The Bible teaches us that which we need to know in order to have relationship with God. Though Scripture is not necessary for us to be condemned as sinners, it is necessary for us to be saved. Without divine revelation, we can’t know the extent of our sinful condition. Without revelation, we can’t know gospel grace. Without revelation, we have nothing in which to believe. God teaches us about the gospel through His word; that knowledge is a prerequisite to saving faith.
Just as Scripture is necessary for us to come to God for salvation, it is necessary to live a life that pleases God. Though this may seem rather simplistic, we can’t please God if we don’t know what He wants. We who have been transformed by God’s saving grace are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). But what does God want, anyway? What are good works?
We would be a bit stymied if God asked us to do good works but never bothered to tell us what constitutes good in His sight. Thankfully, God does not leave us wondering. He reveals His will in Scripture. What He wants from His people is plainly told to us on the pages of Holy Scripture. And, we remember, that revelation is sufficient. God has not just told us some of what He wants. If we live according to God’s word, we can be “complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17).
What does God want from His people? Jesus gives us a primary principle in the Upper Room discourse in John 14 when He says, “If you love Me, keep my commandments…If anyone loves me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:15, 23). How do we show God that we love Him? We do what He asks us to do. How do we live as Christians under the Lordship of Christ? We keep His commandments.
So we’ve already discovered one thing: relationship with God is reciprocal. God expects something of those who claim His name. If we love Him, we will display that in our lives. Love for Him instigates changed living. But there’s a second, corollary truth here. That is, God does not just expect a general change, a holy optimism, a good-will, a positive attitude toward Him. No, Jesus here speaks of commandments, specific things He asks us to do. These are given to the church in the New Testament.
In this section of John we learn something necessary for faithful Christianity—Jesus expects that those who love Him will obey Him. But He does not leave us without clear direction regarding what obedience to Him consists of. He rather makes His will plain to us. Christ, the head of the church, rules through the Scriptures, given by the Holy Spirit through the apostles. As Christ promised in John 16, the Spirit came and guided the apostles into all truth. He did not speak on His own authority, but spoke what He received from the Father and the Son. So it is right to see the apostolic writings as originating, not in the apostles, but in God Himself. Thus conformity to the apostolic commands, as preserved for us in the New Testament, is obedience to Christ. To live for Christ is to obey all of His commands to the church as given through Scripture—red letter or not.
God reveals His will primarily through Scripture; without that revelation, we cannot live as God intends us to. This principle as taught in the New Testament echoes Old Testament doctrine. In Deuteronomy 4:6 Moses speaks of the law as the “wisdom” and “understanding” of Israel. That is, without the Law they were foolish and ignorant. Through God’s revelation, they now know what God wants from them. God’s revelation is necessary for them to know His will so they may please Him. As for them, so for us. Scripture is necessary for us to move from knowing that God expects something of us to knowing what God expects of us. It’s the proverbial meat on the bones. Again, God’s will for us is not ethereal. It’s not a fuzzy something that we discover through a spiritual experience. Rather, we know what God wants because He has told it to us in black and white on the pages of Scripture.
In Psalm 119, David exalts in the law of God. Why? Because through it, God has led him in righteousness. In verses 97-104 David says that, as a direct result of his study of God’s law, he is: (1) wiser than his enemies, (2) wiser than his teachers, (3) wiser than the ancients, (4) kept from every evil way, (5) taught righteousness by God Himself, and (6) led to love the truth and hate falsehood. David found the high road—God’s will for Him—by studying God’s law.
Jesus had the same thing in mind when He prayed for His disciples in what is commonly called the High Priestly Prayer. He asks the Father to keep them safe in the world, safe from Satan and from those who hate them. These men were called out of the world, separated to Christ. That separation includes identity, but also includes the way they live their lives. They are to be sanctified. We need to notice, then, how Jesus prays for their sanctification. He asks that they be sanctified “by Your truth” (John 17:17). And the very least, then, Christian growth requires knowledge of the truth. It is by the truth that God sanctifies us.
Notice the progression with me. First, Christ’s disciples are separated from the world, separated unto Christ. What separates them? Conformity to the truth. Being conformed into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29) rather than conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2). God’s truth sanctifies. But the follow-up question is: how do we know God’s truth? If we are separated unto Christ by the truth, we need to be concerned about how we learn this truth. Thankfully, Christ answers our query. He says to the Father, “Your word is truth.” God’s word—preserved for us in the Bible—teaches us that truth.
One more passage for us to consider as we conclude this series of articles on Scripture’s necessity. Peter says in his second epistle that the word of God is essential to our spiritual growth. “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” The language might trip us up, but Peter is not speaking just to spiritual babies. He is speaking to all believers, exhorting them to never lose their taste for the Word. Just as a newborn baby is entirely dependent on his mother’s milk for physical sustenance and growth, so the Christian is entirely dependent on Scripture for his spiritual sustenance and growth. Spiritual growth happens as we read, study, memorize, and meditate upon Scripture, ingesting God’s truth.
Scripture is essential to Christian faith. Without God’s word, we have no basis, no hope, no gospel, no salvation. It’s no surprise then that the attacks against Christianity are often aimed at Scripture. It is mocked as unreliable, powerless, limited, merely human, incapable of communicating divine truth, etc. But faithful Christianity cannot exist without it. In God’s gracious providence He has given us divine light. He has told us about this world, what’s right with it and what’s wrong with it. He has told us about our human frailty, our bondage to sin and our inability to redeem ourselves. He has told us about Christ, His love, mercy, kindness, and most of all, His sacrificial substitutionary death. God has manifested His gracious offer of salvation by grace through faith. Through the gospel, we are reconciled to God. Through Scripture, we understand the gospel so that we can be saved. And that is, of course, the principal thing. None of this matters if Scripture existed of mere facts. We value Scripture because, through it, God brings us back to Himself. We get God himself. Scripture is precious because it restores us to God.