| “SCRIPTURE FIRST, ALONE AND ALWAYS” 2 Timothy 3:10-4:5; Nehemiah 8:1-18 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 2/1/2009 FIRST IN A SERIES ON REFORMED DOCTRINE |
For the next several weeks we are going to be looking at the essential doctrines of Reformed Christianity, beginning today
with the authority of scripture. But before we get to that I think it would be helpful to give a little history, background and even
a few disclaimers before we launch into the meat of this series. By way of disclaimer, I want to say that the preaching from
this pulpit for the last eleven years and I believe for the 140 years before I came has been thoroughly Reformed. In other
words, the messages that I and others have preached have been shaped by Reformed doctrine—although my particular
preaching style doesn’t usually lend itself to spelling that out in so many words.
Let’s begin by defining what I mean by Reformed Doctrine so that we’re all on the same page. In very simple terms,
doctrine can be defined as a set of beliefs or a body of teachings or "instructions" pertaining to a branch of knowledge or a
belief system. Within the Christian belief system, each individual teaching is sometimes referred to as a “tenet” of the faith.
And depending on your denomination, some of those tenets differ. There are some teachings that all Christians hold to be true,
such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, while there are others that are unique to one tradition or another. For example, Roman
Catholic doctrine teaches that the Communion elements of bread and wine actually become the Body and Blood of Christ as the
believer partakes of them. In contrast, Reformed doctrine teaches that the elements don’t change as we commune, but we
believe that Christ is “really present” in a supernatural, mysterious way as we partake of the bread and wine.
That leads us to my next point, which is to explain how and why Christianity grew from one doctrinal belief system that
served the Church for some fifteen hundred years to such a variety of denominations and doctrinal positions today. It all began
with the Protestant Reformation—a subject that could be a very lengthy sermon series of its own—and so my explanation is
going to be very brief and admittedly oversimplified. One online source 1 summed it up like this:
Underlying the Protestant Reformation lay four basic doctrines in which the reformers believed the Roman Catholic
Church to be in error, leading reformers to ask four questions about existing doctrines: 1) How is a person saved? 2) Where
does religious authority lie? 3) What is the church? and 4) What is the essence of Christian living? In answering these
questions, Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and John Knox established what
would be known as the “Five Solas” of the Reformation (sola being the Latin word for “alone”). These five points of
doctrine were at the heart of the Protestant Reformation, and it was for these five essential Biblical doctrines that the
Protestant Reformers would take their stand against the Roman Catholic Church, resisting the demands placed on them to
recant, even to the point of death. These five essential doctrines of the Protestant Reformation are as follows:
• “Sola Scriptura” (Scripture alone)
• “Sola Gratia” (Salvation by Grace alone)
• “Sola Fide” (Salvation through Faith alone)
• “Solus Christus” (Salvation in Christ alone)
• “Soli Deo Gloria” (For the Glory of God alone)
That’s just a little background on what prompted the Reformation and what came out of it. Those early reformers realized
that in many of its teachings and practices the Roman Church had departed from the clear teachings of Scripture, and so the
declaration of those “Five Solas” were meant to bring the Church back to the Truth contained in Scripture. But unfortunately,
the Roman Church was not ready to change its ways and be reformed, and so the reformers fearlessly protested. They took
their stand on “the plain Word of God,” which was already being translated into English and German. With the invention of the
printing press a few years earlier, the Bible was also becoming more accessible to the masses. Through the reading and study
of Scripture, the reformers and those who followed their teachings explicitly rejected and disavowed what institutional
Christianity had become—a religion of human accommodation. This is why for centuries Reformation Christians were called
Protestants.
