“What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God,” Romans 3:1-2.
William Tyndale published his translation of the New Testament in 1526. This year therefore marks the 500th anniversary of that momentous event.
Myles Coverdale, a fellow English reformer, used Tyndale’s translations of various Old Testament books as the basis of his, the first translation of the whole Bible into English, in the year 1535.
Tyndale’s translation was the first English Scriptures to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts. His was the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press. It was also the first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation.
In 1611, after seven years of work, the 47 scholars who produced the King James Version of the Bible drew extensively from Tyndale’s original work.
One estimate suggests that the New Testament in the King James Version is 83% Tyndale’s words and the first half of the Old Testament 76%.
I was reminded of these facts after I have started this study and consequently I would dedicate this humble and modest article to the honour of a great man to whom every lover of the Word of God owes a great debt of gratitude.
In a day when the Bible is cast aside by society in general, and even by those organisations which profess to believe and preach its truths but in fact most wickedly deny its divine origin and infallibility, these words of Paul should be most precious to every Christian.
Paul is saying that the Jewish nation in times past had an advantage over all other nations because God in mercy had committed, entrusted to them, the “the oracles of God”, or the Holy Scriptures”!
Just what benefits were bestowed upon the Jews when they had the Old Testament Scriptures bestowed upon them and what are those same benefits enjoyed by those who have the complete canon of Holy Scripture, the Old and New Testaments?
The answer to that question, in a limited manner, for a full answer would entail a very, very extensive reply and would truly be beyond me, is my objective in this study.
We will at least set forth some very obvious advances gained by having the Bible and give you grounds for treasuring, studying and believing the blessed Book of God.
I. THE BIBLE ALONE GIVES US A FULL REVELATION OF THE PERSON OF GOD.
It is true that “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world,” Psalm 19:1-4
The creation of God does indeed testify to His existence, His glory and His knowledge and their testimony is translated into every tongue spoken in the earth and is easily manifested to our eyes!
BUT, there is a limit to that which they tell us of God. It is clear that those nations without the Bible understand that there is a supreme Being but His essential character, His persona, is not revealed but to a faint degree.
The ‘creation’ speaks of the glory of God’s wisdom, power and greatness. How can anyone look upward to the heavens, or round about them at the earth we inhabit, or the seas with all their yet unexplored depths, and not see that there IS a Creator of all these wonders and He hath great power and wisdom and knowledge.
However, as the people of Athens acknowledged, while there is abundant evidence of His handiwork, He is still the “unknown” God!
Paul pointed out their ignorance when speaking to the gathered crowd on Mars’ Hill.
“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.”
He, the possessor of a fuller knowledge of that which God would have men know, went on to say, “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you,” Acts 17:22-23.
What gave Paul the knowledge of God that the heathen did not possess was the Holy Scriptures!
The Shorter Catechism states the matter most succinctly.
Question 2: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
Answer: The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
One of the Scriptural proofs of this statement is 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Question 3 goes on to ask: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
Answer: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
The sum of the demands of the Law of God was given us by the Lord Jesus in answer to a question from one of the scribes.
“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these,” Mark 12:28-31.
The Saviour gave His answer from the Bible and it is there that God presents to us ALL the knowledge we are capable of understanding about the infinite God, a full knowledge of Whom is beyond human comprehension.
Paul the apostle uses a very telling metaphor that indicates the limitations of our comprehension of God.
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known,” 1 Corinthians 13:12.
What the Bible reveals to us of the Lord is soul changing and life elevating. Faith in that taught in the Scriptures about God causes an individual to become “a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Peter said: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever,” 1 Peter 1:23.
However glorious and eternity- changing that knowledge of God, freely presented to us in the pages of Holy Scripture, may be, Paul says that we are seeing “through a glass, darkly”!
It is only when we are brought “face to face” with the Lord in heaven, that “then shall I know even as also I am known.”
John states this same truth in his first epistle. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is,” 1 John 3:2.
Wherever the Bible has gone, it has opened the understanding of men to a knowledge of God which CANNOT be obtained by any other means.
II. THE BIBLE ALONE GIVES US A KNOWLEDGE OF THE WAY OF SALVATION
That truth is, unsurprisingly, revealed in glorious comprehensibility by the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 14:6.
It is an increasingly common tenet in the universal ‘religious’ creed of mankind, that all religions ‘lead to God’!
That is the devil’s lie, designed to comfort men as they travel a false road downward to hell and a lost sinners eternal damnation!
It is diametrically opposed to what the Saviour taught His disciples and which He sent them out into the world to press upon darkened sinners.
Yet, it has to be said, that most pulpits here in Northern Ireland and across the world, which profess to proclaim the message of God, do indeed present the very OPPOSITE to what He taught and would have men understand!
“No man cometh unto the Father, but by me”, He plainly and indisputably said!
1. The purpose of Christ coming to this world was to call sinners to repentance. Again, He made that abundantly clear. “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” Luke 5:32. This was His response to those who chided Him for eating and drinking with “publicans and sinners”.
All mankind is sinful before God. We are born sinful. This David acknowledged of himself. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me,” Psalm 51:5.
In truth, we must all say ‘amen’ to that statement.
2. The Lord Jesus came to bear the burden of guilt and make atonement for our sins by His death at Calvary. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,” Galatians 4:4-5.
By nature, because of our sin, we were like the Christians in Ephesus, to whom Paul wrote:
“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,” Ephesians 2:11-16.
Here is what they were by nature, “without Christ” or outside of Christ; “aliens” and “strangers” to God and His mercy; and “having no hope, and without God in the world”!
Such is the natural state of every son and daughter of Adam. If they die in that state, then they are lost forever under the judgment of God.
To save sinners from this eternal state was the purpose of Christ’s coming to this world. This He accomplished on the cross for all those who embrace His mercy and salvation, offered to all through the preaching of the Gospel of the finished work of Christ.
“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles,” 2 Timothy 1:8-11.
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain,”
1 Corinthians 15:1-2.
Simply believing the Gospel message of Christ the sinner’s substitute on the cross, making a full atonement for sin, brings instant and eternal salvation. Yes, it is that by which Paul could assure the believers in Corinth that they were “saved”!
Likewise, Paul and Silas answered the jailer’s question with equal confidence. “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house,” Acts 16:30-31.
That which the poor, deeply concerned, jailer did not have a knowledge of, the men with the Word of God were able to supply!
What a benefit to have the key to open the door of heaven for yourself and for those willing to heed your warning!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Wednesday, 4th February 2026
(To be continued)