“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes… Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:7-11
The nineteenth Psalm is beautifully structured. The first half looks outward and upward: the heavens declare knowledge, and creation pours forth speech day after day. You can stand under the stars, or on a beach, or in the mountains (but not in Florida) and come away with the knowledge that God is real and glorious and is to be worshiped. Creation does proclaim truth about God. It leaves men without excusable. But Psalm 19 also teaches something humbling: the heavens can and do declare knowledge, but they cannot convert the soul.
That’s why the Psalm turns. David moves from the firmament to the Scriptures, from the glory of God in the sky to the glory of God in the Word. And when he arrives at Scripture, he sings in a different key. Now we’re talking about what is “perfect,” “sure,” “right,” “pure,” “enlightening,” and “clean.” Now we’re talking about warning, reward, wisdom, and salvation. Nature can tell you there is a God, that he is powerful and worthy to be praised. But Scripture tells you who God is, what he has done, what he requires, and how sinners can be made right with him.
If you are going to know the will of God and know what it means to be saved and know what it means to be a Christian, you have to be in the Scriptures in order for that to happen. This realization is central to what it means to be Reformed Presbyterians. Our first membership vow asks:
“Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, the only infallible rule for faith and life?”
Our vows could start with the Trinity, or with God’s attributes, or with the person of Christ. But how do we know any of those truths? We know them because God has spoken in the Scriptures. So we begin there: the Word of God as the sure foundation for faith and life; belief and practice.
If someone walks into a Reformed Presbyterian church, I hope they walk out thinking: these people are obsessed with the Word of God. The Word of God is everywhere central in our belief and practice: in the reading, in the preaching, in the prayers, in our Psalm singing, in our conversation, and in the way we make decisions. The Bible is the center of our life as Reformed Presbyterians.
How important is the Word of God to Reformed Presbyterians? Let me share ten truths that shape our knowledge of the Word of God and therefore ought to shape your life.
The Bible is Necessary
We live in a world that loves spirituality, and sometimes that spirituality often what is meant is that the spiritual person is connected to nature. People say things like, “I go out in the mountains and I meet with God there.” Creation truly does display God’s power and wisdom (Romans 1:20). But creation does not tell you the gospel. It cannot teach you about a Triune God. It cannot tell you how God requires you to worship.
The Westminster Confession puts it plainly: the light of nature and the work of creation “do far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God… yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation.” Or, as Psalm 19 implies: the heavens declare knowledge, but they don’t convert the soul. So if you’re asking, “Why should I read the Bible? Why should I care what the Bible says? Why should I open it with my family? Why should I listen carefully when it’s read and preached?” Here is the first answer: because Scripture is necessary for saving knowledge. God has chosen to reveal Christ, salvation, and his will for the church through this Word. Only in the Word do we receive necessary truths related to faith and life.
The Bible is Complete
God has given his church a canon. The word canon means, a standard or a rule. Essentially a measuring rod. A canon is like a ruler or tape measure. The books of the Old and New Testaments are that measuring line for the church. And when we say the Bible is complete, we’re saying something important: God has given us a finished, sufficient collection of inspired books.
We have thirty-nine Old Testament books and twenty-seven New Testament books that make up the canon. The genres of these books is as diverse as its authors: law, history, poetry, prophetic writings, wisdom literature, biography (gospels), letters, and apocalyptic writing. These sixty-six books were written over a fifteen hundred year period by about forty different authors from different parts of the world (including present day Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Greece, and Italy).
The canon is something that the church recognized, it is not something that the church did. The church did not invent Scripture. The church received Scripture. God gave his Word, and the people of God recognized it as the Word of God. William Whitaker in his famous Disputation on Holy Scripture (1588) said, “We do not make the authority of the Scriptures to depend upon the judgment of the church; but we say that the church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles. Therefore the authority of Scripture is greater than that of the church.” He goes on to say, “The canonical books of Scripture are those which were written by prophets and apostles, or approved by them; which have in all ages been received by the church; and which contain nothing inconsistent with the rule of faith.”
That matters because our confidence doesn’t rest in ecclesiastical committees, synods, or councils. Our confidence rests in God’s voice and he speaks in the Word.
The Bible Does Not Have Other Books
The Westminster Confession says: “The books commonly called Apocrypha… are no part of the canon of Scripture… nor to be in any wise approved, or made use of, other than human writings.”That’s a careful statement. It doesn’t say you can never read the Apocrypha. It says they are not God-breathed Scripture. They have no authority to bind one’s doctrine or conscience. They may be of historical interest such as if you want to know why Jews celebrate Hanukkah, for example. But they are not the Word of God.
And it’s worth stating plainly: the Apocrypha is not a set of books Protestants stole or hid from anyone. Historically, those books were often printed in Bibles as inter-testamental history. The dispute is not whether they existed, but whether they are inspired and authoritative. We say: Scripture is Scripture, and human writings are human writings. William Whitaker said, “The papists contend that these books are canonical, which we deny. They cannot prove that they were written by prophets; they were never received by the Jews; Christ and the apostles never cited them as scripture; therefore they are not of divine authority.” Disputation on Holy Scripture, 430. The Roman Catholic Church did not officially call them Scripture until April 8, 1546 at the Fourth Session of the Council of Trent.
