Holy Spirit in Inspiration (No. 4)
Text: (No specific text; conclusion of series — II Tim. 3:16-17 governs the series)
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Topical
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- Distinguish interpolation from perversion of meaning as the two methods by which Scripture can be tampered with — and explain why neither affects the claim about the original manuscripts.
- Explain why the degrees of inspiration are consistent with the true theory developed in Sermon 163 — how Christ's highest degree and Luke's lower degree both fit within the same framework.
- Explain Paul's varying degrees of inspiration in I Corinthians 7 and 14 — what the distinction between "by commandment of the Lord" and "my own judgment" demonstrates.
- Identify the three apostles who specifically claimed inspiration and the texts in which they make the claim.
- Explain the significance of apostles being classed above prophets in the inspiration hierarchy.
Thesis
No matter what view of inspiration a person takes, no errors were made in the original manuscripts. The degrees of inspiration among biblical writers — varying from Christ's highest (the Spirit without measure) to Luke's sufficient level for his careful historical investigation — are not evidence against inerrancy but evidence for the economy of God's administration: the Spirit provided what each writer required to speak the truth. The apostles' explicit claims to inspiration confirm that the result was precisely what the true theory predicted.
Burden
The previous three sermons established the definition of inspiration, eliminated the three false theories, and proposed the true theory — the Spirit's special providential and miraculous influence over both words and thoughts, in degrees appropriate to each writer's needs. This final sermon in the series grounds that theory in the specific texts where biblical writers distinguish levels of inspiration — showing that the degrees are not an embarrassment to the theory but a confirmation of it — and in the explicit inspiration claims of the apostles.
Introduction
The starting point is the conclusion already reached: no matter what view of inspiration is taken, no errors were made in the original manuscripts. The claim is not restricted to one theory — it is stated as a consequence of inspiration itself, under any adequate view. The question this sermon addresses is not whether the originals were without error but how the variations in inspiration among the writers are consistent with that claim — and what the apostles themselves said about their own inspiration.
I. Possibility of Errors
The claim "no errors in the original manuscripts" must be understood precisely. It requires first understanding where errors might come from.
Two methods of tampering with Scripture. The first is interpolation: the insertion of material into the text after the original was written and before or during the copying process. The material was not in the original; it was added later. Interpolations do not affect the original; they are a problem of textual transmission, not of inspiration.
The second is perversion of meaning: the deliberate misinterpretation or misrepresentation of what the text says. This can happen without any change to the text itself — it is a problem of reading, not of writing. Perversion is not an error in the manuscript; it is an error in how the manuscript is handled.
Interpolations would come after the original had been transcribed. This is the important point: whatever was inserted, was inserted into a copy, not into the original. The claim of inerrancy is about the autographs — the documents the inspired writers themselves produced. The process of copying introduces the possibility of copying errors and interpolations; the process of inspired writing is what inerrancy addresses.
Perversion began early. Peter says of Paul's letters: "in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction" (II Pet. 3:16). The distortion Peter describes is not a feature of the text; it is a feature of certain readers. The text that is distorted is not thereby erroneous; the distortion is in the distorting, not in what is distorted.
II. Degrees of Inspiration
The economy principle from Sermon 163 applies directly here: God never employs more than the situation requires. The degrees of inspiration among the writers reflect different situations requiring different degrees of divine influence.
Christ had the highest degree. "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure" (John 3:34). The Spirit was given to Jesus without the limitation that characterized all other recipients. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35) — the incarnation itself was the Spirit's work; the Spirit's relation to the Son was without the measure that characterizes the Spirit's work through human instruments.
He spoke with authority: "For He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes" (Matt. 7:29). The authority of Christ's teaching is not the authority of a person who was guided to speak truth; it is the authority of the one who is truth — who speaks not what he received from another but what he is.
