The Total Sufficiency of Scripture
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All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Introduction:
What a powerful claim.
To claim to be the total sufficient source for everything that the child of God needs is quite a claim.
But that is exactly the claim that is being presented here.
Let me start by giving you some quotes from the Baptist Confession.
Baptist Confessions of Faith 3. Assembly or Second London Confession
THe Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible1 rule of all saving Knowledge, Faith, and Obedience; Although the2 light of Nature, and the works of Creation and Providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge [page] of God and His will, which is necessary unto Salvation.3 Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that His will unto his Church; and afterward for the better preserving, and propagating of the Truth, and for the more sure Establishment and Comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the World, to commit the same wholly unto4 writing; which maketh the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of Gods revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.
Baptist Confessions of Faith 3. Assembly or Second London Confession
The Books commonly called Apochypha not being of6 Divine inspiration, are no part of the Canon (or rule) of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority to the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of, then other humane writings.
Baptist Confessions of Faith 3. Assembly or Second London Confession
The Authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be believed dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon7 God (who [page] is truth it self) the Author thereof; therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.
As Baptists, we have always believed in the total sufficiency of the Scriptures; and for good reason.
The Scripture says that about itself.
Our belief in the Scripture could be summed up in two latin words:
Sola Scriptura, Scripture Alone.
We believe that the Scriptures alone are the inerrant, infallible and the final source of faith and practice.
That we find in the pages of Holy Scriptures those things necessary for life and godliness both in the life of the Church and in our personal lives.
And in the verses that are before us, the Apostle Paul speaking to the young pastor Timothy about the total sufficiency of the Scriptures.
Timothy, who was Paul’s child in the faith, took over from Paul as the Pastor of the troubled Church at Ephesus.
Paul had already admonished Timothy:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
When Timothy was around the age of 15 he became Pastor of the Church in Ephesus and because he dealt with some issues of timidity, perhaps Timothy was easily swayed to compromise in order to keep peace.
And Paul Timothy know that that kind of spirit was not from God.
Perhaps Timothy was also tempted to compromise God’s words in his preaching, because gave him this command.
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
Because the Scriptures are totally sufficient, Timothy should have been content with just preaching those Scriptures.
The Apostle spends the next couple of verses laying our the total sufficiency of Scripture and he does that in two main points that we want to look at today:
The power of the Scriptures and the Purpose of the Scriptures.
I. The Power of the Scripture (vs. 16)
Having already communicated to Timothy the fact the he has had knowledge of the Holy Writings from his childhood, given to him by his mother and grandmother, Paul continues his theology about what those holy writings are and what they can do; that Scriptures usefulness does not end at salvation, but it carries you throughout the course of your Christian life. He does this by first stating an important fact about the origin of the Scripture and then lists what areas of life the Scriptures affect.
The Determiner of the Scripture (vs. 16a)
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Paul uses as the subject of his defense the word “scripture” and says that “all Scripture”.
By his usage of the term “all” with the subject “Scripture”, he tells us that the totality of that subject, he is speaking about a specific subject (the Scriptures), has a special designation.
That designation is that it is “inspired by God”.
This is a compound word in the Greek”θεόπνευστος” ; from “theos” which means “God” and “pneuma” which means “to breath”.
θεός
When Paul tells Timothy that the entirety of the Scriptures are “θεόπνευστος” is he telling him that the entirety of the Scriptures are the breath of God.
They are the very words of God, given to the writers of the text, through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
As we speak words “breath” comes out of our mouths; and by the same token the idea of the Apostle is that being that he describes the Scriptures as being breathed out by God, he is saying that God spoke these words.
This was a word that was used in classical Greek to give the idea of communication to others.
Paul states, by borrowing this word from classical Greek, that this is God’s communication to His people.
God does not speak in an audible voice anymore the way that He did with the Prophets and the Apostles, He communicates today through what He has given as the medium of communication and that is “all Scripture”.
Let me make what may seem to some in the world to be a radical claim; and that is that the Scriptures alone are all that man needs for life and godliness.
It is the sole and entire revelation of God.
The Scriptures make exclusive claims about itself that no other work of antiquity can ever make and that it is that it is the exclusive medium that God uses to teach.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
No other book can make such a claim as to be the one whose teaching will always accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.
God’s Word declares that it is inerrant; that means that it is without error.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Since the Word of God is absolutely true, it is totally trustworthy.
