3 – The Sufficiency
of Scripture – Is the Bible Sufficient? (Part Two)
In
the last post, we looked at “Is the Bible Sufficient? (Part One).” Here is Part Two.
In Luke 16:31, Jesus directed the Pharisee to
the Scripture. “He said to him, ‘If they
do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if
someone rises from the dead.’” In
Matthew 22:29, speaking to the Sadducees, Jesus said, “You are in error because
you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” In Matthew 15:2-9, being questioned by Jewish
religious authorities, Jesus referred them to Scripture, saying:
And why do you break
the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’
and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father
or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift
devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake
of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about
you:
These people honor me
with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are
but rules taught by men.
The apostles also appealed only to the
Scriptures as their final authority.
Paul makes special commendation of the Bereans because “they received
the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see
if what Paul said was true. (Acts
17:11) Further, the apostles told the
Corinthians “Do not go beyond what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6). They were then to live only by the
Scriptures.
Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14-17,
“and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make
you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful
for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the
man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Corinthians 3:5, says, “Not that we are
competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence
comes from God.” Our “competency” or our
“sufficiency” comes from God and nowhere else.
In 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul says, “And God is
able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times,
having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” Note the absolutes: “all grace, all things, at all
times, in every good work.” This
is what God wants us to understand. He
is all sufficient in everything and, since He “God-breathed” His Scripture, it
too is all sufficient in everything.
In John 17:17, Jesus says to His Father,
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” The word “sanctify” means “set apart from
sin, holy, separated unto God.” The idea
is that of spiritual perfection or completion.
Notice the progression. They are
sanctified or set apart by TRUTH, but the verse does not end there. “Your word is truth,” Jesus says. Spiritual completion or perfection comes from
truth, that is the Word or God. There is
no other truth. There is no other Word,
there is no other God. Here is sola
Scriptura.
In 1 Corinthians 2:13, note that the teaching
of God by the Holy Spirit, through the apostles by special revelation to us, is
this: “This is what we speak, not in
words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing
spiritual truths in spiritual words.”
Our sufficiency is in God, not through the extra-biblical sources of the
human mind. We are not to be taught
spiritual things by human wisdom. We are
to be taught by the Holy Spirit in spiritual words.
Psalm 19:1-6 gives us a glimpse into general
revelation.
The heavens declare
the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night
after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world. In
the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom
coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his
course. It rises at one end of the
heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.
Verses 7-14 speak to
special revelation.
The law of the Lord
is perfect, reviving the soul. The
statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving
joy to the heart. The commands of the
Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring
forever. The ordinances of the Lord are
sure and altogether righteous. They are
more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than
honey from the comb. By them is your
servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his
errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may
they not rule over me. Then will I be
blameless, innocent of great transgression.
May the words of my
mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock
and my Redeemer.
See also Psalm 119, 2
Peter 3:16 and Hebrews 4:12.
Here is clear and powerful truth: The “law of the LORD is perfect . . . The
statutes of the LORD are trustworthy . . . wise . . . The precepts of the LORD
are right . . . The commands of the LORD are radiant . . . The ordinances of
the LORD are sure and altogether
righteous . . . They are most precious . . . keeping them . . . is great
reward.” They are pleasing in the sight
of the LORD.
Next we’ll look at The Sufficiency of
Scripture as it relates to “Specific Industries.”
Doug
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