One of the very interesting and at the same time frustrating things I discovered as I was trying to put this series together is
that there is very little agreement about which tenets of Reformed doctrine are most important or absolutely essential. Some
Reformed biblical scholars have narrowed it down to 30 different tenets, while others point to the Westminster Confession of
Faith, a systematic exposition of Calvin’s teachings drawn up by the Church of England in 1646. This may explain why our
denomination has yet to come up with a list of essential tenets, even when pressured to do so. But organizations within the
PCUSA like New Wineskins and the Presbytery of San Diego have, and I’ll be using those resources as an outline for this series.
The Presbytery of San Diego has placed the Authority of Scripture, our doctrine for today, at the top of their list. Based
on what I have already said about the reason for the Reformation, I think we can see why a list of the most important doctrines
of our faith might begin with Scripture. Only by adhering to the Scriptures can the Church remain on track and faithful to
God. On the other hand, we might wonder why neither God nor Christ appears first on the list of essential Reformed
doctrines. You would think that the first and most important statement of belief that any Christian would want to make is “I
believe in Jesus Christ.” No Reformed Christian would argue with that, and that’s not a bad place to begin. But it begs the
question, “How do we know about Jesus Christ?” Or for that matter, “How do we know about the existence of God at all?”
The answer to those questions brings us back again to Scripture.
John Calvin, the “Father of Presbyterianism,” teaches us that God reveals Himself to us in two ways, first through what
Calvin calls “General Revelation,” a natural instinct in the human mind that gives us an awareness of divinity. General
Revelation refers to our ability to simply look around us in nature—to look at the majesty of the sun and stars, rivers, trees and
mountains; to observe the way flowers poke their heads out of the ground each spring right on schedule; to notice the intricacy
of an infant’s ear, designed to catch sound waves—to say nothing of the miracle of the formation of that infant in its mother’s
womb and the whole gamut of functions and abilities and potential for growth already contained and pre-programmed in that
precious bundle. These all fall into the category of General Revelation because they prompt us—at least most of us—to
respond by saying something like, “There has to be a God. There has to be a Creator, a being so much greater than the
creation in order to have thought up all these things and to have brought them into being—to have caused them to exist.”
You’ll notice I said “most of us” look around us and come to that conclusion. Why some people don’t is beyond me.
Calvin even says that “the clarity of God’s self-disclosure in his created works” leaves us without excuse. I have always said
that it takes more faith to believe that the world came into being by chance than it does to believe there is a Prime Mover—a
God—who made it all happen. In other words, it seems to me that it takes more faith to be an atheist than a believer! I once
read that even odds-maker Jimmy the Greek calculated that the odds are greater that a tornado ripping through a junkyard could
leave behind in its wake a fully operational Boeing 747 than the odds are that the world came into being by chance! I think we
get the picture and can understand what Calvin means by General Revelation.
The only trouble with General Revelation, however, is that it’s “general.” It tells us that there is a God and that He is
powerful but it doesn’t tell us much more. General Revelation doesn’t tell us God’s plans, his personality and character, his
purposes for us—why we’re here, why we need a Savior, how we can be saved, how we should live and where we’re going
after death. That’s where scripture comes in, and that’s why scripture is often at the top of any list of essentials of Reformed
doctrine. Calvin says that without scripture, which he calls Special Revelation, we are like “bleary-eyed men and those with
weak vision.” 3 But with scripture Calvin says that we have the “spectacles” we need to see distinctly and clearly who God
truly is. Scripture brings the whole picture into focus—or at least as much of the picture as we need—and only Scripture can
reveal to us God’s will, God’s plans and the promises He has laid up for us both here on earth and in heaven.
For most Reformed Christians, Scripture comes first. But as one of the “Solas” of Reformed doctrine we may wonder
what the reformers meant by the phrase, “Scripture Alone.” It certainly doesn’t mean that Reformed Christians reject
everything else that the Roman Church ever taught. But it does affirm that the Bible alone is the sole and highest authority for
all matters of faith and practice. It means that Scripture and Scripture alone is the standard by which all teachings and
doctrines of the church are to be measured. I like the way the Presbytery of San Diego presents it:
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are God’s uniquely revealed and written Word, inspired by the Holy
Spirit, and are the church’s first and final authority in all areas of faith and life including, but not limited to, theological
doctrine, mission, church order, character, and ethical behavior.