Jesus Himself affirms that the Word of God is True.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
The Word of God is so true and trustworthy, that God forbids any tampering with it.
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Because of the Scriptures claims about itself, we believe in the Verbal, Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures.
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth The Biblical View: Verbal, Plenary Inspiration
God through his Spirit inspired every word penned by the human authors in each of the sixty-six books of the Bible in the original documents (i.e., the autographs). Inspiration describes the process of divine causation behind the authorship of Scripture. It refers to the direct act of God on the human author that resulted in the creation of perfectly written revelation. It conveys the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit whereby he used the individual personality, language, style, and historical context of each writer to produce divinely authoritative writings. These works were truly the product of both the human author and the Holy Spirit.
What is important to recognize here is the Bible’s claims of inspiration has to do with divine superintendence.
God produced the Scriptures by influencing the writers own thoughts.
This resulted in divinely authoritative and inerrant words in the original autographs.
The Apostle Peter best describes the process of inspiration.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
That is inspiration in a nutshell; the writers of the Scriptures were, literally, carried along by the Holy Spirit and wrote, in their individual style, personality, language and geographical location, exactly what the God wanted to convey.
Now, evangelical Christians have no problem with that; though their defense of it may be lacking without the proper study of the subject; they, no doubt, believe it and have no problems stating that they believe that the Scriptures are inspired by God.
Where the problem comes in, even with evangelical Christians, is that they do not really believe in the total sufficiency of the Scriptures; that is, they do not really believe that the Scriptures have all the answers to the situations of life.
Now, if God took the time to supernaturally speak to the authors of the Bible is such a way to produce a divinely infallible and inerrant text, would it not logically follow that He would also cause that text to be completely sufficient for the people to whom it was given?
I believe so and so did the Apostle Paul, who was writing under divine guidance, so in essence God believes that too.
So we move from the Determiner of the Scriptures; that is the Inspiration of God, to the Distinctive of the Scriptures.
2. The Distinctive of the Scriptures (vs. 16b)
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Having laid the foundation for young Timothy that all the Scriptures are from the mouth of God, he then lays the foundation concerning the usefulness of the Scriptures.
He begins by saying that they are “profitable”.
“Profitable” is “ὠφέλιμος” and and means that it is profitable or useful.
Useful in the sense of producing practical benefits.
Because the Scriptures are from the mouth of God, they are beneficial or useful in these areas of life.
a. Doctrine
“διδασκαλία” in the Greek and speaks concerning, literally, the act of teaching.
Timothy, as a Pastor, was being instructed by the Apostle (his father in the faith) that any teaching must come from the Scriptures.
To bring in human invention, allegories or reasoning is to usurp the direction of God.
When someone, who has been given the task of giving Biblical advice and goes to other sources or thoughts then the teaching of the Bible is falling prey to worldly philosophy and practices.
The clear instructions given to Timothy were that because the Bible is from the mouth of God it is; therefore, beneficial or useful for your teaching.
Now, that is whether you are standing in a pulpit, sitting in a Sunday school class or at home speaking to your child, all instruction comes from the Scriptures.
And anyone whose sole source is not the Scriptures, who alone are said to be profitable for teaching, should not be a person that we put any weight in what they say.
Whether that be Joel Osteen who admits to not preaching on sin, to Norman Vincent Peale in his “power of positive thinking”.
When the teaching does not come from the Scripture, it is false teaching.
Now, that is to say that we do not read and study the works of other man and woman about the Scriptures, because we do.
But, when their authority is human reasoning and not the Scripture, we discard them because they have not gone back to the true source of teaching.
I do not care what their level of “education” and where they were educated, as Christians we should be vitally concerned that any teaching that we receive is from the “God Breathed” Scriptures and throw away any teaching that does not have as its foundation in the Scriptures.
The Scriptures ALONE are useful for Doctrine, that is where we get our Doctrine and instruction.
The Apostle Paul gives the reason so many people go away from the Scriptures.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
And, sadly, many believers have fallen into the same trap in believing that we have to incorporate human reasoning and ideas to bring about desired results.
And if we are not careful, we can interject those ideas INTO the Scriptures, which are not the Scriptures at all.
But only human reasoning made to look spiritual.
Have you ever met someone who falls into this category?
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
That is the result of the person who does not see the Scriptures as the sole source of their teaching, they fall for anything.
