You Are Who God Says You Are

The Mona Lisa, an oil painting on a poplar wood panel, is the most famous painting in the world. Painted by Leonardo da Vinci sometime between 1503 and 1519, when he was living in Florence, it now hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, where it remains an object of pilgrimage to this day. Say “The Mona Lisa,” and most people will know the painting you are referring to.

In Second Peter chapter one, there is a phrase that, over the years, has reassured me because of what God says in His Word about me. Okay, I won’t be selfish. He also says the same thing about you.

Simon Peter opens the epistle by reminding the believers that it is only through a full and personal knowledge of who Jesus is that they can know and understand who they are in Him. Let's read verses 3 and 4.

(3) According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

(4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

In verse 12, Peter reminds the reader of these truths even though they know them and are firmly standing on them. In verse 13, he says he is doing this to “stir them up” – to make sure they remain diligent in their walk with Christ because Jesus has showed him that his time on earth is about to end (verse 14).

In verses 16, 17 and 18, Peter tells them what he personally witnessed on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-5) and that he heard God say, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (verse 17)

Then, in verse 19, he uses the phrase that I have cherished over the years.

“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”

Peter says that what we have – the scriptures, the Bible – is “a more sure word” than his recounting what he witnessed on the mount of transfiguration because we did not witness it ourselves. He then tells us that God has given us something much better.

Let's read verses 20 and 21.

(20) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

(21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Peter says the foundation, the first principle to never lose sight of is that the scriptures did not originate in the mind of men. The scriptures originated in the mind of God and that is why it is a “more sure word” than Peter’s eyewitness account of the mount of transfiguration.

The word “sure” in verse 19 means “fixed, sure, certain; figuratively that upon which one may build, rely or trust; that which does not fail or waver, immovable.” This is how God describes His Word.

Now, why is this important? Let’s read Genesis 3:1.

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

Satan wants us to question the truth of what God says. He wants us to question the truthfulness of the “more sure word” that God has given to us, especially when it comes to what the Bible says about us.

Why is the Bible a “more sure word”?

Turn first to Psalm 138. We're going to read the first two verses from the Amplified Bible.

“(1) I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness;

(2) For you have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all your name!

David says that God’s Word, the Bible that we hold in our hands, is a written version of who God is. The Bible is the “more sure word”!

Now look at Psalm 18:30.

“As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.”

The word perfect is “complete, whole, entire, sound, without blemish, without spot, undefiled, upright.” Again, the Bible is the “more sure word”!

Turn to Psalm 119:160.

“Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.”