative Word of God.
It is critical to see that Paul tells us that all Scripture “is God-breathed,” not “was God-breathed.” It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that God spoke Scripture long ago and merely recorded words on a page. The Bible is not like this. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that “the word of God is living and active” (Heb. 4:12). It was written down for us, yes, but the very words of Scripture are the words of God. They are constantly being “God-breathed,” and that is why they are living and active.
Just as the Son is always the Word of the Father in the Spirit, so the Scriptures are always the Word of God in the Spirit, pointing always to the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we grasp the parallel between the Son and the Scriptures, the way we think about the Bible totally transforms. It is not dead words from a God far away. We are hearing and reading the living Word of God now. That is why so often when the Word is faithfully read and preached (1 Thess. 2:13), we hear people say, “It was as though God was speaking directly to me!”
Scripture Bears Witness to the Eternal Word of God
God reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. God is triune, one God in three persons. The doctrine of revelation depends on God speaking, and God reveals himself as speaking in a Trinitarian way.
The doctrine of revelation depends on God speaking, and God reveals himself as speaking in a Trinitarian way.
Now we can better appreciate Christ’s teaching that Scripture bears witness to him, because the Father’s act of speaking the Son, his eternal Word, in the Holy Spirit, makes revelation possible. And revelation itself is the Father speaking the Word, breathing the Spirit of Christ.
The Scriptures testify of Christ—not only by pointing to Christ through explicit and implicit prediction but also in the way God communicates the Scriptures. The Bible is given as God-breathed, living words, just as the Son is always the Word of God.
When we grasp this, our Bible reading transforms. The Bible is all about Jesus in every way; the Father speaks Jesus to us right now as we read and hear. This changes everything.
The Gospel Coalition