Is the bible a rule book, an ethical treatise, or is it the story of redemption? My answer is it is the story of redemption absolutely! Forget what is stated in the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy and its adamant assertion that the bible is not solely redemptive. It depends on whose view one takes. Jesus view was that it was solely redemptive and he passed this view onto his followers. By redemptive, I mean that it explains God’s desire to have a restored relationship with humans who were redeemed back to the status that mankind had when God looked at the human creature he created and stated that he/she were very, very good.
There are many proofs of this and it would take a dissertation to prove the thesis. What I want to acknowledge here is the fact that Jesus and his followers always defined the word of God, as one of two things. It was either the gospel (good news of redemption) or it was Jesus the living incarnate word of God. Further, it was never the scripture. It is amazing to me that Christian theologians have defined the bible as the word of God.
Under the old covenant, it is true that the Jews saw the Torah (first five books of the Law) as the word of God but not the entire Tanakh (thirty-nine book Old Testament). The fact remains that in the new covenant era, Jesus and his apostles referred to Jesus and the gospel alone as the word of God. This gives a strictly redemptive purpose to the bible as seen by Jesus (John 5:39-40 & Luke 24:27;44-45) and a quick search of the phrase word of God in the New Testament and it becomes clear that the focus is the gospel of redemption.
I cringe every time I hear an evangelical call the bible the word of God.
