Many within the church today will wholeheartedly affirm the Bible’s inspiration (it being God’s very words), inerrancy (it containing no errors), and authority. However, there does seem to be a doubt as to its sufficiency in several cases. That it is all we need when it comes to the profession and practice of our faith. While some would not claim to deny the sufficiency of Scripture, they in essence do just that in their practice. This can be seen today by those who continue to look for God to speak to them through some means other than Scripture, indicating that they must believe that His Word is not enough to guide and direct us. Something more or in addition to it must be needed. How many today desire some sort of supernatural explosive encounter with God rather than being content with His Word? A growing number of churches are adopting the dangerous and divisive teachings of Critical Race Theory to address racism as if the gospel cannot fully and completely be used to deal with the matter itself. Again, the idea is that something else must be needed. Not too terribly long ago, books purporting to be first or second hand accounts of people who have been to heaven and back were jumping off the shelves, being promoted as a way to conclusively prove that “heaven is for real.” Thus implying of course that the witness of Scripture itself can’t ultimately do so. That such a supposed experience is necessary to truly convince someone. And for years several churches have sought various pragmatic ways to grow the church because they obviously didn’t believe that a ministry centered on the Word of God alone could do it. From car raffles to hosting a rock concert at an Easter service (yes, sadly these are real examples!), some of these churches seem to almost be willing to stop at nothing to try to get people into the doors, all the while casting the one means that God has ordained to serve as the instrument to grow His church to the side or at the least minimalizing it. Why would they ever do these types of things? Simply because they are not convinced that the Bible being taught, preached, and used in evangelism is sufficient to do it itself.
But to deny the sufficiency of Scripture is to deny the testimony of Scripture itself since it claims to be enough for us. Paul reminds young Timothy that it is the “sacred writings” of Scripture “which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). He didn’t say that it was these “sacred writings” AND something else that are able to make you wise unto salvation but these “sacred writings” PERIOD. These “sacred writings” ALONE. Furthermore, he goes on to write that “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work” (vv. 16-17). The fact that the man of God can be described as “having been thoroughly equipped for EVERY good work” indicates that he is not lacking for anything that God has called him to do. The very God-breathed words of Scripture provides him with everything needed for the task. Not one good work is out there for him to do that Scripture has not equipped him for. Likewise, Peter points out that the Lord’s “divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3). The full knowledge of Him revealed in His Word has not granted us SOMETHINGS pertaining to our life and godliness or even MOST THINGS but EVERYTHING. With God’s Word, we have all that we need to place our trust in Christ for our salvation and to live for His glory. As Charles Spurgeon so well put it, “This weapon [the Bible] is good at all points, good for defense and for attack, to guard our whole person or to strike through the joints and marrow of the foe. Like the seraph’s sword at Eden’s gate, it turns every way. You cannot be in a condition that the Word of God has not provided. The Word has as many faces and eyes as providence itself. You will find it unfailing in all periods of your life, in all circumstances, in all companies, in all trials, and under all difficulties. Were it fallible, it would be useless in emergencies, but its unerring truth renders it precious beyond all price to the soldiers of the cross.”
When you think about it, the apostles didn’t have nowhere near the technological advancements which we have today and didn’t rely on any gimmicks. Yet, they were described as having “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). The Lord continued to add to His church through their preaching of the Word by the power of the Spirit. The Word of God proved sufficient for the growth of Christ’s church just as it will continually do today. The instrument that sparked the Protestant Reformation was not the hammer Luther used to nail his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church but the Bible he relentlessly preached and taught from. Towards the end of his life when he was reflecting on the work of reformation he had been a part of, he stated, "Take me, for example. I opposed indulgences and all papists, but never by force. I simply taught, preached, wrote God's Word: otherwise I did nothing. And then . . . the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing: the Word did it all.” God’s Word is always sufficient for every believer and minister of the gospel.
The sufficiency of Scripture even more so can be seen in the parable that Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. At the end of their lives, the rich man finds himself in agony in Hades with Lazarus at Abraham’s bosom. What is really interesting in this story is the interaction that the rich man has with Abraham. He asks him to send Lazarus back to warn his five brothers of this place of torment so that they would repent and not have to experience it (v. 28). But Abraham tells him that “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them” (v. 29). Even when the rich man objects that surely if someone would go to them from the dead, they would repent (v. 30), Abraham reiterates, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead” (v. 31). “Moses and the Prophets” was a shorthand way of referring to the entire Old Testament as Moses served as the human author of the first five books and the prophets much of the other. The point here clearly is that God’s Word is enough to convince someone of the reality of hell and heaven and the need of repentance and faith in Christ to escape the former and to dwell in the latter. Not even someone having been to heaven and back can convince anyone about the need for repentance. God’s Word alone can do that and should they neglect that, nothing else will work. Such supposed claims of those who have been to heaven and back are not needed to prove to anyone that “heaven is for real” because we have God’s Word on the matter and that is enough. If that is not believed, neither will any other testimony about heaven be believed.
The good news for us as believers is that we have been given everything needed for our faith and life in the Lord. We are not lacking in any way nor do we need to look elsewhere for God’s assistance. We have God’s Word and that is enough for us. God has not sent us out with only a handful of equipment and we need to shop elsewhere for the rest. It is all there for us in His all-sufficient Word. Let’s be sure not only to profess that but also to live like it!
Love in Christ,
Pastor Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment