Dr Tim Meadowcroft says the entire process of the word of God coming to us through the text “is soaked in the Spirit”.

The Head of Laidlaw’s School of Theology, Mission and Ministry came to that conclusion while writing his latest book The Message of the Word of God.

He was asked to contribute a volume to the Intervarsity Press series The Bible Speaks Today: Bible Themes. This major series examines the biblical witness to key ideas such as Salvation, The Trinity and Holiness.

It is a series written by top evangelical scholars with the aim of bringing accurate, relevant expositions of key biblical passages to life. Dr Meadowcroft was commissioned to consider the theme which in many ways is the foundation of the series.

Dr Meadowcroft says the Bible Speaks Today series is written out of the conviction ‘that God still speaks through what he has spoken’. He believes that God speaks in history, through creation, the written word and in Christ.

“Ultimately the text points to the Word, the Logos, Christ, God with us, so that’s the ultimate speaking of God.”

Dr Meadowcroft hopes the book will help Christians read the Bible in a way that holds in tension the past and present.

“We live constantly within a paradox as we read. We respect the intention of the text — so we can’t make scripture mean whatever we want it to mean — but it is also a text that applies in different ways and in different contexts. We also have to take seriously that we’re called to respond to the text out of our own context.”

The Message of the Word of God was released on the 400th anniversary of the King James Version, “a milestone in evangelical faith and scholarship”.