Of the Holy Scripture
March 18, 2025
Where to begin, with God or with Holy Scripture? The assembly of divines that wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith chose to start with the Scripture itself. Sproul points to the rationale that “Christianity is a revealed religion, constructed not on the basis of speculative philosophy but in what God Himself has made manifest.”[i] While Scripture has several themes and stories, its meta-narrative, its all-encompassing theme is the progress of redemption; unfolding from Genesis through Revelation, we can see the redemptive story unfold. And what we can know of God, ourselves, and the potential for knowing God necessitates revealed knowledge; Scripture is a divinely revealed knowledge of God.
But God stacked the deck, creating the universe in such an intricate and beautiful way that it reveals much of God (Rom. 1:18-20). Its glory acts as evidence of a glorious creator; its origin acts as a declaration of an originator. Furthermore, He tucked into the being of man an internal witness, both conscience (Rom 2:14-15) and a longing for transcendence. The Ecclesiastes teacher writes, “He has also set eternity in the human heart” (Eccl. 3:11).
So, creation points to Him, and longings and convictions within prompt man to seek Him. But the internal and external witnesses are not enough. “General revelation is not sufficient to give us the knowledge necessary for salvation; special revelation (Holy Scripture) is sufficient for that purpose.”[ii] Our good and glorious God wants to be redemptively known. Everything around us and in us – rightly understood – draws and woos us, yet to know God like one would know a personal being, then I need the gospel to be revealed. Prophets point to Jesus, apostles reveal Jesus, and Jesus is the perfect revelation of the Father (Col 1:15).
The author behind the human authors of Scripture is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, who doesn’t draw man to Himself but points to and reveals the Son. “Christianity is a revealed religion…” The Holy Scripture, made alive by the Holy Spirit, is revealing God in Christ. We need the Scripture but to an end – the end is revelation (revealing Jesus). Pharisees of old and today can get drawn into Scripture, experiencing knowledge with its mental assent to proper doctrine, but that is not its intended end. Through Spirit-embodied Scripture, we are drawn into Jesus, experiencing both mental assent and tender affections for the one who is gentle and lowly of heart (Matt 11:29).
A point to ponder – As I reflect on the self-revealing nature of God and the necessity of special revelation in the redemptive narrative, and then how Scripture is a means to experience Jesus. I wonder about the Reformed doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. This doctrine asserts that the Holy Scriptures contain all the knowledge necessary for salvation and for living a life that is pleasing to God. The Scriptures are a complete and sufficient guide, providing believers with everything they need to understand God’s will and to be equipped for every good work – of which I wholeheartedly agree. However, by underscoring the belief that the Bible alone is enough to convey the essential truths of the Christian faith, that it instructs believers on how to live, and reveals the path to salvation, we could overemphasize a system of beliefs, which can be a limited knowing, over the more intimate knowing of a living, personal union with Jesus wrought by the Holy Spirit and facilitated by Holy Scripture.
[i] Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith by R.C. Sproul
[ii] Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith by R.C. Sproul
Dave Young 
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