The Gift of Revelation

Jeffrey Brooks Price

12/15/2008

6ST510 - The Doctrines of God and Scripture

Introduction
The world has been given a profound gift in both the incarnational ministry of Jesus Christ and the
revelation of God through his authoritative Word. Both of these gifts focus the world upon the
Lordship of our Creator and Redeemer who brings life to some and condemnation to others. Through
these gifts those who have been redeemed can experience the profound fullness of life by the
illumination of the Holy Spirit as they walk in grace and truth, while those who have not experienced
redemption can be enticed by the allure of a steadfast and genuine revelation of God’s life-changing
truth for humanity.

God’s word, or the Scriptures, given to man are the way for the world to receive this life-changing truth
as God shares his special revelation. “What is important to recognize is that the Scriptures themselves
represent the Scriptures as not merely containing here and there the record of revelations – “words of
God,” – given by God, but as themselves, in all their extent, a revelation, an authoritative body of
gracious instructions from God”.1 This “authoritative body” is the story of redemption which
communicates God’s transcendent and timeless truth to enable man to know God down through the
ages. In addition to the Scriptures, God has worked throughout history to equip men and women to
understand, digest, teach and share the truths of Scripture with others.

Two such men are J.I. Packer and N.T. Wright. The body of this paper will be a dialogue between these
two men as they wrestle with the teaching of historic Protestantism on “the canonical Scriptures…as
inspired, inerrant, sufficient, and clear”.2 Upon leaving a Christmas Eve service they both attended,
Packer and Wright will focus on the attributes of Scripture as authoritative, sufficient and clear in the
context of the history of redemption.

Dialogue – Incarnation
Packer: Hello old friend!

Wright: Merry Christmas James!

Packer: And merry Christmas to you, Tom. That was a wonderful Christmas Eve service. I never get
tired of hearing the amazing Christmas story of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us3.
“God’s mind, character, and purposes find [their] full expression” in His Word.4 That is truly an awe
inspiring thought don’t you think?

Wright: You know how much I love to reflect upon the incarnational ministry of Jesus Christ and his
word, especially as “an incarnational reading of scripture, paying attention to the full humanity both of
the text and of its readers”.5 This is the context of the story that we so richly experience by the word
becoming flesh, like us.

Packer: Well I know how much you enjoy a good contextualization. And I can see your perspective
here to a point. “The truth is that, as Jesus of Nazareth was no less truly human than divine, so it is with
the Scriptures. The mystery of the Word incarnate is at this point parallel to that of the Word written”.6
But “Jesus,[is] a divine person; Scripture, a divine product7” and as such “[r]evelation in its basic form
is thus of necessity propositional; God reveals Himself by telling us about Himself, and what he is
doing in His world”8. There is a normative effect of God’s revelation on humanity and not just a murky
contextualization.

Wright: Well I certainly agree that “however different we may be personally, contextually, culturally
and so on, when we read scripture we do so in communion with other Christians across space and
time”.9 So by default there is obviously a transcendent truth or transcendent contextualization that we
all experience within the story of redemption. We can both agree that Christmas is the perfect reminder
of the incarnation of Christ and his word, and experience the joys of that profound truth.

Dialogue – Redemptive Process

Packer: Amen! “What brings joy is finding God’s way, God’s grace and God’s fellowship through the
Bible, even though again and again what the Bible says – that is, what God in the Bible tells us –
knocks us flat10” by either revealing our sin to us or by drawing us into a deep communion “with the
Living Lord into whose presence the Bible takes us”.11

Wright: We have a magnificent gift in the bible as it “continues to be both a central way in which God
addresses [us] and a central way in which [we], his people, respond”.12 The bible is our story to bring
us up to date on the full narrative history of God’s action in the world to rescue his people and
complete creation13, “now it will be [our] task to act out the next chapter in the ongoing saga”.14

Packer: But we must not forget that “sin, the ruling force, according to Paul”15 can and will lead us
astray in that chapter and “we must not be surprised if we find the Bible contradicting our own ideas,
nor must we hesitate to recognize that if we depart from the biblical account of revelation, we go
wrong”.16 The history of redemption reveals to us that we are, in fact, in need of “saving grace (that is
living and working faith) [as] mediated through the Scriptures”.17

Wright: A very good reminder indeed and one that the 1st century authors reminded us of as well. “The
biblical writers live with the tension of believing both that in one sense God has always been sovereign
over the world and that in another sense this sovereignty, this saving rule, is something which must
break afresh into the world of corruption, decay and death, and the human rebellion, idolatry and sin
which are so closely linked with it.” We too must offer a fresh glimpse into this narrative, so that the
ongoing story of redemption can be used as a “means of God’s action in and through us – which will
include, but go far beyond, the mere conveying of information”.18 Our “sermons are supposed to be
‘audible sacraments’”19 providing a means of grace to those listening.

