Introduction
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ at DBC,
Good Morning! I hope you have all had a wonderful week and continue to rejoice in our Lord in all circumstances. As we cannot meet together this morning for the regular service, attached is today’s sermon in written form, as well as the Bulletin (beautifully prepared by Judith!).
Today’s sermon topic is very much an important topic: The Clarity of Scripture. While a somewhat longer read than usual, I think it’s worth reading through, and I would love to hear your questions as they arise. I’ll be praying that its content will help all of us to be built up and equipped in these foundational matters. It’s also a great encouragement showing how joining one of our formal church Bible studies can help us grow in the Scriptures; I urge you if you haven’t yet joined one to please talk with me as I would love to further encourage you with this.
May God help us to redeem the time well until we can all meet together again in person, and that in His providence it may be soon!
God Bless,
Pastor Mark
Bulletin
Song
May you be blessed as we look towards Christ, our Lord and Saviour, with all faithfulness and thanksgiving.
The Clarity of Scripture
It is a rare thing for a preacher to preach upon the topic of the Perspicuity or Clarity of Scripture, or the Understandability of Scripture, whichever you may choose to call it. Usually pastors choose to assume some knowledge of this doctrine among their congregations; sometimes they are right, but sometimes they are less right than would be ideal. It is such a fundamental doctrine, so foundational to our life as Evangelicals, as Protestants, even as Christians, that I think it very worth expounding today. Those less widely read in it may benefit from it, while those more well read in it are usually of the kind who will be cheered to hear it again.
This doctrine is of vital interest to all of us – or even lethal interest to us – it is a life or death issue – because all of our fundamental Christian doctrines in the end, depend upon it. We may well believe strongly that Scripture is fully Authoritative for all the Christian life, as inspired by God Himself. But the question then arises, Scripture might be authoritative in all it says, but is it clear enough that we can even be sure of what it means?
This week then let us examine the Clarity of Scripture; that doctrine that affirms that the Scriptures are of such a clear nature that they are able to be well understood by ordinary believers.
Let me also say at the outset that nothing I say today, except by accident, can possibly be novel or original, and that is not at all my aim. It is all derivative from the broad mass of orthodox teaching of the great and the good through centuries and centuries of instruction and repetition. I have nothing to add to Classical Christianity on this topic and am only adding my agreement to what others have long and very reasonably said, and often fought and died for. Don’t be surprised to find exactly what I say today written in umpteen evangelical papers, books and topical pieces on the same subject, repeated by the martyrs, and testified to throughout church history. While I have for many years studied widely on this topic, today I have drawn very heavily on Prof. Wayne Grudem’s work, which has summarised much excellent scholarship on the subject to a recent date, and much of the following material is thanks to him.
So today I will preach 3 points on the Clarity of Scripture:
1. Does Scripture itself teach that Scripture is able to be clearly understood by everyone, both trained and untrained? Is it that clear?
2. Where does that leave my responsibility as a flawed and ignorant and biased human?
3. What role does that leave for God in helping me to understand Scripture?
1. The first question I want to answer is whether Scripture itself teaches that Scripture is able to be clearly understood (not understandable perfectly in every particular and to all possible depth, but understandable enough to be useful for life and godliness) by everyone, trained or untrained? The answer of the Classical Christianity is that Scripture does indeed testify this about its own clarity.
I was reading Grudem recently in the journal Themelios – which I rarely read, but is sometimes helpful – and was struck with how I – and probably you too – could so easily identify with what he says about how he first imbibed the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture. Grudem imbibed it by experiencing it. From his early days as an 8 year old child, he found that he could read the King James Bible and even if not understanding everything, could understand much of it reasonably well. Later as a 12 year old, he could be baptised while trusting in Jesus for salvation. He could cite Romans 3:23 – that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – and find that he could understand that, and that he himself was a sinner. He could read Romans 5:8 – that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us -and understand the saving relationship of God and Christ towards us to pay for our sin.
Throughout this period, without any knowledge of postmodernist critiques of literary analysis, without vast reading through the mountainous volumes of Biblical commentary, without a full understanding of historical, archealogical and cultural contexts, without fluency in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and French and German, Grudem assumed that these passages bore an inherent meaning, and that he could understand even as a child and with reasonable certainty much of what that essential meaning was.
Now I want to affirm today that the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture includes “…that Scripture affirms that it is able to be understood (not that it is always rightly understood, for we are fallible) but able to be understood, by humanity generally, and by God’s people in particular.
Scripture affirms that it is able to be widely understood:
Now it is apparent on inspection that Scripture itself does offer many evidences that it is clear enough in its essential meanings to be able to be understood to a reasonable level by humanity generally, and by God’s people in particular. We may not immediately see or comprehend everything that a passage or section, or indeed all of the Scriptures say on a given topic, but the Scriptures are clear enough that we can know the general sense of what it says to us and how to apply it.
Old Testament
The Old Testament explicitly aims the words of the Scriptures to the broad mass of Israel as it’s readership to learn, take to heart, comprehend sufficiently to enact and teach, and even instruct to children.
· Deuteronomy 6:6: “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
The Scriptures are shown as certainly within reach of universal comprehension and application:
· Deuteronomy 30:11-13: “For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.”
In fact, the OT scriptures are precisely designed to assist all hearers to grow in their ability to take in yet more revelation from the Scriptures. It is a constant spiral of upskilling:
· Ps 19:7: “The Law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
· Psalm 119:130: “The unfolding of Your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.
· Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
New Testament
We see this Lamp theme of Scripture picked up by Peter for the NT church too in 2 Peter 1:19:
“So we have the prophetic word more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in the dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts..”
In fact, we always see this emphasis in the teaching of Jesus and of the Apostles. At every point they use Scripture with the clear assumption that it is readily understandable by both trained scholars and untrained common people alike, even Old Testament texts removed from the hearers by centuries of time and culture. Wherever there is confusion or incomprehension, the implication of Jesus and the Apostles is not that the Scriptures are unclear, but that fault of confusion or failure to accept what is written, lies only in the hearers or readers.
Jesus time and again replies to questions with “it is written” implying that what is written is familiar and well understandable by his Hearers. Oftentimes His replies indicate a rebuke that people have not clearly read, understood and taken to heart what was clearly indicated by Scripture in replies like:
Matthew 12:3,5 “Have you not read what David did?” or “Have you not read in the Law..?” Have you not read… (Matthew 19:4), “Have you not read in the Scriptures…?” (Matthew 21:42), “Have you not read what was said to you by God …? (Matt 22:31). “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt 22:29). Even those on the road to Emmaus to whom Jesus opened the Scriptures are implied to have a fault of slowness to believe, rather than any fault in the clarity of Scripture: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”. Conversely, every time Jesus or the Apostles quote the OT in the New (approximately 300 times) the implication is that the quotations will be understood in context even by those removed from them by centuries of time and cultural difference.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:13 that his writing to the Church at Corinth is able to be read and understood by them, in fact fully so.
Again, most of the New Testament epistles are written to whole congregations to be read out, implying that there will be mass hearing and understanding of the content for application. No writer today writes to any audience without expecting to be generally understood, and the New Testament writers were no exception. Far less should they be misunderstood if guided by the Spirit of God in them! There are many NT passages that commend the public reading and instruction of the church from Scripture, demonstrating that God expects his church to be able to consider, understand and benefit from collective study of the Scriptures.
2. What then of Our Responsibility when it comes to interpreting the Scriptures?
You will have noticed that I mentioned before that the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture states that all of Scripture is able to be understood.
That is not to deny that sometimes we will misunderstand parts of Scripture, or that we may not fully understand parts, or that we may indeed understand and yet sideline, ignore or struggle against the evident meaning of the Scriptures. Christ himself taught the parable of the soils amongst which the Word was snatched away before taking root, that was crowded out by idolatry, or that took deep root, was understood and obeyed, and brought about a great spiritual crop. There is always the danger that our hearts may seek to ignore, or intentionally misinterpret or sideline those parts of Scripture for which we have least affection; as James says to be “hearers of the Word only”, but not “Doers”, “and so deceive yourselves.” Jesus warns his opponents “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my Word.” (John 8:43) Paul criticises the Corinthians that they cannot imbibe from the Word “solid food” because of their immaturity of jealousy and strife (1 Cor 3:1-3).
The doctrine of Scripture’s clarity does however affirm the good news that the true meaning of Scripture is there to be found, often over time and with persistence, if we will only take the trouble, carefully and honestly.
For taking the trouble is indeed the first injunction of Scripture itself in order to discern the clear teachings of Scripture. Believers are called to meditate day and night in God’s Word – meditate means to turn over in one’s mind, consider, analyse – in Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 119 in order to become steeped in it, to understand and apply it. The Psalmist in Ps 119 asks God to teach him God’s Word for greater understanding through a process of study. The Bereans are commended for searching the Scriptures in Acts 17, to find out for themselves whether Paul’s message was coherent with the Word already received. Timothy is made competent to teach as a teaching elder through a long process of study of the Word from childhood and then through apprenticeship under Paul; he is to instruct and appoint others who will become competent to instruct others also. Scripturally, there is an ongoing process of maturing in the Word in order to grow in capability to take in yet more of the Word: Hebrews 5:14 specifies that “solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil”. It is very like an infant progressing in their diet. That is the normal and good path of development for Christians in understanding the Scriptures, and can be great joy.
In fact, we know it ourselves from experience. At one time we understood something as simple yet profound as John 3:16: “For God so Loved the World that He gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” As a major theme of Scripture, it is plain for all to see. And yet which among us can say that we appreciate every nuance of the wisdom literature, of Ecclesiastes or of Job, or of the Apocalyptic literature of John? We will grow in our understanding of them only through a lifetime of study, and even that will not come close to exhausting the content. But though we do not yet approximate all understanding, if we continue with persistence, we are not left where we were 10 years ago. God illuminates his clear Word to us only slowly, as he did the twelve, by degrees.
Objection: Is it true then that if study is needed to understand the Word to greater depths, then the Word is not understandable without employing all the tools of academic study?
Some may say that the content of the Scriptures are removed from us by 2000 or more years, and by several civilisations. Our cultural assumptions are radically different to the Scriptural writers. Our translations are often imperfect. The content is often complex. How can we know a right interpretation of contested passages, and then know that we have the right interpretation?
The answer to these questions is that none of them contradict the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture, that states that the Scriptures are intrinsically clear but that some parts are more difficult to comprehend fully than others, and that this takes persistence, care and effort.
Some parts of Scripture are hard to understand, but they are not impossible to understand, when considered with knowledge and care and honesty. As Peter says in 2 Peter 3:15-16:
“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote you according to the wisdom given him, 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.”
By God’s grace, we also have many tools at our disposal to help us to appropriate that clarity to our understanding: Original Languages resources, archaeology, commentaries, all manner of topical and academic works, the findings of history, anthropology and philology, both secular and Christian worldview based. All of these have their place, and may be useful for additional insights. And yet the testimony of Scripture itself is that they are at the end of the day, not necessary to gain a simple and general understanding of the message of the text.
We observe regarding the chronological and cultural gap between the writers and ourselves that the New Testament writers (as also the later Old Testament ones) always assumed that their contemporaries ought to be able to understand the basics of Scripture that had been written sometimes more than 1000 years before them and in radically different cultures. Another way to say this is that God has been quite willing and able to express Himself quite clearly trans-culturally and over time.
As it is written:
Isaiah 55:11:
“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to me void,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
If New Testament believers could understand, likely so can we. Additionally, there is nothing so effective to become familiar with the thought and cultural world of the Scriptural writers, as to spend time in their writings! Scripture’s description of Scripture informing our abilities to interpret Scripture, plays itself out for us.
We have the joy (thanks be to God!) of a wide variety of translations into our own first languages from the Greek and Hebrew. We have God’s provision of some teachers to instruct us in the original languages if we wish, or if we wish not, then we have the ability to compare varied translations in our own language, for helpful indications of where each translation may have been poorly done or where issues of expression may be apparent. We have commentaries and topical books and internet articles and scholarly tomes, which in some instances, may be reliable and helpful to our understanding. We even have our fellow brothers and sisters to instruct, edify, encourage and share with us; Paul instructs apprentices to share with their mentors, with brothers and sisters to build one another up in knowledge and encouragement and even testing “as iron sharpens iron”, with Preachers and Teachers and Evangelists etc to instruct others for their edification.
And yet the basics of Scriptural meaning remain quite clear even without these advanced means. We have seen that Scripture affirms so.
Has not God been gracious to us? How great it is that He instructs us in His Word over time that we might gradually increase in the riches of His knowledge! (Col 1:9-10)
This brings me to my final point:
3. What is God’s role in the Clarity of Scripture?
It is of course important when considering the Clarity of Scripture to realise that when we do so, we are not unbiased agents considering a set of documents in a vacuum. We have an active God who discloses Himself through His Word.
Scripture itself makes it quite clear that just as God has purposed that His Word will not return to Him void without accomplishing the purposes for which He sent it, God’s agency is necessary to help us understand, take to heart and apply his Clear Word. This is because sin, our fallen and fallible nature, and indeed culture may cloud our vision of God’s spiritual communication in His Word. Let me quote some key texts that Grudem has cited for this point:
Psalm 119:18 prays “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderous things out of your law”.
“Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works” (Psalm 119:27)
“Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34)
“Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments” (Psalm 119:73)
And in the New Testament, the testimony to the necessary work of the Holy Spirit for illumination of God’s Word is even clearer:
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:44-45)
“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.” (1 Cor 2:14)
“But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains un-lifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.” (2 Cor 3:14-16)
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God.” (1 Cor 2:12)
That is the role of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the clarity of Scriptures. The Scriptures possess clarity. But just as Christ could open the eyes of those who could not see the significance of what was written, so we cannot see or benefit from their clarity unless the Holy Spirit works in us to understand the Scriptures correctly, to take them to heart and to act on them.
This is why we do well to ask each time that we come to the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit might help us and that God himself might teach us from His Word.
Conclusion
In summary then, the doctrine of the Clarity of the Scriptures is of great use to us. The doctrine undergirds all other doctrines of the faith, by which we may understand God’s revelation, even the gospel. The Scriptures themselves repeatedly affirm the doctrine of the Clarity of Scripture. They are addressed to wide audiences in both the old and new testaments, with the assumption that the material can be understood and applied widely by both trained and untrained adults, even children, and across wide gaps of culture and time. Our experiences in growing in the Scriptures confirm that most Scripture can be understood reasonably well, although growing in our understanding is a lifelong process. Christ and the Apostles treat Scripture as clearly understandable and place any blame on failures to understand not on the clarity of Scripture, but on humans who fail to carefully and diligently and honestly search those Scriptures. Our role then is to search the Scriptures diligently, carefully, honestly, persistently, as the Scriptures themselves commend. By doing so we increase over time our capacity to comprehend the Scriptures further. Academic tools are sometimes helpful for learning more detail of the Scriptures, but do not diminish the basic and inherent clarity of Scripture. Lastly, since we need God’s help to understand the Scriptures and take them to heart, we would do well to explicitly ask for the Holy Spirit’s help in dividing them rightly.
To God be the Glory
Amen