As Christians, we are to trust the Word, because behind it is the character of a holy, just, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. The Word of God will never change, but the hearts of men change as they respond rightly it.
The sufficiency of Scripture is a crucial tenet of the Christian faith. By Scripture, we mean the sixty-six canonical books that constitute the whole Word of God—both the Old and New Testaments. By sufficiency, we mean that the Scriptures are all the Christian needs in order to be equiped for a life of faith and service to God. The sufficiency of Scripture also helps readers understand how it has always been the Lord’s intention to reconcile humanity to Himself through the Lord Jesus. No other writings are necessary for the Good News of the Gospel to be understood other than the Scriptures, nor are any other writings required to equip God’s people for the life of faith.
The Importance of the Sufficiency of Scripture
The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy,
“…and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 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” (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
Paul here uses a word that means “God-breathed,” which means Scriptures are not man-breathed (spoken merely by man). With that said, the Scriptures are penned by men, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). No man-made writing is sufficient to equip for every good work; only the Scriptures can do this particular and special work, because only the Holy Spirit equips man to do it. Since the Scriptures are sufficient to equip God’s people thoroughly, nothing else is needed beyond the Word of God.
Paul, in Colossians 2, deals with the dangers local churches face when the sufficiency of the Bible is challenged and merged with non-biblical writings, which are full of false doctrine. In chapter 2, verse 8, Paul warned the church in Colossae, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
Jude is much stronger when he states, “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