Packer: Yes! “Through the Word we are sanctified: when heard and ‘grafted inwardly in our hearts,’ it
will ‘bring forth in us the fruit of good living’ (holy communion)”.20 As John the Baptist said, “Behold,
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”21 God’s word makes us holy and brings about
dramatic change in our heart. This is the fruit of redemption that we might be made into the image of
Christ, being made clean and blemish free through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit applying
God’s word to our lives. An ‘audible sacrament’ indeed!

Dialogue – Authority of Scripture

Packer: While I obviously agree with you about the sacramental element of Scripture, I can’t help but
notice your slight disregard for propositional truth. “Revelation, is certainly more than giving of
theological information, but it is not and cannot be less. [T]alking means making informative
statements, and informative statements are propositions”.22 These propositions are in themselves
authoritative statements made by God to man, “so, by being propositional, His self-revelation becomes
truly personal”.23 You cannot discount this truly personal and authoritative nature of scripture can you?

Wright: I’ll say this about your propositional truth. “Our contemporary culture impinges on the
questions that are being asked about the Bible… [so] it is intrinsically difficult… to use scripture in a
way which will command recognitions and assent across the church, let alone before the watching
world”.24 Therefore, if it is difficult for even the church to agree, how can we possibly expect the world
to agree on these propositions? “The phrase ‘authority of scripture’ can make Christian sense only if it
is a shorthand for ‘the authority of the triune God, exercised somehow through scripture’”.25

Packer: The problem I see with your “definition” is that it does not provide enough clarity to be very
helpful. You say “exercised somehow”. I say, “revelation means the whole work of God making
Himself known to men and women; the theme embraces, on the one hand, all the words and deeds of
God in which the biblical writers recognized His self-disclosure, and, on the other hand, all that is
involved in the encounter through which God brings successive generations to know Him through
knowledge of the biblical facts”.26 These biblical facts or authoritative propositions are God’s truth.
“Christianity is ultimately a matter of bowing to His authority by obedient response to His
revelation,”27 “so the way we bow down to the authority of Jesus Christ is precisely by bowing to the
authority of the inspired Scriptures”.28 This provides clarity to the world longing for a normative truth,
rather than an over-contextualized post-modern truth.
Wright: That’s all well and good James, but are these the same inspired Scriptures that have been
canonized “by all kinds of less-than-perfect human motivations, as indeed in the writing of scripture in
the first place”?29

Packer: You can’t view “biblical authority in purely human, relative terms, whereas in fact, as the
doctrine of inspiration makes plain, the authority of Scripture is the divine authority of God himself
speaking”.30

Wright: I agree that, “talking about the inspiration of the Bible is one way of saying that that energy
comes from the work of God’s Spirit,”31 and that work is accomplished through the “new life-changing
power”32 of the word. And since God’s word has the power to change lives we must recognize some
level of authority. “God’s authority is not merely his right to control and order the church, but his
sovereign power, exercised in and through Jesus and the Spirit, to bring all things in heaven and on
earth into subjection to his judging and healing rule”.33

Packer: There is no reason to set his authority up against his power, “authority as such is the right,
claim, fitness and by extension power, to control”.34 We don’t need to apologize for this. “To say that
Christ must be allowed to rule, that the Redeemer must be given His crown rights, is thus to say that
Scripture must be allowed to rule, that the Bible must always have the last word”.35 For scripture has a
“Divine trustworthiness”36 as B.B. Warfield said and as the Gospel of John declares we can trust the
“true light”37 to enlighten even the darkest path, “a step in the light, whereby one puts one’s whole
weight on the firm ground of God’s unshakable promises”.38

Dialogue – Inerrancy

Wright: I appreciate your desire to stand on solid ground, but challenge you not to get too comfortable
there. “Traditions tell us where we have come from. Scripture itself is a better guide as to where we
should now be going”.39 With that in mind I prefer to look at our present context and avoid the
trappings of traditional language. “The New Testament is the foundation charter of the fifth act”40 in a
play that we are living out right now, and that demands fresh insight. “Real, fresh, historical readings of
the Bible, measured rigorously by the canons of real historical work, can and do yield fresh insight”.41

Packer: You are right that we cannot rest in our study to understand the depths of God’s unfathomable
truths in Scripture, and yet we cannot ignore the timeless and inerrant truths found therein. “What God
caused to be written for the Church in general He caused to be written for each Christian
individually”.42 This is directly related to the trustworthiness of God’s promises we spoke about
moments ago.