Why does this matter in the twenty-first century? We need to be clear about the Apocrypha and other ancient writings because conspiracies thrive on confusion. There really are old texts out there, some Jewish, some Gnostic, some speculative, and their existence is not a threat to Christianity. The church has never been unaware of them. The issue is not that these writings exist, but that they do not carry the same divine marks, apostolic authority, and doctrinal consistency as the canonical Scriptures. The conspiracy storyline that there was a secret library of books that would overturn historic Christianity if only the public could see them is nonsense. But the reality is far less dramatic and far more ordinary, even for the Apocrypha: these texts were known, evaluated, and rejected as non-canonical for good reasons, while the church received the voice of God in the sixty-six books that were already shaping worship, preaching, and doctrine from the beginning of the church. So when someone says, “What about the book of Enoch?” or “What about a lost gospel?” we don’t have to panic. Those are human writings, interesting perhaps, but not God-breathed Scripture, and therefore not the rule for faith and life.
The Bible has Authority
This might be the most countercultural truth on the list. Postmodern people are comfortable with helpful insights from the Scripture as long as it is under the category of suggestion rather than command. People get nervous around authority, especially authority that claims the right to command and direct lives and thoughts. But the Bible does not present itself as optional advice.
The Westminster Confession says: the authority of Scripture “depends not on the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God, who is truth itself, the author thereof.” That means it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to be under the Scriptures, because God calls you to be under the Scriptures.
That may sound blunt, but it’s actually comforting. It means my life is not ultimately ruled by my mood, ideas, or ever-shifting desires. God has spoken. And if God speaks, it should influence our decisions, our beliefs, our worship, our ethics, our priorities, and our family life. As Paul told the Thessalonians, they received the apostolic message “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God” 1 Thessalonians 2:13. That’s what authority looks like: God’s Word coming with God’s weight.
You can come to church, you can hear the Word read, you can hear preaching, and you can still have that thought: “Well, that might be good for you, but I’m not sure it’s what I want for my life.” The authority of Scripture doesn’t depend on whether you want it or not. The authority of the Bible is not, “Pastor So-and-so says…” or “our church tradition says…” The authority of the Bible is that God speaks. That should shape what you believe, what you love, what you pursue, what you repent of, how you worship, how you raise your kids, how you treat your spouse, how you spend your money, how you handle conflict; everything. His Word comes to us with authority.
The Bible is Self-Authenticating
We could talk about evidences for hours: internal consistency, fulfilled prophecy, the majesty of Scripture’s style, the heavenliness of its doctrine, the way it gives all glory to God, the way it unfolds the only way of salvation. All of that is real and worthy of your time. The Confession itself lists many of those “arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God.”But then it tells you where full assurance comes from: “the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.”
Scripture begins with, “In the beginning, God.” The Scriptures do not begin with an apologetic for God’s existence or an apologetic for God’s right to speak. The opening lines of the Bible are God speaking with authority—and the Spirit confirms this as you believe. Calvin put it this way: “The testimony of the Spirit is more excellent than all reason.”
No about of evidence without the Spirit’s testimony will actually persuade a sinner to bow. Whitaker says it like this: all those topics “may prove that these books are divine,” but they “will never be sufficient… unless the testimony of the Holy Spirit be added.” And then he says the “internal testimony of the Holy Spirit” is “the only argument which can persuade us.” That’s exactly what we’re getting at when we say the Spirit bears witness by and with the Word in our hearts. It’s not mystical-magical. We’re talking about the Spirit of God taking the Word of God and convincing you that God is speaking. You’re not standing over the Scriptures as a judge; you’re sitting under the Scriptures as a hearer, because God himself is sealing the truth of his own voice to your heart.
The Bible is Sufficient
Sufficiency means the Scriptures contain “the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life,” either explicitly or “by good and necessary consequence.”
That phrase “good and necessary consequence” is one of the overlooked strengths of our Reformed theology. It keeps us from requiring a proof text for every single step of reasoning, but it also keeps us from wild speculation. The Bible is enough to tell us what we need for salvation and obedience.
There are circumstantial things in worship that aren’t in the Bible because they’re not the point. Sometimes people bring up electricity, padded pews, a 10:30 start time or other such ideas. Those are circumstances, ordered by prudence and “the general rules of the word.” But the elements God commands: Word, prayer, sacraments, Psalm singing, preaching, etc. those are not negotiable. The Bible is sufficient.
The Bible is sufficient, and I don’t think we appreciate how freeing that is until we’ve lived long enough to see how many extra burdens people try to pile onto Christians. The Confession says nothing is to be added, not new revelations, not human traditions. If you want to know how to live as a Christian, you don’t need the latest spiritual trend or the oldest practices from antiquity. If you want to know what God requires in worship—the Bible is enough. And the sufficiency of Scripture is also what protects your conscience. Nobody gets to come along and say, “God requires this,” when God hasn’t required it. Nobody gets to bind you with “this is our tradition” as if tradition has the weight of “thus saith the Lord.” That’s why Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in Mark 7, they were teaching the commandments of men as doctrine. And it’s why historically Presbyterians understood that their consciences are not to be bound by anything but the Word of God. When it comes to the heart of the Christian life, what you must believe, what you must obey, what the church must do in worship, what the gospel is, who Christ is, how sinners are reconciled to God, what holy days the church has (52 Lord’s Days a year!) the Scriptures are sufficient.
