It is often misunderstood, even by Christians, that the Bible contains the words of God. It does not. The bible is however contains the word of God, but the bible doesn't contain the exact words of God.

When Christians talk about the word of god, let us also be clear that we at not talking about the words on the page in the bible. The word of god is made known in the life of Jesus Christ. The bible is one way we access the word of god (AKA Jesus). Therefore the bible contains the Word of God. We can access the Word by way of the Bible.

Additionally, since the Word of god no longer is enfleshed among us in the form of Jesus, god called the church to be the body of Christ. You and I are the body of Christ today. Just like the bible is used to access the Word of god, so too the church is used to access the Word of god.

Do you see where this is going???

If Christ is the greatest revelation of god known to the world, and the church is now the body of Christ then the church is as revelatory of the nature of god as the bible.

The church is as revelatory as the bible because both give access to the Word of god.

This should scare you a little bit.

It is easy to only see the bible as the source of access to the Word because that keeps the Church off the hook. When we take seriously the idea that Christ is made known in the church as Christ is also made known in the scriptures, then our behavior is changed. We are transformed.

When we buy into the idea of Sola scriptura as access to god then we are saying that god is done working. God is no longer active and moving today.

So while the church may fail at exposing the word of god at times, I wonder what it might look like if the church too seriously the idea that we are called to be the body of Christ. Are we willing to be that revelatory?