If people wrote the Bible, how can it be God's word?
The Devotional Answer
The divine-human authorship of the Bible is a beautiful mystery that reflects the ultimate mystery of the Christian faith: Jesus Christ himself (fully God and fully man). Just as God became human without compromising His deity, He used human authors to write His Word without compromising its truth.
Devotionally, this means the Bible is both perfectly divine (carrying God's authority) and deeply relatable (speaking in human history and emotion). When you read the Bible, you are reading the very words of God communicated with the warmth and distinct personality of the author He used.
Trust the source: the Holy Spirit ensured the human words were God's intended message.
The Simple Answer
The Bible is God's word because of the doctrine of Divine Inspiration, often called the "God-breathed" nature of Scripture.
The Bible is best understood as a product of Dual Authorship:
The Primary Author is God: The Holy Spirit superintended the writing process.
The Secondary Authors are Humans: God used their unique vocabulary, experiences, and writing styles.
This process is not dictation (like a secretary writing down every word exactly) but confluence (God working through the writer's personality to produce His perfect, error-free message).
The Deeper Dive
The Bible itself provides the clearest explanation of how this unique authorship worked.
1. The Testimony of "God-Breathed"
The most direct statement on the Bible's origin explains that it comes from God's very being:
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." — 2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)
The Greek word translated "God-breathed" (theopneustos) means that the Bible originates from God. It is His Spirit's work, giving the words divine power and truth.
2. The Role of the Holy Spirit
The Apostle Peter explains the Spirit's active guidance over the human writers (the prophets in the Old Testament, but the principle applies to all Scripture):
"Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." — 2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV)
The Holy Spirit "carried along" or guided the authors. This means that while David wrote psalms with poetic fervor, and Luke wrote his Gospel with historical precision, the Spirit ensured the result was exactly what God intended to communicate.
3. The Evidence of Human Personality
The fact that humans wrote the Bible is obvious:
Style: The writings of the Apostle Paul (logical, complex) are very different from the writings of the Apostle John (simple, intimate).
Emotion: The anger of Jonah, the depression of the author of Ecclesiastes, and the joy of Paul are all preserved, showing that God used the full spectrum of human experience to express His truth.
The Bible is, therefore, a unique, seamless union of divine truth and human expression.
God’s Assurance
God assures you that His Word is a reliable guide because He is the one who ultimately authored it and preserved it.
"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever." — Isaiah 40:8 (NIV)
You are assured that the Bible is preserved precisely because its author is eternal and unchanging. You can trust it completely as the voice of God.
Your Takeaway Thought
When you read your Bible, treat it with the respect due to its divine origin. Don't look at the human author; look through them to the divine message.
God didn't need humans, but He chose to use them to make His truth accessible, personal, and profoundly powerful.