The Bible Has a Clear Message
This is called the perspicuity of Scripture. Perspicuity means “the quality or state of being clear to the understanding : lucidity in expression or development of ideas.” This matters for ordinary Christians who sometimes feel intimidated when approaching the Bible. For example, you start a Bible-in-a-year plan. Genesis is thrilling. Exodus is dramatic. And then you hit Leviticus and the fog rolls in. Parts of the Bible are really, really hard. The Confession is realistic: “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all.” Some passages are hard. Some require careful study. Some take time.
But then comes the encouragement: the things “necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation” are so clearly set forth that “not only the learned, but the unlearned… may attain unto a sufficient understanding.” That’s why children can know the Scriptures “from a child” and become “wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15). That’s why Psalm 119 can say, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet” and “the entrance of thy words giveth light.” Don’t be discouraged. Keep reading. Use the ordinary means. God gives light through his Word.
The central message of Jesus Christ and his salvation is clear in the Word of God.
The Bible is Authentic, Yet Translated
God inspired Scripture in Hebrew in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. Those original languages are “authentical,” and in controversies the church appeals to them as the final authority. That’s why pastors and teachers are trained to handle the text carefully in their original languages.
The autographs (first writings) and the faithfully transcribed manuscripts are the Word of God which he has providentially preserved for the use of the church. God, in his providence, didn’t leave us with one fragile copy buried in the Vatican Library. When you start looking at the manuscript evidence for the New Testament, you see there are over 5,800 catalogued Greek New Testament manuscripts from the ancient world. Most of those are not complete New Testaments, many are single books, a few leaves, or even just a small portion of text.
But God never intended his Word to only be in Hebrew or Greek. The Confession says that because the original tongues are “not known to all the people of God,” the Scriptures “are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come.” I love how practical this is. Scripture is meant to be understood by those who bear his name. Nehemiah 8:8 gives the pattern: they read distinctly, gave the sense, and caused the people to understand. God wants his people to hear his Word in their native tongues, but also has preserved his Word in the authentic Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.
The Bible Interprets the Bible
This is one of the simplest and safest rules for Bible reading: when you’re unsure what something means, go to places that speak more clearly. The Confession says it crisply: “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself.”
The Bible interprets the Bible, and I can’t tell you how important that is, because if you miss this, you will either get discouraged in your Bible reading or you will end up believing something weird. Scripture interpreting Scripture means God has not left you at the mercy of a church council, or whoever is loudest online, or whoever can make the most dramatic reel or short about a Bible passage. When you come to a passage and you say, “I don’t know what this means,” you don’t have to be left without help. You go to other places in the Bible that speak more clearly. You let clear Scripture interpret unclear Scripture. You let the plain parts teach you how to handle the hard parts.
This is also what keeps us from building doctrines on one obscure verse. People love to take a difficult passage: some strange line in Genesis, some symbolic image in Revelation, some disputed phrase, and then they build a theology on it, and then they go back and force everything else to fit their system. Start with what is clear. Start with what is repeated. Start with what is principle. Start with what’s taught in multiple places. And then walk into the harder places with that clarity in mind.
The Bible Judges our Belief and Practice
What is your standard for faith and practice? The standard is not my favorite person in the congregation, not the loudest opinion, not the newest trend, not the oldest tradition. The Confession calls Scripture “the supreme judge” by which controversies, councils, ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits are examined.
That’s a needed word for our time.
People will say, “I feel like God wants me to do this.” Test it. Bring it to Scripture.
“This is what or how we’ve always done in this church.” Test it. Bring it to Scripture.
“This is what the experts and scholars say.” Test it. Bring it to Scripture.
When Scripture speaks, we rest there. Because the Holy Spirit speaks in the Word. Jesus prayed it in John 17: “Sanctify them through the truth: thy word is truth.” That’s the center of our sanctification and the judge of all truth. The Word shapes our minds, corrects our desires, regulates our worship, and trains our obedience. Test it. Bring it to the Scriptures.
Conclusion
“Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, the only infallible rule for faith and life?”
It’s a vow that says: God has spoken, therefore I will listen. God has spoken, therefore I will submit. God has spoken, therefore I will trust, even when my instincts and sinful nature push back. As Reformed Presbyterians we want the Word to have that rightful place in our life and worship: not honored in theory, but embraced in practice. The Scriptures are to saturate our worship, shape our prayers, govern our decisions, center our homes, direct our children, challenge our ideas, and comfort us as we rest in Christ.
The Scriptures are what make us wise unto salvation and are the only infallible rule for faith and life.
Written by Dr. Nathan Eshelman