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Introduction 17
well-grounded trust is not by generic glory. Not, as it were, by mere
dazzling. Not by simply boggling the mind with supernatural otherness.
Rather, what we see as inescapably divine is a peculiar glory. And
at the center of this peculiar glory is the utterly unique glory of Jesus
Christ. This is the heart of the book.
The peculiar glory of God, as he reveals it in the Scriptures, is the
way his majesty is expressed through his meekness. I call this a paradoxical
juxtaposition of seemingly opposite traits. Jonathan Edwards called
it “an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.” This pattern of
God’s self-revelation is his lion-like majesty together with his lamb-like
meekness. God magnifies his greatness by making himself the supreme
treasure of our hearts, even at great cost to himself (Rom. 8:32), and so
serving us in the very act of exalting his glory. This peculiar brightness
shines through the whole Bible and comes to its most beautiful radiance
in the person and work of Jesus Christ, dying and rising for sinners.
I will argue that there is in every human being a “knowledge” of
this God—this glory. There is a built-in template that is shaped for
this peculiar communication of God’s glory. When God opens our eyes
(2 Cor. 4:6) and grants us the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25),
through the Scriptures (1 Sam. 3:21), we know that we have met ultimate
reality.
By the instrument of the Scriptures, in the hands of the Holy Spirit,
God cuts away the corrosion from the template of his glory. Miraculously
we are thus conformed to the peculiar shape of God’s glory.
Where we saw only foolishness before, now we see the glory of majesty
in meekness, and strength in suffering, and the wealth of God’s glory
in the depth of his giving—that is, in the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ.
Preliminary Questions
Before we direct our full attention to the question of how we know
that the Christian Scriptures are the word of God, we must ask: What
specific Scriptures are we talking about? Are we talking about the Apocrypha
that is contained in the Roman Catholic Bible? Which books actually
are parts of the Christian Bible? And what about the handwritten
transmission of the Bible during three thousand years until the printing