If Jesus Trusted the Bible, Then You Can Too
By Rick Warren
“For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Matthew 5:18 (NIV)
You may have heard someone say, “I trust Jesus, but not the other guys who wrote the Bible.” There’s a problem with that logic.
Jesus trusted the Bible—every word of it! He taught that the Bible is a unique book, above all others.
In Matthew 5:18, Jesus said, “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (NIV).
Jesus said the Bible will last until the end of time. It will accomplish what God wants to accomplish in this world. He said, “We know that Scripture is always true” (John 10:35 NIRV). Jesus proclaimed the truth of the Bible. And when Jesus talks about the truthfulness of the Bible, we need to listen.
When Jesus talked about the Bible, he would often base his argument about the truth of the Bible on a single sentence or even a single word from the Bible. He believed every single sentence, every single word of Scripture. So if you trust Jesus, why wouldn’t you trust the Bible?
It’s clear that Jesus didn’t think of the Bible as simply poetry or history. He saw the Bible as something that changes lives. In Luke 11:28 Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (NIV). Jesus doesn’t want us to only read the Bible. That’s what you do with poetry and history. Jesus wants us to obey the Bible. That’s what you do with anything the Creator of the universe writes.
Jesus talked about the Bible as if the people and events in it were real. He talked about all the prophets being real. He talked about Daniel being real. Jesus believed in Noah and everything that happened with the flood. He believed in Adam and Eve. He believed in the tragedy of Sodom and Gomorrah. He believed that Jonah was swallowed by a large fish.
Jesus believed in some of the most disputed stories in the Bible, particularly Noah, Adam and Eve, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Jonah. People who think that the Bible is mostly good stories that didn’t really happen always point to those four stories.
If Jesus really believed in Jonah, then you should too. I don’t know how God created a fish that could swallow a guy, but it’s in the Bible, so he did.
I trust in the Bible because Jesus trusted in it. You should too.
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