Systematic Navigation: Sufficiency
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” James 1:22-25 (ESV)
In his book, “Systematic Theology”, Wayne Grudem defines the sufficiency of Scripture as follows: The sufficiency of Scripture means that Scripture contained all the woods of God He intended His people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and that it now contains all the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting Him perfectly, and for obeying Him perfectly. This means that those who were alive prior to the birth of Jesus had access to all the words of God that they had needed to live their lives, so all those seemingly annoying little laws had just as much punch as the “Thou Shall Not’s.” No matter what the era was, the Word of God was in the motion of equipping us for every good work. Once we come to salvation we can begin the work on becoming blameless and that will come from being equipped for every good work that is found in Scripture.
The one thing to realize here is that we will never be able to become totally blameless. But that shouldn’t deter us from keeping our focus in on what God’s Word has to say to us on any issue either moral or doctrinal. Because within the sufficiency of Scripture we can receive the confidence that we will be able to find out what God would have us think or do in any given area of our lives. We can spend our time reading what other theologians or commentators have written on those matters, either moral or doctrinal, but it may not give us a true north to go on. What we might be able to glean from them is how God’s Word influenced them during their points in history and see if it can reflect on the present. But invariably we should conclude that it is more of a quest to understand what God, Himself, has to say to us and not so much what man may have already thought He said.
When, for in those moments where we think we can get by on the “What He had already said to that for that time” we need to think again. Look at how long it took to write the amount of Scripture that we have today. At each stage of redemptive history we got another morsel to sink our teeth into. As our Tuesday night Bible study had plainly agreed on, He is unchanged in what He says throughout the whole Text…just like a straight line. I, myself, see this as a “Deuteronomical” straight line that gets reinforced by Jesus as He gave His “ Sermon on the Mount”, and then in application as we work our way through the Gospels up to the Revelation of John. Where, by the time you get to this book, you pray that you have been able to apply God’s Word with all your heart, soul and strength.
Before the death of Moses, God had him pen the first five books of the Bible. Those five books were sufficient enough for God’s people at that time. But as time went on we need to understand that when God wanted more of His word reveal He decided the who, what and where of his Word. For example, in Deuteronomy he had Moses pen this, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deut 29:29 ESV) It is from this point where the need of salvation springboards into the rest of the Biblical writings that only God could inspire. No words of man could ever measure up or beyond God’s own reason for telling us that we need His redemption and reconciliation.
Paul had asked that the thorn in his flesh be removed and was told by God, “My grace is sufficient”. It would also be reasonable to believe that if we are navigating life Biblically that the words found in His instruction manual are just as sufficient. All of those self-help guru’s out there in T.V. land are in a constant state of reinvention. God’s Word is in a constant state of regeneration. Where in the rules of man’s reinvention change because of his dissatisfaction, the rules of God’s regeneration remain constant to His satisfaction. And it is in that where we are confident that we are getting a true north. -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular contributor to Freedom Fighter
Compass Pointers: “God can teach more than even the most experienced Christians know. He can teach you better than all the books that the world has ever seen. But be careful about your motives in this eager chase after knowledge. You are aware, aren’t you, that all we need is to be poor in spirit, and to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.” “Let Go” Fenelon
Anchored to the Rock: We need more Christians for what prayer is the FIRST resort, not the last. John Blanchard
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