The Bible speaks to us with the authority of God himself. We seek to understand, love, follow, obey, surrender
and submit to God’s Word—both Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, and the Scriptures, the written Word of God, which
bear true and faithful witness to Jesus Christ. 4
Or as Martin Luther so eloquently stated when asked to recant his teachings,
"Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they
have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to
go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen." 5
Luther reminds us that the human conscience is to be taken captive by the Word of God. Too often Christians misquote
some of the basic teachings of the Reformation by saying things like “God alone is Lord of the conscience,” while ignoring the
rest of that sentence, which tells us that God has left our conscience free to reject any human doctrines or commandments that
contradict the Word of God. In other words, the conscience is free from obeying human commands that are not aligned with
God’s Word in Scripture. Only when our spirit agrees with God’s Word—inspired by the Holy Spirit—can we be sure that we
are on track with God’s will and expectations.
A similar misinterpretation of Reformed doctrine occurs when someone quotes another catch phrase of the Reformation,
“Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda” which translated means “The Church Reformed, Always Reforming.” It sounds
great, but all too often this is quoted as justification for the Church to change anything and everything—including sound
doctrine—especially when doctrine clashes with the thinking or behavior of the surrounding culture. But once again, that
approach ignores the rest of the original statement which is “The Church Reformed, Always Reforming According to (or Under)
the Word of God.” The Reformers understood that it is we humans who always need reforming, not God’s Word.
Unfortunately, some folks are quick to distort doctrine or Scripture to suit their own purposes, rather than do the hard work
often required to be reformed by it.
Today’s Old Testament lesson, however, gives us a picture of the reforming effect that Scripture is meant to have on us.
We read from the book of Nehemiah the story of the people of Israel who had returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon.
The Temple and its walls were in ruins, and the people had to rebuild it under some very challenging conditions. When they
were finished, all the people assembled outside the Temple and Ezra the priest proceeded to read from the Law of Moses, a
large part of the Hebrew Scriptures of that time. The people listened carefully as Ezra read; the Levites interpreted or explained
what was read, and the result was that the people started weeping uncontrollably. Apparently the Israelites had not had access
to these or perhaps any Scriptures while in exile. This generation, at least, had never heard the Word of God before, and they
were cut to the heart when they realized that they had sinned. They had not lived up to God’s holy standards and expectations,
and they knew that they needed to change—a clear example of being reformed by the Word of God.
The Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, also reminds him of the importance of God’s Word—especially in the last days
when evil people and imposters will try to subvert the Truth and teach only what people like to hear. Paul tells Timothy—and
us—that we have to hold on to sound doctrine, the solid teaching found in Scripture, because Scripture is God-breathed and
useful not only for teaching but also for rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. It is only by returning to scripture
over and over again to carefully study God’s word that such training can take place. This is the “always” part of scripture for
Reformed believers, another ongoing part of our faith that is never completed in this life.
There is so much more than can and should be said about the value and authority of Scripture within the Reformed
tradition; one sermon could never cover all of it. Suffice it to say that we are called to read and study God’s word with
diligence, both privately and corporately, that we might learn from it and be reformed by it as it draws us closer to God and
deepens our understanding of his holy nature and character as well as his expectations for his people. But right now, let us
draw near to the One whom Scripture reveals as the Son of God, the Light who has come into the world to save us from the
very sin that has blinded us and separated us from God. It is that One, clearly revealed with the spectacles of Scripture, who
calls us to this Table now to remember Him. Let us pray.
