What Paul says, God says

A secular humanist acquaintance of mine regularly challenges the Christian conviction that the Scriptures nowhere claim to be the Word of God - or at least that this claim is neither everywhere present nor assumed. In particular, he takes exception to a recent sermon in which I asserted that Paul's first epistle to Timothy is the Word of God, yet this naysayer claims that Paul nowhere equates this letter with Scripture. What would you say if someone challenged you with that contention? 

Here is where you might want to begin your apology . . .

Does Paul have to claim that his writings are Scripture for them to rise to the status of the Word of God? This is a fair question if you are willing to ignore the context and assumptions of the rest of the New Testament. However, Paul's writings rest on a few critical presuppositions.

First of all, Paul did write self-consciously as an apostle (a sent messenger) of the Lord Jesus Christ and spoke according to His commandment: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope . . .” (1 Timothy 1:1, ESV). This is a point of tremendous significance. Listen to the way Paul describes his call to this ministry:
 “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 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, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-10, NASB)

What amazes me about this, and even critical scholars like Bart Ehrman admit that behind these words there lies a credal formulation that goes back right to the earliest moments after the crucifixion of Christ (circa AD 33-35), is that Paul roots the authority of the Christian message not in his experience (what he saw), but in what he read (according to the Scriptures).

Secondly, Paul calls his public utterances "preaching." The Greek word behind this denotes the heralding of a king's message, in the name of the king, by the appointment of the king, and with the authority of the king (think Robin Hood and the town herald crying, “Hear ye, Hear ye”). For examples of this, look at the thematic thrust of the opening statements of Titus chapter one which establish the authorial credibility of this apostle:  Paul a bond-servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of the elect of God and the knowledge of the truth which leads to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which the never-lying God promised before the ages of eternity, but in his own time has now revealed His own word in the message preached, with which I myself have been entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior (my paraphrase).

Do you see that Paul assumed that this preaching both contained and came as the Word of God?  “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, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, NASB).  

Thirdly, Paul repeatedly binds people’s consciences with authoritative commands (1Timothy 1:18 ff) and warns his listeners that to reject such commands endangers their souls:
“This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.” (1 Timothy 1:18-20, NASB)

The instruction includes directing people in worship (1 Timothy 1:8; 3:15), which would be an act of breathtaking arrogance if it came from an authority no higher than a mere man. This would make Paul a megalomaniac, and could such a man be capable of writing things like:
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-8, NASB)
Fourthly, in chapter 4, he expressly claims to be writing by the Spirit of God:  “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1, NASB).

Fifthly, in chapter 5, he solemnly charges the church in the presence of God to follow his instructions. Evidently, Paul believes that what he says comes from God and has His approval. He isn’t just giving advice, for he exhorts, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality” (1 Timothy 5:21, NASB).

Sixthly, in chapter 6, he says that if you disagree with what he is saying and argue for a different point of view, you are disagreeing with the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ. “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, . . . he knows nothing . . .” (1 Timothy 6:3, NASB).

In conclusion, Paul urges Timothy to guard what has been entrusted to him, not turning away to false knowledge. “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— which some have professed and thereby have gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you” (1 Timothy 6:20-21, NASB).
It is also important to note that the apostle Peter expressly assumes that Paul’s writings constitute Scripture:
“And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, 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.” (2 Peter 3:15-16, NASB)

I would also add that the Scriptures come with self-authenticating authority. The God who speaks in them is the self-same God who speaks to His creatures through creation and conscience. We were made to recognize His voice, and we all do:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:18-22, NASB)

And, what's more, God holds us accountable for denying what He says we know only too well. Such thinking does not represent the pinnacle of human learning; it's actually indicative of the height of folly. For only a fool would deny what he knows to be so consequentially true: 
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:1-3, NASB)

Yet for those with ears to hear, God still offers Himself in and through His own Son's life and death as the only path to a just mercy:
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21, NASB)

Isn’t it wonderful to know that our God isn’t half-hearted when it comes to reconciling sinners to Himself? God begs us to come, and His Son died for us to come. So surely God will open wide His arms to welcome us when we do.