Wright: And like I said, I try to avoid the trappings of language like inerrant or infallible, so that
“through a fresh reading and teaching of scripture, our present culture and all that goes with it will be
addressed and challenged by new and God-given viewpoints”.43

Packer: I know you do my brother, but we can’t avoid the truths found within those words. “First, that
what Scripture says, God says; second, that the Scriptures together make up a total presentation of
God’s message to mankind; third, that the Scriptures constitute a message addressed directly by God to
everyone who reads or hears them”.44 That is a clear, sufficient and inerrant revelation of God’s truth to
the world through his Word. As John propositions in the beginning of his gospel, “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”45, we cannot forget that by trusting the
Word, we trust God for the Word is God’s Word.

Wright: Amen. Merry Christmas, James.

Packer: Merry Christmas, Tom.

Conclusion
Before reading these two authors on the topic of Scripture, I assumed that I would find myself mostly
agreeing with one, Packer, and mostly disagreeing with the other, Wright. What I found was an
appreciation for different ways of viewing the topic of Scripture by Wright, and the clarity of
traditional thought expressed by Packer. In the end I don’t believe that they are that far apart with their
views, but that Packer is able to more clearly and completely encompass a biblical doctrine of
Scripture. Wright’s language and thought process obfuscates and distracts from the clear teaching of
Scripture, and as such is less profitable to study than Packer.

Finally, it is important to remember that “we do not believe the Word to be the Word of God because
the church affirms it [including scholars like Packer and Wright], but on the contrary, we believe the
church to be the true church because the Word validates her as such”.46 So as the Westminster Divines
succinctly put it, “the authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed,
dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the
author thereof: and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God”.47 Armed with this
steadfast knowledge, we are equipped to go out into the world offering the most profound gift we can
to a world in need, and that gift is proclaiming to them the Word of God.

Bibliography

Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics: God and Creation, Volume Two. Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2004.

—. Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena, Volume One. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003.

Brakel, Wilhelmus a. The Christians Reasonable Service, Volume 1. Grand Rapids: Reformation
Heritage Books, 1992.

Douglas F. Kelly, Hugh W. McClure, III and Philip Rollinson. The Westminster Confession of Faith:
An Authentic Modern Version. Signal Mountain: The Summertown Company, Inc., 1992.

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.

Packer, J.I. Concise Theology. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1993.

—. God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1979.

Warfield, Benjamin Breckenridge. The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible. Philadephia: The
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1948.

Wikipedia. "N. T. Wright." Wikipedia. December 11, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright

(accessed December 2008).

Wright, N.T. Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

—. The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars. New York:
HarperCollings, 2005.

1 Warfield 1948, 101

2 Packer, Concise Theology 1993, 17

3 John 1:14 ESV And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as
of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

4 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 72

5 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
129

6 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 86

7 Packer, Concise Theology 1993, 14

8 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 76-77

9 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
130

10 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 15

11 Ibid, 16
12 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
5

13 Ibid, 35

14 Ibid, 26

15 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 55

16 Ibid, 61

17 Ibid, 41

18 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
30

19 Ibid, 139

20 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 41

21 John 1:29 ESV The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world!

22 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 52

23 Ibid, 53

24 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
6

25 Ibid, 23

26 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 30

27 Ibid, 95

28 Ibid, 97

29 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
63

30 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 96

31 Wright, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense 2006, 182

32 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
49
33 Ibid, 138

34 Packer, Concise Theology 1993, 16

35 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 109

36 Warfield 1948, 131

37 John 1:9 ESV The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

38 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 115

39 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
119

40 Ibid, 125

41 Ibid, 112

42 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 79

43 Wright, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - Getting Beyond the Bible Wars 2005,
19

44 Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible 1979, 90

45 John 1:1 ESV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

46 Brakel 1992, 29

47 Douglas F. Kelly, Hugh W. McClure, III and Philip Rollinson 1992, 1:4