1. gotquestions.org -- http://www.gotquestions.org/Protestant-Reformation.html
2. Book One, Chapter V, 1.
3. Book One, Chapter VI, 1.
4. Presbytery of San Diego, CPM’s Essential Tenets and Reformed Distinctives, Authority of Scripture.
5. Luther’s response to the council at the Diet of Worms.
with the authority of scripture. But before we get to that I think it would be helpful to give a little history, background and even
a few disclaimers before we launch into the meat of this series. By way of disclaimer, I want to say that the preaching from
this pulpit for the last eleven years and I believe for the 140 years before I came has been thoroughly Reformed. In other
words, the messages that I and others have preached have been shaped by Reformed doctrine—although my particular
preaching style doesn’t usually lend itself to spelling that out in so many words.
Let’s begin by defining what I mean by Reformed Doctrine so that we’re all on the same page. In very simple terms,
doctrine can be defined as a set of beliefs or a body of teachings or "instructions" pertaining to a branch of knowledge or a
belief system. Within the Christian belief system, each individual teaching is sometimes referred to as a “tenet” of the faith.
And depending on your denomination, some of those tenets differ. There are some teachings that all Christians hold to be true,
such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, while there are others that are unique to one tradition or another. For example, Roman
Catholic doctrine teaches that the Communion elements of bread and wine actually become the Body and Blood of Christ as the
believer partakes of them. In contrast, Reformed doctrine teaches that the elements don’t change as we commune, but we
believe that Christ is “really present” in a supernatural, mysterious way as we partake of the bread and wine.
That leads us to my next point, which is to explain how and why Christianity grew from one doctrinal belief system that
served the Church for some fifteen hundred years to such a variety of denominations and doctrinal positions today. It all began
with the Protestant Reformation—a subject that could be a very lengthy sermon series of its own—and so my explanation is
going to be very brief and admittedly oversimplified. One online source 1 summed it up like this:
Underlying the Protestant Reformation lay four basic doctrines in which the reformers believed the Roman Catholic
Church to be in error, leading reformers to ask four questions about existing doctrines: 1) How is a person saved? 2) Where
does religious authority lie? 3) What is the church? and 4) What is the essence of Christian living? In answering these
questions, Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and John Knox established what
would be known as the “Five Solas” of the Reformation (sola being the Latin word for “alone”). These five points of
doctrine were at the heart of the Protestant Reformation, and it was for these five essential Biblical doctrines that the
Protestant Reformers would take their stand against the Roman Catholic Church, resisting the demands placed on them to
recant, even to the point of death. These five essential doctrines of the Protestant Reformation are as follows:
• “Sola Scriptura” (Scripture alone)
• “Sola Gratia” (Salvation by Grace alone)
• “Sola Fide” (Salvation through Faith alone)
• “Solus Christus” (Salvation in Christ alone)
• “Soli Deo Gloria” (For the Glory of God alone)
That’s just a little background on what prompted the Reformation and what came out of it. Those early reformers realized
that in many of its teachings and practices the Roman Church had departed from the clear teachings of Scripture, and so the
declaration of those “Five Solas” were meant to bring the Church back to the Truth contained in Scripture. But unfortunately,
the Roman Church was not ready to change its ways and be reformed, and so the reformers fearlessly protested. They took
their stand on “the plain Word of God,” which was already being translated into English and German. With the invention of the
printing press a few years earlier, the Bible was also becoming more accessible to the masses. Through the reading and study
of Scripture, the reformers and those who followed their teachings explicitly rejected and disavowed what institutional
Christianity had become—a religion of human accommodation. This is why for centuries Reformation Christians were called
Protestants.
One of the very interesting and at the same time frustrating things I discovered as I was trying to put this series together is
that there is very little agreement about which tenets of Reformed doctrine are most important or absolutely essential. Some
Reformed biblical scholars have narrowed it down to 30 different tenets, while others point to the Westminster Confession of
Faith, a systematic exposition of Calvin’s teachings drawn up by the Church of England in 1646. This may explain why our
denomination has yet to come up with a list of essential tenets, even when pressured to do so. But organizations within the
PCUSA like New Wineskins and the Presbytery of San Diego have, and I’ll be using those resources as an outline for this series.
The Presbytery of San Diego has placed the Authority of Scripture, our doctrine for today, at the top of their list. Based
on what I have already said about the reason for the Reformation, I think we can see why a list of the most important doctrines
of our faith might begin with Scripture. Only by adhering to the Scriptures can the Church remain on track and faithful to
God. On the other hand, we might wonder why neither God nor Christ appears first on the list of essential Reformed
doctrines. You would think that the first and most important statement of belief that any Christian would want to make is “I
believe in Jesus Christ.” No Reformed Christian would argue with that, and that’s not a bad place to begin. But it begs the
question, “How do we know about Jesus Christ?” Or for that matter, “How do we know about the existence of God at all?”
The answer to those questions brings us back again to Scripture.
John Calvin, the “Father of Presbyterianism,” teaches us that God reveals Himself to us in two ways, first through what
Calvin calls “General Revelation,” a natural instinct in the human mind that gives us an awareness of divinity. General
Revelation refers to our ability to simply look around us in nature—to look at the majesty of the sun and stars, rivers, trees and
mountains; to observe the way flowers poke their heads out of the ground each spring right on schedule; to notice the intricacy
of an infant’s ear, designed to catch sound waves—to say nothing of the miracle of the formation of that infant in its mother’s
womb and the whole gamut of functions and abilities and potential for growth already contained and pre-programmed in that
precious bundle. These all fall into the category of General Revelation because they prompt us—at least most of us—to
respond by saying something like, “There has to be a God. There has to be a Creator, a being so much greater than the
creation in order to have thought up all these things and to have brought them into being—to have caused them to exist.”
You’ll notice I said “most of us” look around us and come to that conclusion. Why some people don’t is beyond me.
Calvin even says that “the clarity of God’s self-disclosure in his created works” leaves us without excuse. I have always said
that it takes more faith to believe that the world came into being by chance than it does to believe there is a Prime Mover—a
God—who made it all happen. In other words, it seems to me that it takes more faith to be an atheist than a believer! I once
read that even odds-maker Jimmy the Greek calculated that the odds are greater that a tornado ripping through a junkyard could
leave behind in its wake a fully operational Boeing 747 than the odds are that the world came into being by chance! I think we
get the picture and can understand what Calvin means by General Revelation.
The only trouble with General Revelation, however, is that it’s “general.” It tells us that there is a God and that He is
powerful but it doesn’t tell us much more. General Revelation doesn’t tell us God’s plans, his personality and character, his
purposes for us—why we’re here, why we need a Savior, how we can be saved, how we should live and where we’re going
after death. That’s where scripture comes in, and that’s why scripture is often at the top of any list of essentials of Reformed
doctrine. Calvin says that without scripture, which he calls Special Revelation, we are like “bleary-eyed men and those with
weak vision.” 3 But with scripture Calvin says that we have the “spectacles” we need to see distinctly and clearly who God
truly is. Scripture brings the whole picture into focus—or at least as much of the picture as we need—and only Scripture can
reveal to us God’s will, God’s plans and the promises He has laid up for us both here on earth and in heaven.
For most Reformed Christians, Scripture comes first. But as one of the “Solas” of Reformed doctrine we may wonder
what the reformers meant by the phrase, “Scripture Alone.” It certainly doesn’t mean that Reformed Christians reject
everything else that the Roman Church ever taught. But it does affirm that the Bible alone is the sole and highest authority for
all matters of faith and practice. It means that Scripture and Scripture alone is the standard by which all teachings and
doctrines of the church are to be measured. I like the way the Presbytery of San Diego presents it:
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are God’s uniquely revealed and written Word, inspired by the Holy
Spirit, and are the church’s first and final authority in all areas of faith and life including, but not limited to, theological
doctrine, mission, church order, character, and ethical behavior.