Anything that anyone tells them; especially those wrapped in a garment of Christianity, they believe it, because do not know they Scriptures because they do not see the Scriptures as totally sufficient.
Throughout redemptive history, God said this about His people Israel; and it could be said of Christianity today.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
When we have problems and need to be taught the right Doctrine or the right way to go; instead of depending of human reasoning we need to follow the example of Job.
That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.
b. Reproof
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
“ἐλεγμός” and carries the idea of rebuking in order to convict of misbehavior or false doctrine.
Scripture alone is tasked with the ability to equip believers with accurate knowledge of Divine truth, that exposes falsehood and sin, erroneous belief and ungodly conduct.
The writer of Hebrews put it this way:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The Word of God alone can cut and penetrate and show the human flaws and bring about the necessary conviction.
2 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Reproving Scripture
Richard Trench, a noted nineteenth-century British theologian, comments that elegmos refers to rebuking “another with such effectual wielding of the victorious arm of the truth, as to bring him not always to a confession, yet at least to a conviction of his sin.”
2 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Reproving Scripture
Regular and careful study of Scripture builds a foundation of truth that, among other things, exposes sin in a believer’s life with the purpose of bringing correction, confession, renunciation, and obedience.
Every Christian has experienced the times of ready and studying the Bible and being sharply convicted by a passage that you just read.
And every experienced Christian knows the times of disobedience that there is a strong temptation to forsake Bible study and worship and that the fellowship with God’s people seems to be less desirable and comfortable.
A decreased desire for Bible study, to worship Him and to be with God’s people is clear evidence of unconfessed and unforsaken sin.
It is for this reason that a Bible believing, Bible teaching and a Bible obeying Church is never a haven for persistent sinners.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Scripture is the divine plumb by which every thought, principle, act and belief are to be measured.
And Scripture ALONE has the unique ability to rear down our wrong beliefs and practices and expose our faults.
It is not about people making other people feel guilty to do the right thing, because that would be short lived anyway.
It is about the Scriptures tearing down our wrong behavior and bringing conviction of it.
That is what it means to reprove.
C. Correction
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
“Correction” is “ἐπανόρθωσις” and is only used here in the NT and speaks about the restoration of something to it original state or proper condition.
2 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Correcting Scripture
In secular Greek literature it was used of setting upright an object that had fallen down and of helping a person back on his feet after stumbling. After exposing and condemning false belief and sinful conduct in believers, Scripture then builds them up through its divine correction.
Correction is the Scriptures positive provision for those who accept it’s negative reproof.
BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
It is the Scripture ALONE that keep on the faithful path, the Scripture ALONE has that power.
The reproof brings the knowledge of the fault and conviction, but it is the correction that tells us how to keep our way pure.
The Scriptures ALONE are given that power.
d. Instruction of Righteousness
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
The Scriptures ALONE teach us how to truly live righteously.
No amount of human reasoning can do that.
That is why any counsel must be from the Scriptures because they alone are able to instruct us how to live righteous lives.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
The Apostle, having given to Timothy the key facts about the power and sufficiency of the Scriptures, he now turns his focus on the purpose of all of that.
II. The Purpose of the Scriptures (vs. 17)
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
This verse begins with the Greek word “ἵνα” and is a purpose clause and could be translated “in order that”.
All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable or useful for Doctrine, reproof, correction and for instruction if righteousness; for the purpose of or in order that certain things will follow.
That the man of God may be, first of all, perfect.
It is the Greek word “ἄρτιος” and means “complete or adequate”.
The Scriptures are what makes a person proficient in everything that they are called to be or do.
The person who carefully studies and sincerely believes and obeys the truths of Scripture will stand strong in living and defending the faith.
But he is also equipped for every good work.
The Scriptures ALONE equip the believer to be able to live and perform the good work.
2 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Enabling Scripture
Whether our purpose is to lead men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, to teach God’s truth to believers, to refute error in the church, to correct and rebuild erring believers, or to train believers to live righteously, our supreme and sufficient resource is God’s Word. It not only gives us the information to teach but also shapes us into living examples of that truth.
The Word of God is Totally Sufficient for everything that comes in our lives, it is our sole source of faith and practice.
Do you see the Word as your total sufficiency?
Or are you trying to into your life human reasoning and ideas, and then wondering why your life is filled with defeat and frustration.
Why not try it God’s way by allowing the Word of God to teach, reprove, correct and instruct you because it ALONE is sufficient to do that.
