The Inspiration of Scripture

Simply Put

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

When we open the Bible, we can be sure that what we're reading has been breathed out by God. Today, Barry Cooper delves into the marvelous doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When we talk about the inspiration of scripture, we're not using the word in quite the same way that you and I usually speak of inspiration.
0:08.5	I might say, for example, that I felt inspired as I wrote a book or composed a piece of music.
0:15.3	And all I would be saying is simply that I felt particularly animated or motivated or fired up as I worked. But when we say that
0:24.5	the writers of scripture were inspired, we're saying much more than that. The King James Bible
0:31.8	translates 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 like this. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. This is what
0:43.2	theologians are referring to when they talk about the inspiration of scripture, the idea that
0:49.1	God breathed into the biblical writers. He did this by his spirit, spirit being the Greek word
0:55.6	numa meaning breath. So when God breathed into the writers of scripture in this way,
1:02.5	God was ensuring that what they wrote was what he wanted to say and nothing else.
1:08.9	In other words, if we really wanted to hear God speaking, we should open our
1:14.7	Bibles. The English standard version gets even closer to the original Greek when it says that
1:20.4	all scripture is breathed out by God. That translation nicely captures the reality that what we have on the page has come directly
1:30.8	from God and therefore each word carries the weight of his authority. That phrase, all scripture,
1:39.4	is also significant. Because all scripture is breathed out by God, it means that all of it is completely
1:45.9	trustworthy. This is what theologians mean when they talk about the plenary inspiration of
1:51.4	scripture, plenary meaning full or complete. There are no particular bits of scripture that
1:57.6	are more or less God breathed than the other bits. Red letter Bibles
2:02.4	when they put Jesus' words in red can imply that Christ's words are more authoritative than
2:07.9	the surrounding ones, that they carry particular weight, but that is not the case at all.
2:13.7	All Scripture is God breathed. All of it has the authority of God and of His Christ.
2:21.4	That's because every word was inspired by the Spirit.
2:27.0	2 Peter chapter 1 verse 21 puts it like this.
	...

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