John did not need the highest degree. John was an eyewitness: "what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life" (I John 1:1-4). The testimony of a reliable eyewitness who is guided by the Spirit to record accurately what he witnessed does not require the same degree of miraculous influence as the disclosure of mysteries that no human eye witnessed. John's testimony is fully inspired; the degree appropriate to his situation is sufficient for that testimony.
Luke did not need the highest degree. Luke begins his Gospel explicitly: "it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus" (Luke 1:1-3). Luke's natural means — careful historical research, interviews with eyewitnesses, ordered composition — were used by the Spirit as natural resources. The Spirit's influence supplemented and guided what Luke's investigation produced; the degree was what the situation required.
Paul had a higher degree at one time than another. This is the most specific evidence of varying degrees in a single writer. Paul explicitly distinguishes between statements he makes by the Lord's commandment and statements he makes on his own judgment.
By commandment of the Lord: "to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord" (I Cor. 7:10). "The things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment" (I Cor. 14:37). The authority of these statements is the authority of the Lord's direct communication through Paul.
By his own judgment: "But to the rest I say, not the Lord, but I say" (I Cor. 7:12). "Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy" (I Cor. 7:25). Paul explicitly distinguishes his judgment from the Lord's commandment in the same letter.
This does not mean Paul's judgments are uninspired — he says "I think that I also have the Spirit of God" (I Cor. 7:40). But the degree differs: the Lord's commandment is direct; Paul's judgment, Spirit-guided, is processed through Paul's trained theological mind. Both are reliable; both are included in Scripture; the degrees differ.
Paul claimed full inspiration in other places: "which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit" (I Cor. 2:13). "For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:11-12). "For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God" (I Thess. 2:13).
III. Inspiration of the Apostles
The apostles occupied a specific position in the inspiration hierarchy — above the prophets, who were themselves above ordinary believers.
The apostles had the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The promise of Acts 1:8 was fulfilled at Pentecost: "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses." The baptism of the Holy Spirit was the specific endowment given to the apostles for the unique function they were to fill.
The apostles are classed above the prophets. "For John was greater than a prophet" said the Lord of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:9-11) — yet Jesus placed the apostles in a category beyond John. Paul writes: "And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets" (I Cor. 12:28). The order is not social but functional: the apostles were the foundational witnesses in a way that the prophets were not.
The apostles' explicit claims confirm the theory. John: "We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us" (I John 4:6). "We know that we are of God" (I John 5:19). Peter: "those who have spoken beforehand by the Holy Spirit" (I Pet. 1:12). Paul: "the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit" (Eph. 3:5). The claims are explicit: these men knew they were inspired; they said so; they appealed to their inspiration as the basis for the authority of what they wrote.
Application
The conclusion of the four-sermon series on inspiration produces a single, stable foundation: the Bible is the word of God — expressed through human writers, in genuine human language, at degrees of divine influence appropriate to each writer's situation — and the original documents contain no errors, because the Spirit who inspired them ensured the truth of what was communicated.
The practical consequence: the Bible can be trusted. Not merely trusted as a generally reliable ancient document — trusted as the will of God expressed in human language, exactly as Sermon 162 defined inspiration. The degrees of inspiration do not introduce uncertainty; they explain the variety of the human element within the certainty of the divine guarantee.
Reading Paul's "I say, not the Lord" moments (I Cor. 7:12) should produce confidence in the moments he says "commandment of the Lord" (I Cor. 7:10) — because Paul himself distinguished them. The inspired writer who knows the difference and marks it is more trustworthy, not less.
Conclusion
Four sermons, one conclusion: the Bible is a divine-human book, inspired by God through human writers at degrees appropriate to each writer's situation, without error in the originals, with the Spirit's guarantee extending to both the words and the thoughts. The series is complete; the foundation is established.
