2 LBCF 1:7
We Confess • Sermon • Submitted
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Paragraph 1: Its Necessity
Para 2-3: Its identity
Para 4-5: Its Authority (4: objective, 5: subjective)
Para 6: Its Sufficiency
Para 7: Its Clarity
Para 8: Its Availability
Paras 9-10: Its Finality
Some things in Scripture are clearer than others, and some people understand the teachings more clearly than others.12 However, the things that must be known, believed, and obeyed for salvation are so clearly set forth and explained in one part of Scripture or another that both the educated and uneducated may achieve a sufficient understanding of them by properly using ordinary measures.13
Perspicuity = Clarity
The doctrine of the perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture is one of the basic tenets of Protestant evangelicalism regarding the Bible, along with the doctrines of the inspiration, inerrancy, and sufficiency of Scripture. In short, the doctrine of perspicuity means that the central message of the Bible is clear and understandable and that the Bible itself can be properly interpreted in a normal, literal sense.
This is in contrast to the Romish teaching that it is not clear and you need a priest to understand
Some things in Scripture are clearer than others, and some people understand the teachings more clearly than others.
16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
Notice the twisting comes not from Paul’s doing but the heart of the receiver
However, the things that must be known, believed, and obeyed for salvation are so clearly set forth and explained in one part of Scripture or another that both the educated and uneducated may achieve a sufficient understanding of them by properly using ordinary measures.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.
We still need the aid of the Spirit
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
We still only know in part
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
But when a believer turns to the Scriptures they can know of themselves God’s will for their salvation and holy living in light of it
Implications of the clarity of Scripture
Sufficient for counseling
Promotes work to interpret correctly (not oh that’s just your interpretation)
or great men have disagreed
When we don’t understand scripture, who’s fault is it? Our sin
Any issue in the faith must carry with it the presupposition that Scriptures speak in some way clearly to it
