The Utility of the Bible (WCF 1.7-10)

Teaching Note

The bible doesn’t work mechanically or magically. Just having a copy doesn’t save you, they are words that must be read, preached, prayed through and understood; but the beauty of the Word is that it CAN be understood. Everything necessary for salvation can be understood through diligent use of ordinary means by reading and hearing the Word read and preached in your own language. The Word has given and preserved His Word in a way that is useful and usable for His people.

Scripture Verse

2 Timothy 3:16–17

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,”

WCF Text

Westminster Confession of Faith 1.7-10 7. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

8. The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which, at the time of the writing of it, was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and, by his singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as, in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal unto them. But, because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God, who have right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded, in the fear of God, to read and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come, that, the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner; and, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, may have hope.

9. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.

10. The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.

Teaching Content

• Perspicuity of Scripture: What we need to know, can be known, by everyone who needs to know it. Though it is impossible to understand the scriptures without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, with His help even the least and lowest can understand the promises of God through sitting under good preaching, reading with “with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer” (WLC 157).
• Sufficiency of Scripture: This does not mean that everyone will understand every part of the Word, but that all of those things necessary for salvation, life, godliness can be understood.
• Inspiration: The scriptures are the Word of God, but He chose to cause them to be written through the work and personalities of men He chose for the role. Those men spoke and wrote in Hebrew in the old covenant and Greek in the new.^[1]
• Preservation and Transmission: God caused the manuscripts of each of the 66 books of the Scriptures to be preserved, copied, and passed down without error. Even in those manuscripts that do contain errors, we know they are errors because we have 15 other manuscripts that do not have that error. God gave to His church sufficient documentation to know for certain what the original scriptures in the original languages says.
• Translation: The Lord came to seek and to save the lost. It was never His intention to keep the Word of salvation behind locked doors, accessible only to scholars, but rather to see it in the hands and written on the hearts of young and old, rich and poor from every tongue tribe and nation. As such we can and should translate the scriptures into the languages that people actually know and speak so that they can hear the gospel and follow Christ.
• Inerrancy: When we say the scriptures are without error, we mean specifically that in the original document in the original language they are without error. So the greek manuscript of Revelation is without error, while the ESV, NIV, NASB translations of Revelation are good, helpful, trustworthy they are not completely without error.
• Rule of Faith: The Word of God is a cohesive whole. All parts agree with each other because all come forth from the mouth of God. So if Paul tells us that we are not justified by works of the law but James tells us that faith without works is dead, it is incumbent upon us to seek to understand in the context of both truths.
• Sola Scriptura: We have not been left to fend for ourselves with only ourselves and the bible. God has graciously given us the record of church history and continued shepherding under the elders of the church, but all of their actions and decisions are right or wrong only on the basis of the Word of God. It is ultimately the Word that is the authority in the church and it is that authority that we must appeal to in times of controversy and strife.

Discussion Questions

• The Confession says that not everything in Scripture is equally plain, but the things necessary for salvation are clear. Why is that distinction important?
• What does “in a due use of the ordinary means” imply about how we should read the Bible?
• Why is it wrong to say, “The Bible is clear, so I don’t need teachers, preaching, creeds, or commentaries”?
• Why can we trust our English Bibles while still saying the Hebrew and Greek originals are the final standard?
• What would happen to the church if Scripture were kept only in languages ordinary people could not understand?
• What should we do when one passage of Scripture seems to conflict with another?
• Why must Scripture interpret Scripture rather than our feelings, traditions, or favorite teachers interpreting Scripture?
• What is the difference between honoring church history and making church history our final authority?

References