The Bible I preach from is a material book. That is all it is. There is nothing else there. The Bible is nothing but paper and ink. And of course to speak this way is to fall into the fallacy that one writer called nothing buttery.
Of course, paper and ink is all it is in a material sense. But when we have the Scripture reading, and the elder afterwards says, “The Word of the Lord,” and we say, “Thanks be to God,” are we worshipping paper and ink? Of course not. When I preface the reading of the text to be preached from by saying, “These are the very words of God,” are you standing in honor of the material elements that make up the book I am holding? Again, of course not.
The paper that makes up this book came from a tree somewhere, and, for all we know, another part of that same tree went into the publication of some infidel newspaper. And we all know, and know without troubling ourselves about it, that this presents no problem at all.
This is bread and wine. In fact, this is nothing but bread and wine. But when I have said this, have I exhausted the subject? Of course not. When you come to this Table in faith, you are engaged in a blessed partaking of the living and resurrected Christ, and you are being knit together with all the saints to Him.
You are no more to adore the bread and wine than you are to worship the paper and ink. But at the same time, you are summoned to meet with God in His Word, and to commune with Him in His sacraments. You don’t do this by pretending that God or His grace has been reduced to the simple material elements of His appointed instruments.
The appointed means for doing this is a lively and evangelical faith. This faith is not stupid, and doesn’t reduce God to the material level of His instruments. But neither is it disobedient, refusing to meet with Him and commune with Him where He told us He would be.
Come, then, in evangelical faith.