Faith in the Sufficiency of Scripture
Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
Psalm 19:8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
Psalm 19:9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
Here are great reminders for we who prize the orthodox view of faith in the Divinely ordered Scriptures; key points being that they are:
- Inspired– God is the Divine writer, he providentially and powerfully accomplished a perfect finished product. Denoted by our division as 66 books.
- Inerrant/Infallible – the word of God is without mistake or error- the original copies are incapable of flaw insomuch as God is incapable of erring.
- Plenary – the word of God has a ‘complete and thorough’ verbal inspiration of God, meaning every word in scripture is God breathed.
Taken collectively with Psalm 19, we learn that God’s law, his testimony, his precepts, his commandments, his rules (the sum of his revelation to man) all have the highest purity and power. Is it possible that God could mishandle the communication process? We think not! God’s word is a perfect work (v. 7), with a transcendent virtue and a deliberate purpose to ‘revive the soul, rejoice the heart, enlighten the eyes.‘ With respect to these purposes, we can say that the scripture is fully ‘sufficient.’ If we need instruction on how to wax our car, it will prove impractical, but if the need is for the soul, the heart or the eyes, then the scriptures have perfectly addressed it. One need not look beyond this for cure (2 Tim 3:15,16). In fact, sufficiency means no other dogma will do if it is not agreeable to the Word of God. I’m not sure many have asked themselves outside of just parroting this dogma to sound cool:
- Do I really regard the Bible as God’s flawless word?
- Do I trust it as factual?
- Is his word the final authority and arbiter in my life?
- Is there sufficient wisdom in the Bible alone to get me through life?“
Experience has taught me that when life gets some Christians down, they quickly look for an escape exit. An immediate fix. And if the wisdom given in the bible does not promise them a quick and free release from the pain, but instead plunges them into deeper tension, God’s word is not so reliable, it comes under scrutiny, it is conveniently forgotten, and we employ an ‘integrationalist’ approach, mixing the worlds ideas with the Bible’s…in short, for such people God’s word isn’t truly sufficient. An example of this, is people who change their view on divorce/remarriage if they go through divorce/remarriage. How quickly we adjust the canon of truth to fit our circumstances. How easily we can become like King Ahab of Israel using the scripture like a lottery (2 Chron. 18:7). We extract certain scriptures and ignore others to suit a more favorable outcome. If the scripture only has relevance in our life based on comfortable outcomes, then we probably aren’t walking in Jesus footsteps, and we probably are not rightly yielding to the sufficiency of scripture. It’s one thing to believe in the sufficiency of scripture, it’s another thing to live by it 1 Cor. 14:37. Let us not forget that it takes the same faith to believe that the scriptures are sufficient as it does to believe the God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
