Romans 16:26

but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith [Comp. Colossians 1:26; Colossians 4:4; Galatians 1:12; Galatians 1:16; 1 Corinthians 2:10. "Manifested... made known." These two words express the two phases of revelation. Christ himself was the manifestation (Luke 2:30-32; John 1:14-18; John 2:11; Hebrews 1:3), the Light of the world (John 1:4-9; John 8:12); but this manifestation is introduced, interpreted, explained, "made known" by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament writers or prophets, the former with their types, shadows and forecasts (Luke 24:25-27; Galatians 4:21-31; Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 10:1-9), the latter with their gospel sermons and doctrinal epistles (1 Corinthians 15:1; Galatians 1:11; 1 John 1:1-3). And these Scriptures were written for that purpose, not at the motion, option or choice of the writers, but by order and command of God himself (Deuteronomy 5:22; Jeremiah 36:27-28; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16), that men might know, and, knowing, might believe and obey, the gospel in its conditions and be saved thereby. Thus the apostle assures us that the Father, who gave us the Christ, gave us also correct biographies as to his incarnation, miracles, life, death, resurrection and coronation; that the God who gave us a gospel also insured to us the preservation of it in an efficient and effective form in the record which he commanded; that the Lord who gave us a church has also provided for the perpetual safeguarding of its plans, specifications and model as designed in his holy mountain (Hebrews 8:5), preserving them forever in those Chronicles of his kingdom which we call the Bible. Common sense should tell us this, even if Paul had kept silence. How could we attribute infinite wisdom to a God who sacrificed his Son to make a gospel and then neglected to preserve that gospel that it might be used for the purposes for which it was prepared at so much cost? Moreover, this passage shows that God himself, back of the human penman, wrote the Bible; for he, and not they--no, not even the angels (1 Peter 1:10; 1 Peter 10:12)--knew the secret which these Scriptures were revealing. Yea, he wrote it for the universal instruction of the unborn church in matters which no human wisdom could discover for itself. Therefore, whoso strikes at the Old Testament would destroy the foundation of the New, would annul what God has commanded, obliterate what God has revealed, and rob the dying world of the gospel, the salvation and the Christ which God has given. The one who attempts to do this thing (God be praised, he can not succeed save for a brief season-- Revelation 11:3-12) would destroy God's means of life, and would leave the world, "all nations," with their teeming but helpless millions to perish without hope, setting his wisdom against that of "the only Wise." Such an one rivals the devil, both in unfeeling heartlessness and in supreme presumption]: