Sufficiency of Scripture

Rolland McCune said that “The Bible simply does not tell man everything there is to know about God. In fact, the Bible does not tell man everything his finite mind could know or would like to know about God. Rather, God in His infinite wisdom revealed and recorded in the Bible what it pleased Him to preserve…”[1] However, God did intend for us to be dependent upon Him and more specifically He created in us a need for His instruction. From Adam needing God’s instruction for life, to you and I, God caused His instruction to be passed down from generation to generation in a written format that today is called the Bible and it is the Living Word of God. As we have discussed, we would not be able to be reconciled to our Creator without this written Word of God because we would not understand the acquittal process to cleanse us of open and hidden faults or presumptuous sins (Psalm 19:12) (Psalm 19:13).
It is because of the sufficiency of Scripture that I can confidently stand alongside David and declare, “Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression”. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:13-14).
In Deuteronomy 31:9 God had Moses write down the law and then Moses presented the law to the priests and instructed them to read them aloud to the people that they might learn to fear the Lord by learning and putting into practice the things in God’s law. Later on in Deuteronomy 32:46-47 Moses says to them:
"he said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. 47“For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”"
From this passage we notice a couple of things. God’s instruction has often been in written format. His instructions were intended to be taught, learned and immediately applied to one’s life so that it will be well with you. According to the Old Testament, the written Word of God (the law) is intended to be sufficient to show you how to live well with both your neighbor and with your Creator.
The New Testament also makes a similar claim. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness”. A closer study of this word “inspired” reveals that it is defined as “divinely breathed given by inspiration of God”[2] What we are reading here in this New Testament passage is a clear claim that the Bible is indeed the very words that God intended for us to have and that learning and applying the Word of God is beneficial to every aspect of life as we pursue to become more like Christ by the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit.
[1]McCune, Rolland (2009). A Systematic Theology of Biblical Christianity, (93). Allen Park, MI: Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary
[2]Strong, J. (1997, c1996). The new Strong's dictionary of Hebrew and Greek words (H8674). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.