Confessing Scripture Theologically
Holy Scripture is the Word of God spoken by the Spirit to the people of God in order to announce the gospel of Jesus Christ. As such, it is constantly kerygmatic in its function, heralding good news with its very words, evangelistic in its form and content—it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Scripture is a divine address, authorized in the economy of triune discourse to reveal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as Creator and Redeemer of the world. The authority of Scripture is grounded in its verbal inspiration, as we confess that the Spirit spoke through the mouths of prophets and apostles. Even more, we believe that he still speaks through these very words, at once human and divine.
Our reading of Scripture, therefore, is attentive to both the human and divine authorship of the text. The text of Scripture is always both human and divine, not ever human here and divine there, but altogether human and altogether divine. This concursive reality is reflected in our thick reading of Scripture as we attend to the various contexts in which the text comes to us (e.g., historical, literary, canonical). So our patterns of reading must be patient, careful, and unashamedly theological. Such readings are prayerfully dependent on the Spirit to illumine what he has inspired, as fire finds fire. This dependence serves as evidence that Scripture is a book both like and unlike every other book, given that its author has been sent to us, the people of God, in order to guide and lead us in the right reading of his text. Therefore, it would be irresponsible to read Scripture just like we read any other book, though of course some common hermeneutical practices will remain.
We confess that there is a meaning in this text, multivalent though it may be. Minimally, this is a consequence of authorial intention, human and divine, as we believe that the Spirit himself intended to communicate unfailing truth alongside the intentions of the human authors. Further, the progressive revelation of the entirety of Scripture gives rise to a sensus plenoir by which we may rightly come to see a fuller meaning in the text than just that which was intended by the original human authors. Thus, we find hope in our sharing the mind of Christ, by which we see him appear in manifold ways through the text of Scripture. The literal sense of Scripture is neither overcome nor abandoned by an awareness of this fuller sense; any Christological meaning does not overshadow that given through historical-grammatical exegesis. Again, we confess that the right reading of Scripture is the thicker one, which gives attention to the various layers and levels of meaning that any one text can yield in its various contexts. In all these meanings, Scripture exerts its power by the Spirit.
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From a manifesto on reading Scripture.
