All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training which is in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NASB)

…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17b NASB)

There’s a statement I heard when I was younger, “nailing your colours to the mast”…

What it means (nautical origins of the phrase found here) is to clearly make your intentions known to others around you (so they can respond accordingly) and that you will fight for those intentions to the death…

In this vein, I would like to “nail my colours to the mast” in this post with respect to my un-dying aspiration to be surrendered to scripture under the interpretation of the Holy Spirit for the remainder of my time on earth before Jesus returns to reign…

Jesus is God, Jesus is the Word of God, we are told as believers in Jesus to “let the Word of God dwell in us richly”…

If we as believers are surrendered to Jesus then the proof of this is that we are surrendered to the scriptures which Jesus breathed…

for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:21 NASB)

…worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10b)

Jesus claimed that He was the Truth, He also stated the below…

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. (John 17:17 NASB)

and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:32 NASB)

When the Holy Spirit brings revelation to our new (born again) spirit of the truth of the scripture this is the Holy Spirit carrying the Sword of the Spirit and dividing to the very depths of our beings…

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:12-13 NASB)

Jesus Himself is the Word of God, He breathed out the scripture through human writers and when the Holy Spirit wields that Sword and His truth is revealed to a born again spirit, that born again spirit is changed into the likeness of Jesus…

Each time He speaks in this way we are changed and we are never the same again…

I believe the old and new testament scriptures as delivered by the Lord in their original languages of Hebrew and Greek respectively – sixty-six books – constitute ‘All scripture’…

They are the benchmark for truth – if any other source claims to be speaking the truth but is not in agreement with ‘All scripture’ then that ‘other source’ is not speaking from or for Jesus who is the Word of God…

It is impossible to be surrendered to Jesus without also being surrendered to His word…

I am not saying that those of us who are surrendered to Jesus need to be perfectly practising His word before we make the statement that we are surrendered to Jesus – I’ve covered this in the preceding article – but for us to be surrendered to Jesus that will indeed be our stated aspiration – to practise what the word of God says that we as believers in Jesus are to be…

The whole of scripture paints a complete – or as complete as we need in this epoch of human history – picture of who God is, who we are without God, who we are with God and how our lives and our futures are all wrapped up in our decisions as to whether we want to know God or whether we don’t (the decision we make on this issue in the time between when we are born and when we finally die will affect where we spend eternity)…

So, for me, I’m making my public statement, I’m spelling it out…

I have surrendered myself to God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit and also surrendered myself to His word – the scripture – the sixty-six books in their original languages which we have in what is now commonly called the Holy Bible…

I do not presently perfectly practice the truth within the scriptures but I have surrendered myself to the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth, to place truth in my innermost being and to enable me to practice truth for the remainder of my life…

As He reveals this truth to me, more and more and more, through His scriptures I will be transformed into His image by the renewal of my mind…

in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.  (Hebrews 1:2-3 NASB)

God the Father made the world through Jesus, Jesus upholds all things by the word of His power…

So when Jesus speaks, as He does, right throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation, all the stories He tells, all the descriptions of human history He gives, all the insights, all of it is an expression of the truth…

He is depicting for us reality as viewed through various different eyes so that we can get a picture of what things are (or look like) from His (the world and our Creator’s) perspective, i.e. what is the truth (as He is the Definition of The Truth)…

When God in scripture specifically tells us not to do certain things (even if we do not understand why) we can be sure that He is telling us this because doing these things are not good for us…

They harm us and He invites us to dialogue with Him to find out why…

Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah. (Psalm 62:8 NASB)

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15 NASB)

He will speak to us through His Holy Spirit who lives within us as believers in Jesus and His Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth through the scriptures…

If any of us say we believe in Jesus but also say that we do not believe that the scripture is the truth then our confession is incompatible (these two statements can’t coexist together) because we can’t separate Jesus from the scripture…

He wrote the scripture, He wrote it so that – along with His physical life on earth – we could know Him – the whole book is about Jesus – Jesus is hidden in every page of the scripture – He is hidden everywhere and the Holy Spirit reveals Him to us as He leads us into all truth…

So I believe in Jesus and I believe in the scripture, Jesus and the scripture are true because Jesus wrote the book, I don’t understand everything about God but I know that His word is truth and this is what I want to practise for the rest of my life on earth as He enables me in greater and greater and greater measures, come what may…

Amen? 🙂