The Bible speaks to us with the authority of God himself. We seek to understand, love, follow, obey, surrender
and submit to God’s Word—both Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, and the Scriptures, the written Word of God, which
bear true and faithful witness to Jesus Christ. 4
Or as Martin Luther so eloquently stated when asked to recant his teachings,
"Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they
have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to
go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen." 5
Luther reminds us that the human conscience is to be taken captive by the Word of God. Too often Christians misquote
some of the basic teachings of the Reformation by saying things like “God alone is Lord of the conscience,” while ignoring the
rest of that sentence, which tells us that God has left our conscience free to reject any human doctrines or commandments that
contradict the Word of God. In other words, the conscience is free from obeying human commands that are not aligned with
God’s Word in Scripture. Only when our spirit agrees with God’s Word—inspired by the Holy Spirit—can we be sure that we
are on track with God’s will and expectations.
A similar misinterpretation of Reformed doctrine occurs when someone quotes another catch phrase of the Reformation,
“Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda” which translated means “The Church Reformed, Always Reforming.” It sounds
great, but all too often this is quoted as justification for the Church to change anything and everything—including sound
doctrine—especially when doctrine clashes with the thinking or behavior of the surrounding culture. But once again, that
approach ignores the rest of the original statement which is “The Church Reformed, Always Reforming According to (or Under)
the Word of God.” The Reformers understood that it is we humans who always need reforming, not God’s Word.
Unfortunately, some folks are quick to distort doctrine or Scripture to suit their own purposes, rather than do the hard work
often required to be reformed by it.
Today’s Old Testament lesson, however, gives us a picture of the reforming effect that Scripture is meant to have on us.
We read from the book of Nehemiah the story of the people of Israel who had returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon.
The Temple and its walls were in ruins, and the people had to rebuild it under some very challenging conditions. When they
were finished, all the people assembled outside the Temple and Ezra the priest proceeded to read from the Law of Moses, a
large part of the Hebrew Scriptures of that time. The people listened carefully as Ezra read; the Levites interpreted or explained
what was read, and the result was that the people started weeping uncontrollably. Apparently the Israelites had not had access
to these or perhaps any Scriptures while in exile. This generation, at least, had never heard the Word of God before, and they
were cut to the heart when they realized that they had sinned. They had not lived up to God’s holy standards and expectations,
and they knew that they needed to change—a clear example of being reformed by the Word of God.
The Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, also reminds him of the importance of God’s Word—especially in the last days
when evil people and imposters will try to subvert the Truth and teach only what people like to hear. Paul tells Timothy—and
us—that we have to hold on to sound doctrine, the solid teaching found in Scripture, because Scripture is God-breathed and
useful not only for teaching but also for rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. It is only by returning to scripture
over and over again to carefully study God’s word that such training can take place. This is the “always” part of scripture for
Reformed believers, another ongoing part of our faith that is never completed in this life.
There is so much more than can and should be said about the value and authority of Scripture within the Reformed
tradition; one sermon could never cover all of it. Suffice it to say that we are called to read and study God’s word with
diligence, both privately and corporately, that we might learn from it and be reformed by it as it draws us closer to God and
deepens our understanding of his holy nature and character as well as his expectations for his people. But right now, let us
draw near to the One whom Scripture reveals as the Son of God, the Light who has come into the world to save us from the
very sin that has blinded us and separated us from God. It is that One, clearly revealed with the spectacles of Scripture, who
calls us to this Table now to remember Him. Let us pray.
1. gotquestions.org -- http://www.gotquestions.org/Protestant-Reformation.html
2. Book One, Chapter V, 1.
3. Book One, Chapter VI, 1.
4. Presbytery of San Diego, CPM’s Essential Tenets and Reformed Distinctives, Authority of Scripture.
5. Luther’s response to the council at the Diet of Worms.
