20 Quotes from Taking God At His Word by Kevin DeYoung

Often when I’m reading an ebook I use the highlight feature to mark passages that I’d like to review again later. This helps me pay closer attention to what I’m reading. It’s also encouraging to look back later to see what first caught my eye.

Kevin DeYoung’s book Taking God At His Word was an exceptionally good read and I found myself highlighting often. So here are just 20 of the many quotes I noted.

1. …the word of God is more than enough to accomplish the work of God in the people of God. There is no better way to understand and come to embrace a biblical doctrine of Scripture than to open the cage and let Scripture out.
2. To deny, disregard, edit, alter, reject, or rule out anything in God’s word is to commit the sin of unbelief.
3. Authority: The last word always goes to the word of God. We must never allow the teachings of science, of human experience, or of church councils to take precedence over Scripture.
4. Necessity: General revelation is not enough to save us. We cannot know God savingly by means of personal experience and human reason. We need God’s word to tell us how to live, who Christ is, and how to be saved.
5. God’s word is final; God’s word is understandable; God’s word is necessary; and God’s word is enough.
6. We feel rather ho-hum about the New Testament’s description of heaven, but we are mesmerized by the accounts of school-age children who claim to have gone there and back.
7. God has spoken by his Son, and this Son is superior to all persons, heavenly beings, institutions, rituals, and previous means of revelation and redemption. That’s the big idea in Hebrews 1:1–4 and throughout the book. Christ is superior to angels (chs. 1–2), to Moses (ch. 3), to Joshua (chs. 3–4), to Aaron (ch. 5), to Abraham (ch. 6), to Melchizedek (ch. 7), to the old covenant (ch. 8), to the tabernacle (ch. 9), to the high priest (ch. 10), to the treasures of this world (ch. 11), to Mount Sinai (ch. 12), and to the city we have here on earth (ch. 13). The Son is our Great Superlative, surpassing all others because in him we have the fullness and finality of God’s redemption and revelation.
8. There are no words of God spoken to us at all today except the words of Scripture.
9. First, with the sufficiency of Scripture we keep tradition in its place… No secondary, man-made text can replace or be allowed to subvert our allegiance to and knowledge of the Bible.
10. …because Scripture is sufficient, we will not add to or subtract from the word of God.
11. …since the Bible is sufficient, we can expect the word of God to be relevant to all of life.
12. If we learn to read the Bible down (into our hearts), across (the plot line of Scripture), out (to the end of the story), and up (to the glory of God in the face of Christ), we will find that every bit of the Bible is profitable for us.
13. To affirm the sufficiency of Scripture is not to suggest that the Bible tells us everything we want to know about everything, but it does tell us everything we need to know about what matters most. …the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture invites us to open our Bibles to hear the voice of God.
14. The word of God is more than enough for the people of God to live their lives to the glory of God.
15. The most important points in the Scriptures may not be understood perfectly, but they can be understood sufficiently.
16. The word of God is near, not far, right in front of you, ready to be understood and obeyed.
17. We commit ourselves to the authority of the word of God because the God whose word it is informs us that we can and tells us that we must.
18. Our God speaks, and he speaks not simply to be heard and not merely to pass along information. He speaks so that we can begin to know the unknowable and fathom the unfathomable.
19. If you are a Christian, by definition you ought to believe what Jesus teaches. He is the Son of God. He is our Savior and Lord. We must follow his example, obey his commands, and embrace whatever understanding of Scripture he taught and assumed. Surely this means we are wise to believe about the Scriptures whatever Jesus believed about the Scriptures.
20. Scripture doesn’t tell us everything we may want to know about everything. But it tells us everything we need to know about the most important things. It gives us something the Internet, with all its terabytes of information, never could: wisdom. The purpose of Holy Scripture is not ultimately to make you smart, or make you relevant, or make you rich, or get you a job, or get you married, or take all your problems away, or tell you where to live. The aim is that you might be wise enough to put your faith in Christ and be saved.

Did you enjoy these quotes from Taking God At His Word? Grab a copy of this book for yourself from Amazon.com or Westminster Bookstore.