· Bibliology ·

Lecture Fourteen:  The Clarity of Scripture

TH330 Systematic Theology I · Moody Bible Institute · Dr. Richard M. Weber

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.  He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.  His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”(2 Pet 3:15-16)

I. The Bible Affirms Its Own Clarity

A. Any Person Can Understand the Scriptures

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”  (Deut 6:6-7)

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.  The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.”  (Ps 19:7)

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”  (Ps 119:130)

“[N]o believer should think himself or herself too foolish to read Scripture and understand it sufficiently to be made wise by it.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 106).

B. But Some Do Misunderstand the Scriptures

II. Biblical Evidence Supporting Its Clarity

A. Evidence From Matthew’s Gospel

1. Jesus Assumes That Those Who Read Scripture Can Understand Scripture

“Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures:  ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone…’” (Matt 21:42)

“[Jesus] answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  … Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?”  (Matt 12:3, 5)

“But about the resurrection of the dead – have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?  He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”  (Matt 22:31; cf. 9:13; 12:7)

2. Jesus Declared That the Kingdom of Heaven is Available to Children

“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”  (Matt 19:14)

3. Error Comes From Not Knowing the Scriptures – Not From Inability to Comprehend

“Jesus replied, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures of the power of God.’” (Matt 22:29)

4. Error Also Comes From Rejecting the Scripture

“Jesus replied [to the Pharisees and teachers of the law], ‘And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?’” (Matt 15:3)

B. Other Biblical Evidence

“‘You are Israel’s teacher,’ said Jesus, ‘and do you not understand these things?’”  (John 3:10)

“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours…”  (1 Cor 1:1-2)

“Paul, an apostle … and all the brothers with me, to the churches in Galatia…” (Gal 1:1-2)

“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi…” (Phil 1:1)

“After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.”  (Col 4:16)

C. An Objection to the Doctrine of the Clarity of Scripture

III. The Limitations of the Clarity of Scripture

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  (1 Cor 2:14)

“But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read.  It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.”  (2 Cor 3:14-16)

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  … For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  (2 Cor 4:3-4, 6)

“But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”  (Heb 5:14)

“But they deliberately forgot that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.”  (2 Pet 3:5)

“[Jesus] told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”’”  (Mark 4:11-12)

“If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”  (John 7:17)

(cf. John 8:43; James 1:5-6)

“Scripture is able to be understood by all unbelievers who will read it sincerely seeking salvation, and by all believers who will read it while seeking God’s help in understanding it.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 107)

IV. Application of the Doctrine of the Clarity of Scripture

“Christians must never give up to the scholarly ‘experts’ the task of interpreting Scripture; they must keep doing it every day for themselves.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 110)

A. Scholars can teach Scripture Clearly

B. Scholars can explore new areas of understanding the Scriptures

C. Scholars can defend the Scriptures from outside attacks from people with scholarly training

D. Scholars can supplement th estudy of the Bible for believers