Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.39 – October 2006
Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura)
A Sermon by Rev Martin Geluk on 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Scripture Readings: Psalm 119:105-120; Matthew 5:17-20
Suggested Hymns: BoW 489; 100; 119b:1-4; 65:1
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You should know that we are facing issues that concern the church a great deal. These issues influence the leaders and members of various churches in the way they ‘do’ church. In fact, the expression ‘the way they do church’ or ‘the way we do church’ is often heard. It suggests that not everyone thinks about the church in the same way. These days there is much diversity and some think that this is a good thing. They don’t have in mind minor differences, for minor differences have always existed. They have big differences in mind and if these work for you, then that’s fine, they say. Those who have attended church services of various congregations even in our own denomination know there are differences in the way our churches go about their business.
The question has to be asked – are these different ways of ‘doing’ church scriptural? Not just what we see in our own denomination but also in the wider Christian church. What goes on elsewhere seems to cross over with ease into many local churches. Do church members, therefore, still think through issues as they come up and examine their rightness and wrongness in the light of Scripture? Or are we so open to different things that almost anything goes?
This is the first in a series of sermons about the direction the church ought to be taking. The method I will follow is to deal with the five ‘solas’ of the Reformation and try to make relevant applications as we deal with these solas. ‘Sola’ means ‘alone’. By the ‘solas’ of the Reformation and of the Reformed faith we mean Scripture alone, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, and God’s glory alone. So today we begin by looking at SCRIPTURE ALONE.
Our text from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
1. The Bible alone is inspired
We need to ask ourselves again questions like these: Is there such a thing as a certain source of truth? Can we know right from wrong, or distinguish truth from error? Someone said, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative” (Alan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, p 25). This author goes on to say that a lot of people believe it is right to be open to all opinions, open to all perspectives, and open to all beliefs. Why do they believe that? Because they think that truth cannot be known. In fact, there is no truth, they say. Every viewpoint is as valid as the next. Everything is relative. Whatever is of value to someone, whatever has meaning for that person, is important to that person. It may mean nothing to another, but to the one who places value on it, it is important. And others need to respect that, they say.
We see this approach, for example, in the way people discuss the abortion pill RU-486. In the Senate and Parliament, in the letters to editors of newspapers, a wide range of opinion is expressed. And in the end the outcome is determined by those whose votes express the most commonly held opinion. But is the most commonly held opinion true? It is valid? In Parliament there is no standard anymore by which to measure the right or wrong of abortion. It is the same with many other issues.
To get up and say: homosexual practice is wrong because the Bible condemns it, is to invite the anger of the homosexual lobby. But also others, who may not agree with homosexual acts, will criticise you because they think everyone is entitled to their view, as long as they don’t break the law. To say: sex and marriage ought to be kept together according to the Bible, is received with ridicule by those who favour sexual freedom, but also by those who hold that sex is personal and private. To say: God is the Creator, because that is what the Bible says, and evolution is based on theory and not scientific fact, is to rouse the hostile anger of evolutionists, of which there are many. Even such an innocuous concept as Intelligent Design is already meeting stiff opposition. For many, truth is not determined by what God says in the Bible.
The Bible says that the church is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15) but, sadly, many churches do not see themselves that way. Instead they have become the mirror image of society, joining the chorus that there is no basic standard of truth. They regard openness as the only virtue and leaders in these churches endorse fornication, homosexuality and, under certain circumstances, extra-marital affairs. They come to this position because they regard truth as relative and “love” is supreme. The Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong says, “I stand ready to reject the Bible in favour of something that is more human, more humane, more life-giving, and, dare I say, more god-like” (Living in Sin, p 133). And what is it that he accepts rather than what the Bible says? A type of sexual behaviour that the Bible condemns. Spong’s views are now accepted by a number of denominations.
So in this day and age where almost anything goes, where can we go to find valid answers to life’s questions? What guidance do we give to our children? Where can we go to find a reliable, trustworthy, authoritative standard for faith and conduct? The answer that the historic Christian faith has always given is: Scripture! In the time of the prophet Isaiah, there were people in Israel who advised others that in order to know what to do they should not ask God but consult the spirits of the dead. God responded to these people who rejected His truth by making His prophet Isaiah say: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn” (8:20). In other words, issues were to be decided by what God said.
It is a wonderful thing that God has spoken. That He has not abandoned us. That He has not left us to our own devices. That He has not left us to our own opinions. It is a great comfort that we can do more than count the ‘for and against’ on fundamental issues and hope that the majority has it right. God has given us the truth, found in His holy Word, the Bible.
It’s not the first time that the Christian church has had to face this struggle of Scripture alone versus the opinion of men. The Reformers, Luther and Calvin and others, began to oppose the decisions and practices of popes and church councils because often these were extra-biblical. That is, they said more than what the Bible said, or they said it differently. Up to the 16th century, popes and church councils fought about who had the right to say what the Scriptures taught.
