The Bible’s Holy Aim

Jordan Atkinson

In addition to affirming the Bible’s holy authorship, Friendship’s statement of faith also confesses the holy aim for which the Bible was written and preserved for us. The Bible has not only “God for its author” but also “salvation for its end.”

The Bible is a big book, and salvation is a big aim. According to Scripture, salvation is both a present and future reality. One passage that discusses both aspects of salvation is 1 Peter 1:3-5. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.” Salvation has present benefits: new birth, living hope, and being guarded through faith. But salvation will not be fully realized until “the last time,” which Peter specifies as “the revelation of Jesus Christ” at his second coming (1 Pet 1:7).

The apostle Paul summarized various aspects of salvation in this way: “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom 8:30). God planned salvation from eternity past and saves us as he calls us and declares us righteous in the present, and the final stage of salvation is the glory we will receive in the new heavens and the new earth with immortal physical bodies (cf. Rom 8:18-25).

When The Baptist Faith and Message says that the Bible’s aim is salvation, it is saying that the Bible teaches people how to enter salvation in the present and how to persevere in faith as they await their final salvation. In other words, the Bible seeks to convert sinners and to help Christians become more Christlike.

Much of the Bible is written to people already following God, but the Bible also shows people how to begin following God. In the Old Testament, Psalm 19:7-9 describes the converting power of God’s word: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.” For us Christians, David’s statement that God’s law is capable of “reviving the soul” may sound paradoxical, given Paul’s statement: “by works of the law no human being ill be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:20). But we must remember that David is talking about Scripture when he talks about “the law of the Lord,” and that the Books of the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) not only contain commands to obey but also promises of God’s intention to save the world from the sin problem (e.g., Gen 3:15; 12:1-3; 22:17-18; cf. Gal 3:16, 22).

The New Testament also talks about the converting power of God’s word. Paul told Timothy, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:14-15). Paul agrees with David: the Bible contains the teaching that, if heeded, leads to salvation through faith in Jesus!

In addition to leading people to begin the salvation journey, Scripture teaches people how to continue along their salvation journey. Paul immediately continues, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17). Scripture is profitable for things that primarily benefit those who are already converted. Christians do not immediately become perfect people when they trust Christ for salvation. Salvation is an ongoing process that will not be complete until the second coming of Christ! Christians need the Bible just as much as non-Christians do.

Paul encouraged the Romans similarly: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4; cf. 1 Cor 10:1-14). The Old Testament is not something from which Christians should unhitch themselves. We need the whole Bible to instruct us and encourage us to endure and to have hope. Christ is revealed clearly in the New Testament, but even the Old Testament predicted him in types and shadows. The frequent disobedience of God’s people in the Old Testament warns us not to be unfaithful to God today.

Written by men so inspired by God that their words were God’s own words, the Bible seeks both to convert sinners and to sanctify saints. May we daily attend to God’s word: reading it, meditating on it, memorizing it, storing it up in our hearts so that we might not sin against God (Ps 119:11).