The Bible is admired by many because of its presentation of history, the personalities used by God that provide wonderful narratives, the beauty of its language, and all the other glories of Scripture, but without the work of God as the Spirit illumines the reader’s understanding, one cannot have a saving understanding. The Spirit cannot be stirred up as though the second person of the Trinity is available at man’s beck and call, but instead the Spirit works illumining the understanding of its readers so they can embrace the Gospel and continue to grow in grace. 

The three previous articles in this series addressed the necessity, content, and character of Scripture as set forth in chapter 1, paragraphs 1-5, of the Westminster Confession of Faith. Paragraph 6 turns to the subject of the doctrine often called the sufficiency of Scripture, which raises the question in what sense is Scripture sufficient? For an answer it is essential to back up to paragraph 1 of the chapter where it is seen that “the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence … are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God.” This insufficiency must be supplemented with something efficient for the task. That something is the infallible written revelation of God called Scripture. Orthodox Christianity knows that the foundation of God’s communication of his will to man is his condescension to reveal it authoritatively and finally in Scripture.

The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.

The term “whole counsel of God” comes from Acts 20:27 which is within Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders gathered at Miletus just before he set sail for Jerusalem never to return. He said to the elders, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” At the time Paul said these words that were then recorded in Acts by Luke, there were only a dozen or so books written that would become the New Testament canon. Books continued to be written by their inspired authors until well into the first century. however recognition of their canonicity was not achieved until, as the article, “The Content of Scripture,” in this series pointed out, 367 A.D. Christians today sometimes look back to Bible times thinking how wonderful it would have been to live then and hear the prophets, walk with Jesus, and read Paul’s epistles as they circulated among the churches, but it should be understood that the whole counsel of God was not complete until more than three centuries after the New Testament books were written. The generations that lived after the canon was completed had and have the whole counsel of God while the first centuries of the church lived with a lesser canon—it could be said, the completed canon of the Bible is better than being there because the whole counsel of God is his complete revealed will.

While the New Testament books were being written the Old Testament was the Scripture of the church. Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch struggling to understand Isaiah’s prophecies exhibits the importance of the Old Testament for first century Christians. The eunuch’s question in Acts 8:34, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else,” which resulted in Philip expositing the passage by preaching Christ to him and baptizing him. The use of the Old Testament in antiquity should remind Christians today that the gospel was first provided in Genesis through Malachi and the whole counsel of God available then included considerable texts from the Old Testament.

The whole counsel of God is concerned with “all things necessary for his [God’s] own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life.” Scripture includes everything required to know how, as the Shorter Catechism puts it, “to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever” (Q1). Thus, Scripture is sufficient while the light of nature, creation, and providence are insufficient.

B. B. Warfield is well known for his copious collection of writings concerning the doctrine of Scripture. In these writings he occasionally uses the term “sufficiency of Scripture,” but he prefers to use completeness, or occasionally perfection. In his, “The Doctrine of Holy Scripture,” he says,

The second property of Holy Scripture which the Confession adduces is its perfection or completeness (paragraph 6). Here the absolute objective completeness of Scripture for the great and primary purpose for which it is given is affirmed; and the necessity of any supplement to it is denied, with reference especially to the “new revelations” of the sectaries and the “traditions of Rome” (Works, 6:224).

Warfield’s, “the necessity of any supplement to it is denied,” is more comprehensive than the concept of sufficiency—nothing can be added to Scripture, it could be said it is complete. For example, if the tires of an automobile are engineered to take a maximum pressure of forty pounds per square inch and the minimum for safe driving is thirty, then any pressure from thirty pounds to just short of forty would be considered sufficient, but once the pressure gauge indicates forty, the inflation has achieved its perfection or completeness. Warfield’s preference for the term completeness of Scripture shows his concern to deny the possibility of its ever being supplemented.

All things needed to glorify and enjoy God are “either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.” Which things are expressly set down in Scripture? Some examples are the Ten Commandments which are listed in both Ex 20:1–17 and Dt 5:6–21, then in the New Testament the Lord’s Prayer is given as both a prayer to be prayed and a model for praying in Mt 6:9-13. Instructions and qualifications to be considered for selecting elders and deacons are laid out in 1 Tm 3:1-13 and Tt 1:5-9. What is to be believed and used to order one’s life and the work of the church is clearly given in Scripture, but some things must be deduced by good and necessary consequence. For example, returning to Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, good and necessary consequence comes into play, “And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

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