God-Breathed and Useful

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Great news. We like things that are profitable, things that are useful, things that have value and purpose. So it is good news when the Apostle tells us that all Scripture is profitable. And it is even God-breathed – inspired, as some translations render it.

Indeed, all Scripture is God-breathed, God-inspired. All Scripture is breathed out by God, because all Scripture is about God. Jesus is the sum total and the content of the Scriptures. The Law and the Psalms and the Prophets all testify of Him and His saving promises to the children of Israel. The Gospels and the Epistles and all the historical books all record the mighty acts of the Lord for His people. All Scripture is God-breathed, because all Scripture is God, enrobed in the mask of ordinary human words and phrases and sentences and grammar. And therefore, because God is true, faithful, and unchanging, so also is His Word always true, faithful, and unchanging. The Word of the Lord remains forever.

And all Scripture is profitable, because in it you find the Lord God of Israel, revealed in sacred story, displaying His might and His love for His people from age to age. All Scripture is profitable, because it is the greatest treasure in the universe – the power of God and wisdom of God for the salvation of mankind. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His Word remains.

All Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, as St. Paul says. But what does this mean? Let us consider today how the Sacred Scriptures profit us in these ways.

The Scriptures are profitable for teaching. Teaching what? Teaching how? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” says Solomon. But how can you fear Him whom you do not know? How can you call upon one in whom you have not believed?

The first, most obvious way the Scriptures profit you is that they are the revelation of God in historical fact. God exists, and all creation exists because He keeps it in order. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” the Psalmist says. You know that there is a God, and who that God is, because He has revealed Himself. He has told you His Name. He has even etched His Name upon your heart and mind, just as He did for Joshua earlier this morning.

The Scriptures tell you about God. They tell you about how He created the universe in six days. About how He formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed the Breath of Life into him, and then how He took a rib and formed Eve. About how sin came into the world, and also the promise of a Savior. About the flood, and the salvation of Noah. About the Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea. About how in many and various ways God preserved and blessed and guided His people of old by the prophets and patriarchs.

The Scriptures convey information. This is the Church's tradition – that which is handed down from generation to generation. The Scriptures supply the content of the Christian faith, the stuff which is believed. The Scriptures fill up the words you confess in the Ecumenical Creeds. They supply the rule of faith, the object your faith takes hold of, which “you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.” The profitability of the Scriptures starts with the objective character of what Scripture gives – Jesus.

The next level in which the Scriptures are profitable to you is for reproof, as the ESV renders it. What is reproof? Other translations render it as rebuke, correction, or some such.

The Greek word here denotes discipline or education by judicial action. One explanation defines this as “to show someone his sin and summon him to repentance.” This is the mirror of the Law at work, declaring the will of the Lord, and showing sin to be sin.

This is profitable, but it is uncomfortable and unpleasant. No one likes to have his sin pointed out to him. You do not like to be told that you are wrong, that you may not do what you desire, that you may not have what you want. You do not like to be told that you may not thumb your nose at the government. You do not want to be told that your hot temper, your anger toward your brother is a breaking of the Fifth Commandment. You do not want to control your wandering eye or your lustful mind. You do not want to keep your hands off your neighbor's things and help him to make an honest income. And you certainly do not like to be chastised about your loose tongue and gossiping heart. It is exceedingly difficult to always explain everything in the kindest way, to always put the best construction on everything.

This is the hammer of the Law at work. The mirror of the Word shows you your sin, but the hammer must fall, so that your heart of stone is shattered by the Word which you have been taught and come to believe. You must be set right by the preaching of the Law. You must know your sin and confess it, so that you can turn from it.

It is difficult to accept reproof and rebuke, but it is a necessary duty. You must accept it, because the Word of the Lord does not change. He will not soften His commands simply because you do not like them. He is holy, and your thoughts and actions and desires are not. The rebuke of the Law comes harshly, because the wages of sin is death. Pray that the rebuke of the Law come to you from a brother speaking in love, so that you may repent and turn, and be saved.

Which, then, leads to the third step. All Scripture is profitable for correction. It might be helpful to understand correction not simply like a teacher with her red pencil. God is not merely some cosmic spell-checker, with the Scriptures as a style-guide or dictionary.

The correction of which St. Paul speaks is more along the lines of restoration, of re-establishment. It comes from a word that indicates setting a person on his feet, or heading him off on the right path. This comes on the heels of reproof, which is the call to repentance, the judgment that leads to a turning from the wrong to the right.

Of course, this happens when the Word of the Lord has broken you down completely. The sword of the Spirit drives clean through you, killing the old sinful nature within you and laying you bare before your Creator and Judge. The hammer of the Law smashes your heart of stone, leaving no hope of picking up the pieces.

But then the Word of the Lord comes to you and gives you the best, most valuable profit you could ever receive. He gives you Himself. He gives you His blood shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. He gives you His body, hung on a tree as a sacrifice to end all sacrifice. He gives you His life, handed over according to the will of the Father, so that He could take it up again, and finally to give it to you so that you might live in Him and with Him.

The Word of the Lord is profitable to you, because it is the Word of the One who speaks you righteous. It is the Word that lifts you out of the pit. It is the Word that makes dead, dry bones come together and receive flesh. It is the Word that makes the lame walk, the dead rise, and the deaf hear. It is the Word that created the world, and which still creates and sustains life.

All Scripture is profitable to you for restoration, because it proclaims to you that your restoration is complete. Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, has done all things needful. He has washed you clean and set you on your feet, bearing the Name of the Lord upon you.

The fourth and final step along this profitable path is training in righteousness. This might be characterized as “paternal chastisement.” Training in righteousness is the outgrowth of teaching, reproof, and correction. Once the man of God has been instructed, humbled, and purified, then he arises to live the life of faith, bearing the fruits of virtue and godliness.

The aim of training in righteousness is that the new man, the one whose sinful nature has been drowned in the waters of Baptism, may walk in the way of the Lord, with his path illuminated by the Word of the Lord. The Scriptures are profitable in this way because they serve as a guide so that you may know how to love your neighbor.

Throughout the Scriptures, the goal of education is a wise and eloquent piety. That is, a faith which is firmly held, but which you can winsomely declare and faithfully live. The Scriptures are useful to you because they are a guide for your life, a light to your path, a plan for your way of life. Having been crushed by the Law, having been restored by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word now picks you up and sets you on your feet and gives you a path in which to walk. The Word of the Lord equips you for every good work, completing you in faith and love, supplying what is lacking in you.

Of course, the beauty of the Word is that the Scriptures never depart. They are profitable to you throughout your life, just as they have been from ancient times, and as they will continue to be eternally. The Word continually teaches you that which must be believed. The Word chastises you and corrects you. The Word strikes you down dead and raises you again to new life in Christ. And the Word guides you along your way in righteousness, so that the Word which has been so profitable to you may be, through you, profitable to your brother. “Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart” (Psalm 119:111).

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.