SCRIPTURE: THE BASIS FOR THEOLOGY AND PRACTICE (2)

SCRIPTURE: THE BASIS FOR THEOLOGY AND PRACTICE

We continue our study of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 this evening. As we stated at the beginning of last week’s study, these confessions, or statements of faith, are helpful to the Church. I can think of two important reasons to develop and maintain these types of documents.

Confessions (Statements of Faith) help organize and clarify what the Scriptures teach.

Confessions (Statements of Faith) help distinguish between different beliefs.

The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 is a document that over 47,000 churches all over the world, particularly in the US, hold to and teach. This document finds its importance only as it faithfully holds to and biblically declares the teachings of Scripture. The authors of this document believe that the Scriptures are God’s gift to the Church, and as such they build their document on the foundation of the Scriptures. Last week we saw The Inspiration of Scriptures, The God-given Worth of Scripture, The Composition of Scripture, and The Conclusion of Scripture: it is totally true and trustworthy.

The Baptist Faith & Message continues the importance of the Scripture by sayings,

It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

The importance of Scripture is underscored by several reasons, and these reasons will be our focus this evening.

I. The Scriptures are educational

“It reveals the principles by which God judges us...”

God is a fair and righteous God, providing us with His expectations. He set the pattern for this in , because He gave Adam clear expectations of what He wanted Adam to do and not do. God is fair, and in His Word He has provided us with the principles by which He judges us.

In God gives Israel His Word so that they may keep it. When Israel would receive a king, the king was to record God’s Word in order to keep it (). We learn the same aspects from . Other passages of Scripture to look at are: , ; ; .

The Scriptures are educational, because they tell us what to do (positively). A good example of this can be found in . The 10 Commandments are predominantly in the negative, “You shall not...” However, there is also the implication of a positive aspect of the Commandment. In fact, Churches throughout history have developed a bulk of their teaching on the positive aspects of these 10 Words (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2052-2550 (or pages 498-610). Another document of the Protestant persuasion which expands upon this thought is the Westminster Larger Catechism nos. 98-148. In that Catechism a question is asked, such as, “What are the duties required in the first commandment?” To which it is answered, “The duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of him; believing him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in him; being zealous for him; calling upon him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to him with the whole man; being careful in all things to please him, and sorrowful when in anything he is offended; and walking humbly with him.” (Q 104)

I end this section with the words from . So, we see that the Scriptures are educational, they are the principles by which God judges us.

II. The Scriptures are eternal

“…and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world...”

Because God’s Word is the basis for our judgment, it follows, both in Scripture and in logic, that God’s Word would be eternal. That is, there will never be a time in which God’s Word is not present. There are several passages of Scripture offered by the BF&M for proof of this teaching.

tells us that God’s Word is eternal. That is, His Word spans all time and cultures. Additionally, , quoting , illustrates the eternality of God’s Word. Peter describes the means by which we are “born again” (1:23). You can imagine, then, how important God’s Word is, and compared to the imperishability of God’s Word, grass and flowers fall away but God’s Word stands true. Like the 10 Commandments, which are applicable at all times, the entirety of Scripture, containing all of God’s Word throughout the development of human history, is eternal. This helps us because as we progress through human history, we can safely rest in God’s eternal and unchanging truth.

But there is another purpose in the Scriptures, as the BF&M mentions:

III. The Scriptures are uniting (and dividing)

“…the true center of Christian union...”

Union is an essential mark of the Christian. In fact, it is a prayer of Jesus for His followers. In Jesus’ high priestly prayer, He asks the Father, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” () The psalmist picks up the same though in , “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

The Scriptures are the tool that we use to determine our unity with other professing believers. As I mentioned in the introduction, over 47,000 congregations hold to this. This unifies us with other believers. We unite around the what the Scriptures. That is what determines our unity. But it also has a negative prospect as well.

The Scriptures also show us where we differ. Under the label Christian are the following: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, Seventh-Day Adventist, Anabaptist, and for the sake of time, Mennonite. Within each one of these are a variety of subsets. So, what sets us apart from these? Our beliefs, as they are understood in Scripture. That is, Scripture divides us from some individuals claiming the name of Christ. We are separated from Presbyterians because of their understanding of covenants and our understanding of covenants are different. We are separate from Seventh-Day Adventists because we understand the Sabbath differently, as we interpret Scripture. In other words, the intensity and intimacy of our fellowship is determined by our agreement on the Words of Scripture. The reason we are Baptist is because we believe the Scriptures teach us to be so. Good men and women can and do disagree, and for a variety of reasons will disagree until we are all fully made into the image of Christ. However, the Scriptures determine our union.

IV. The Scriptures are evaluational

“…the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.”

Just as the Scriptures serve as our guide for union, they also serve as rulers to measure human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions. Let us briefly address each one.

Human Conduct

Society does not determine morality. Culture does not determine morality. The majority does not determine morality. Brothers and sisters, God through His Written Word determines what is moral. God has revealed the standard for human conduct, most notably in the 10 Commandments, but further clarified and fleshed out in the NT epistles in particular.

Creeds

Creeds have been used throughout church history to help declare and maintain doctrinal fidelity. Consider one of the oldest (though not certain) Apostles’ Creed. Many churches still recite the Apostles’ Creed today. This short Creed (from credo, I believe). There are a host of other creeds, and though they provide help to the Church, they sit underneath the authority of Scripture. Where Creeds diverge from the Scriptures, they are to be set aside.

Religious Opinions

Obviously, this opens the can of worms. There are so many views of God, the Christian life, the Bible, and the list could go on. What keeps all of these in check? The Scriptures are the supreme standard by which they are to be evaluated.

V. The Scriptures are about Christ

“All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”

The final statement on the Scriptures from the BF&M concerns Jesus Christ. He is the focus of divine revelation. instructs us to this point.

We have walked through our series Christ in the Old Testament: The Torah, The Prophets, and the Writings. We were able to take our time through some major portions of Scripture and see that Christ is the central figure of the Bible.

In his book, The Mystery of Christ: His Covenant & His Kingdom, Sam Renihan summarizes the entirety of Scripture:

“The ministry of Jesus Christ initiated the unveiling of the full and final plan of God. Jesus began to reveal the blessing for the nations—a new humanity in a new kingdom through a new covenant to be received by faith in Christ himself.” —Sam Renihan

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The Scriptures are the incredible gift of God. They are the very foundation of our beliefs as Baptists.