The popes believed God had given them the right to determine the truth according to their understanding of Scripture and tradition. But popes, aided by cardinals, had made mistakes and therefore some in the Roman Catholic Church believed that church councils, made up by many church leaders, ought to have the final say. The Reformers opposed all this and affirmed that it is Scripture alone that has the authority to decide what is the truth. They argued that to give church leaders or tradition the authority to determine what is truth is to become dependent on the mere opinion of men. It’s the Bible’s testimony that finally matters. The Reformers did not say a new thing. They repeated what the early Christian church believed.
Today many church leaders have again departed from the ‘Scripture alone’ principle and raise their finger to the wind and make popular opinion the rule for the church. Others go to the people and ask what they want and then proceed to meet people’s expectations. Still others bow before science and give undisputed authority to its claims.
However, the Bible alone is inspired by God. Tradition, church councils, other writings, opinions by learned scholars, may have quality and wisdom, and we therefore can’t brush off all opinions of men as rubbish, yet they are not inspired in the sense that the Bible is. Our text from 2 Timothy says that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” The words “All Scripture is inspired” literally mean: “All Scripture is God-breathed”. God-breathed does not refer to the quality of Scripture so that you can say that the Bible in an inspiring book. The Bible is that, of course, but you could say that other writings are also inspiring, like a good novel. The Bible is God-breathed in the sense that its source is God. All other writings known to man are written by man. Only the Bible comes from God. It comes from His mouth. The Bible is not just a collection of wise human sayings, it is God’s wisdom for us.
The Bible makes the same claim for itself in 2 Peter 1:20-21: “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The Scriptures, therefore, are not merely a human product, or an act of the human will. No, they were written by men, “moved by the Holy Spirit.” When they spoke, they “spoke from God.” The word ‘moved’ is also used when a ship is moved along by the wind (Acts 27:15). God’s Holy Spirit took hold of the prophets and apostles and made them say and write what He wanted them to say and write.
Note well that it is not we who declare that the Bible is inspired. The Bible itself says it is inspired. The Scriptures themselves say they are from the mouth of God. When we say the Bible is inspired we are simply repeating the claim the Bible makes for itself. And why is that so important to emphasise again in our present time? Because some people no longer subscribe to the ‘Scripture alone’ principle because they cannot accept what it teaches. They cannot accept that Adam and Eve were truly historical people from whom came the whole human race. They cannot accept that Jonah was swallowed by a large fish. They cannot accept that Jesus was born of a virgin, or that He rose again from the dead, or that He is God in the flesh. These people enjoy having the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible and say that is inspired, but not those parts they think go against reason and science.
But our text clearly says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” Therefore we must speak of plenary inspiration. The whole of the Bible is inspired, and every single word. We cannot pick and choose as to what we think is inspired and what is not inspired. As soon as we begin doing that, then it is man who decides where God speaks and where He doesn’t. The terrible result of this is that you then have a God of your own making. Man has become superior to God because man decides when God speaks. But God is sovereign and He speaks when He wills and all of Scripture is where He has spoken.
But how then must we see the Bible’s human authors? As you know there are five books from Moses, there are books by different prophets, and four gospels from four different men, as well as New Testament letters from various apostles. You can see their individual traits and gifts in their writing and speaking. Bible critics say that God’s Word was corrupted as it passed through these human authors. But as soon as you allow that, then you can no longer say that the Bible is God-breathed, from the mouth of God.
No, we must maintain that God so controlled the Bible’s human authors that what they said and wrote was what God wanted them to speak and write. The various human authors of the Bible did not inspire themselves, God inspired them to write and say what He wanted. We are left then with this wonderful confidence that the Bible is the very Word of God. It’s not the word of man – not merely a human book. It’s God’s Word and message to humanity. Not just to Christians, but to all people everywhere.
2. The Bible alone is without error (i.e., infallible, inerrant)
We spent a bit of time explaining the inspiration of the Bible because it is basic to what we want to say next, and that is this: because the Bible is God-breathed, because it comes from God, from His mouth, it is therefore without error. For God is altogether true. Jesus said, referring to God’s Word, “Your word is truth” (Jn 17:17). The church can make errors, people can make errors, church councils like Classis and Synod can make errors, the Confessions may have errors in them. But not Scripture!
So what do we say against the claim that the Bible is full of contradictions? We say that these contradictions are not in the Bible itself but in man’s interpretations of the Bible. The Word of God is pure. Read Psalm 119’s eloquent testimony to the Bible being all that God claims it to be. We may trust for one hundred percent that the Bible has no mistakes and no contradictions. As soon as you say that it has, then you are implying that God is not true. And if God is not true, then you cannot hold to the principle of ‘Scripture alone’. All problems we have with the Bible are our problems because it is man who made mistakes when copying the Bible’s original manuscripts, when translating the Bible, when giving incorrect and misleading explanations of the Bible. The problems man has with Scripture have their origin in man, not in God who gave us His Word pure and true.