Invitation
Paul, whose levels of inspiration we have examined throughout this sermon, wrote: "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (I Cor. 15:3-4). He received it; he delivered it. The delivery is in the book. What that reliable delivery says: believe, repent, confess, be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). The book that is inspired says it; it is therefore to be believed and obeyed.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Without measure | ou ek metrou | Not from a measure — the Spirit given without the limiting measure that characterizes human endowment. | Used in John 3:34 for Christ's unique reception of the Spirit: "He gives the Spirit without measure." | All other inspired writers received the Spirit in measured degrees appropriate to their function. Christ received the Spirit without this limitation — his is the highest degree precisely because his function (being the Son, speaking with divine authority) required it. The degrees of all others are measures of a lesser gift. | John 3:34 |
| Commandment | epitagē | An authoritative command — from epitassō, to order, to command. | Used for the highest level of Paul's inspiration: "by commandment of the Lord" (I Cor. 7:10). | When Paul speaks by epitagē, the statement has the direct authority of the Lord. When Paul speaks by his own Spirit-guided judgment, the statement is reliable but carries a different kind of authority. The distinction is Paul's own, made in the same letter — it is evidence of his careful integrity, not of uncertainty. | I Cor. 7:10; I Cor. 14:37 |
| Apostle | apostolos | One sent forth — a commissioned representative. | Used throughout Section III for the highest human category of inspired agent: the apostles, who had the baptism of the Spirit and were "first" in the church's structure (I Cor. 12:28). | The apostles' position at the top of the inspiration hierarchy (above prophets) is not about social status but functional necessity: they were the foundational witnesses to the resurrection, the carriers of the completed revelation. When inspiration ceased, the apostolic era ceased; the foundation once laid is not re-laid. | I Cor. 12:28; Eph. 3:5 |
| Distort | strebloō | To twist, to rack — from the torture instrument that stretches and distorts. | Used in II Pet. 3:16 for what "untaught and unstable" people do to Paul's letters and to "the rest of the Scriptures." | The distortion is not an error in the text; it is an error in the reader. Peter's concern is with what happens to inspired text when it is handled by those who will not handle it honestly. The text's reliability is not diminished by the existence of people who distort it. | II Pet. 3:16 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "He gives the Spirit without measure" — Christ's highest degree | II.1a | John 3:34 |
| "He was teaching as one having authority" | II.1c | Matt. 7:29 |
| "What we have seen with our eyes" — John as eyewitness | II.2 | I John 1:1-4 |
| "Having investigated everything carefully" — Luke's natural research | II.3 | Luke 1:1-3 |
| "I say, not the Lord" — Paul's Spirit-guided judgment | II.4b | I Cor. 7:12, 25 |
| "This is the Lord's commandment" — Paul's direct inspiration | II.4c | I Cor. 14:37 |
| "Words taught by the Spirit" — Paul's full inspiration claim | II.5 | I Cor. 2:13 |
| "Received by revelation of Jesus Christ" | II.5 | Gal. 1:11-12 |
| "Not the word of men but of God" | II.5 | I Thess. 2:13 |
| "God appointed: first apostles, second prophets" | III.2 | I Cor. 12:28 |
| Apostles inspired above prophets | III.2 | Matt. 11:9-11 |
| "The mystery revealed to apostles in the Spirit" | III.5 | Eph. 3:5 |
| "Untaught distort the Scriptures" — perversion not error in text | I.3 | II Pet. 3:16 |
| Baptism for remission — the gospel the inspired book delivers | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 165. Primary text: none stated; conclusion of four-part series on Holy Spirit in Inspiration. OCR corrections: "Qohn" → "John" (John 3:34); "lll." → "III." Doctrinal audit: degrees of inspiration developed as evidence for the economy principle, not as evidence against inerrancy; the distinction between Paul's "commandment of the Lord" and "my own judgment" handled carefully — both reliable, different degrees, Paul himself makes the distinction; apostolic inspiration hierarchy (above prophets) developed from I Cor. 12:28 and Matt. 11:9-11; inerrancy confined to original manuscripts with perversion and interpolation correctly identified as transmission problems rather than inspiration problems; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
