"God-breathed Word"

2 Timothy 3:16

Pastor Tom Johnson, October 20, 2013

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for corerection, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” “All Scripture is inspired by God”—literally, God-breathed. Our text reminds us that the Word is the exhalation of the very grace of God. The words of the Bible are the lungs of our Creator—the flow of his life-giving provision. Psalm 33 (v. 6) says that “by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” In the Apostle Paul’s great witness on Mars Hill he says God continues to “[give] to all humankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). In the beginning, when the universe was in chaos and disorder, “the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters” (Gen 1:2). The word for “Spirit” here and throughout the Bible is the word for “breath.” The Hebrew word even sounds like what it means רוּח as does the New Testament Greek word πνευμα. When Adam was made from the dust of the earth, he was not a living being until God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. From the very beginning, life flowed out of the anthropomorphic lungs of God through the mouth and nostrils of his Word. We need air to live physically. We need the Word to live spiritually.

One of my earliest memories is taking swim lessons and being thrown into the water with dozens of other scared preschoolers. One of the other kids must have thought I was doing quite well in the water. He immediately and conveniently grabbed on to me to keep his head above water. And, in so doing, he plunged me beneath the surface where no air could be found. It may have only been for a few seconds, but time seems to slow down to a halt when you can’t do what your body does every second of the day without thinking—breathe.

Just so, a whole nation—even the whole world—was holding their breath for Apollo 13 when their carbon dioxide filter stopped working. It was only a matter of a few hours before the vacuum of space would choke the life out of them. Each breath the astronauts took in removed precious oxygen from the air. And each breath they breathed out polluted their capsule with carbon dioxide. Like breathing with a plastic bag over their heads, it was only a matter of time. In a moment of desperation and genius, scientists figured out how to repair their air system with the few resources they had to make the air breathable again. Thankfully, one of the things they remembered to bring on the space ship was duct tape.

Physical asphyxiation can be caused by a number of things—by choking, drowning, electric shock, injury, or toxic gases—whatever it is that prevents us from taking in air that is rich with the oxygen we need. Burning fossil fuels does what our bodies do—eat up precious oxygen and spew out carbon dioxide. Trees and plants do just the opposite—they breath in carbon and exhale oygen. But the cycle of carbon and oxygen seem to be imbalanced. In a way our entire planet, by all estimates, is slowly asphyxiating. As stewards of God’s creation, we out to care and act accordingly.

Our Scripture reminds us that our world is asphyxiating spiritually as well. Sin, death, and the devil have a strangle-hold on us. Amos 8:11 says, “The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” One only need to read the local, national, and international news to be reminded that our world’s spiritual climate has been poisoned by the toxic fumes of pride, greed, violence, selfishness, and death. The weight of the world can sometimes press us down like an elephant stepping on our chests preventing us from being able to draw in the spiritual air that we need. Without that air, we are like those who were outside Noah’s Ark who were engulfed by the flood. We all need to breathe out the toxins that contaminate our blood. We all need to breathe in the oxygen that keep our bodies’ cells alive. God has engineered our bodies to get oxygen through the air we breathe. Without oxygen, our fingers and toes turn blue, we go unconscious, and slowly die. And so it is spiritually. We need to expel the toxins that plague us and breathe in the nutrients that enliven us. God has chosen the means by which he gives us this life—the Word of God.

“All Scripture is God-breathed.” Even Jesus himself who is called the Word—the eternal Son of God—was breathed out into human flesh and born of the virgin Mary. And so God infused the way, the truth, and the life into the world. And though the world, the devil, and our sin tried to choke out and smother the Messiah but crucifying him on the cross, his last breath breathed out forgiveness. And three days later, he rose to breathe peace and eternal life to an asphyxiating creation. That Word is still living and active. He still breathes life into our nostrils through the Holy Scripture. All scripture is inspired by God—God-breathed and useful.

Every time you board an airplane, they show you what to do if the cabin loses its air pressure. A mask will drop down from above. First, they will tell you, secure the mask to yourself. Then look around you. See if there are those near you who need your help. So it is on our pilgrimage here together. God’s Son has come down from above. Secure yourself by breathing in, hearing, discovering, and meditating on his Word. Then look around you. See if there are those near you who need your help to find the breath of life. Fill your lungs with the sweet air of God’s grace. And breathe out thanks and glory to God. As the last line of the last Hebrew Psalm 150 says, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” (Psalm 150:6).