Furthermore, the Bible is without error on whatever subject it speaks. By holding to the principle ‘Scripture alone’, we cannot very well limit the Bible’s teachings to what it says about God and the church and exclude other subjects. Whatever subject God, who Himself is all truth, speaks on, has to be free from error. It is true to say that the Bible is not a textbook on mathematics or physics. It does not tell you how to put your motorbike together. But on whatever subject God does speak on, the Bible is true, be that religion, history, science, psychology, morals, or whatever.
Many people do not accept this. And why not? Because they look to man as being the source of knowledge. And as they do so they make a number of assumptions, like, creationism can’t be admitted for there is no Creator God. They say God is a religious idea in the minds of men. And the supernatural can’t be admitted because everything must have a ‘natural’ cause and effect and it is up to man to find out what they are. What man is doing in all this is putting himself in the place of God. Man begins with himself and goes no further than himself. What man does not want to admit, or does not realise, is that whatever knowledge man has of anything comes to us because God has made things known in His Word and in His creation. In other words, whatever God has revealed in Scripture and nature, is the source from which man has his knowledge.
But in more recent times even this has been given a rather nasty twist by some in the wider Christian church. They say because man is limited in his knowledge, because he is a creature that is open to mistakes, it is impossible to be sure about anything about which God has spoken. Yes, God is truth, God is pure, God is sovereign, God is all-knowing and all-powerful, but we are not, they say. Our knowledge is corrupted, it is incomplete. And therefore we don’t really know if our Christian God is the real God.
There may be something of God also in the god of Islam, in the god of Buddhism, in whatever god people believe in. Who is to say if salvation cannot be found in other religions? Because our knowledge is limited, who is to say if homosexual practice is not legitimate? Who is to say if there are situations where extra-marital affairs are okay? So what is happening here is that the truth of the Bible is not only rejected by non-Christians but also by those claiming to be Christian who are saying that since we’re only human we just don’t know if the Bible and the Christian faith have all the answers.
This is, of course, a deliberate twisting of the facts. Yes, we humans are limited and finite. Because of our sinful minds, and that includes Christians, we cannot claim to have full knowledge. But God has spoken clearly in His Word. The Bible may have difficult parts in it, but not all of it is difficult. The Bible is very clear in its teaching that God is the only true God and all other gods are idols and those serving them are idolaters. The Bible is very clear in what it says about sex and marriage, and those who disobey God’s absolute commandments will be judged, unless they repent and believe in Christ for forgiveness.
Because the Bible is very clear on many things, and it is without error, we therefore do have a true knowledge of God and of what He says, not a complete knowledge but still a true knowledge. And the Bible is very clear in its claim that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. Apart from Him all people are lost and they need to hear and believe the gospel in order to be saved.
3. The Bible is authoritative
How can we say with authority what God’s will is about sex and marriage, about salvation, about many other matters? The Bible has that authority. The Bible is from the mouth of God and has no errors. It must, therefore, have authority. At no point may a follower of Christ decide to oppose the Bible and run his or her life based on his or her own set of standards rather than those of the Bible. At no point may we legitimately deny its authority. We have a rule for faith and practice. We have a standard by which to judge our own life and everyone else’s life. We have absolutes to live by. We may say all that – we have to say all that – because the Bible is authoritative.
Hear what Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Mt 5:18). The smallest letter and the least stroke of a pen refer to a letter in the Hebrew alphabet that is very small. What Jesus is saying is that even the smallest letter in God’s Word has authority. It’s like saying that in English the letter i may be small, and a full stop and a comma are smaller still, yet they are still very important. Leaving them out can change the meaning of a sentence.
So Jesus is saying that everything in Scripture remains the norm, and continues to have authority until heaven and earth disappear. That is, until the end of the world. So all that God has revealed in the Bible will come to pass, it will take place, “until everything is accomplished.” Until all what is accomplished? Until all the will of God revealed in Scripture is accomplished. Until all that Scripture predicts or foreshadows is accomplished. Until all that Scripture commands and requires is accomplished.
The Bible, therefore, in all its teachings and in all its details, is meant for all time and has authority for all time; from the creation of the world until the world ends and the new heaven and earth come into being. Because the Bible has that authority, it has to be taught and obeyed. Jesus said, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:19).
It is obvious that Jesus had a high regard for the Scriptures. He knew the Word of God was inspired. He said it was true, and He affirmed its authority. Can the Christian, therefore, have a lower view of Scripture than Jesus did? The answer is an obvious No!
So we hold to the principle of ‘Scripture alone’. It is the rule for faith and conduct. It is the final decider of everything, the last court of appeal. Scripture is the Word of God. It is from the mouth of God, it contains no error, and it has absolute authority. But all that means very little unless we know what it says. We must read it for ourselves, we must pass it on to the next generation, we must preach it and teach it.
And when we do, when we are regularly exposed to it, we will grow to love God’s Word. It gives us knowledge, comfort, direction, strength and encouragement, yes, everything that Psalm 119 says about the Scripture. It is and remains the Word of God.
Amen.