Do you believe in the perspicuity of Scripture? I’m guessing you do, though you might not know it. Every time you open your Bible, you’re professing belief in Scripture’s perspicuity. In modern language, perspicuity means clarity, a familiar term that is far more useful in our discussion. The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture affirms that the truths of God’s Word can easily be understood by all who read it in faith. So, you exercise belief in the perspicuity of Scripture every time you read the Bible, since you read with the expectation that Scripture may be rightly understood.
While the understanding that Scripture is clear may seem like an obvious truth, it’s one we quickly miss when it’s gone. Clarity means we can know what the Bible says; we aren’t just guessing. It also means that we are free to study God’s Word for ourselves rather than being dependent on the spiritual or intellectual elite for a proper understanding. It changes our discussions over truth, since only a clear Word can be understood and applied. But more on that later.
Clarity Defined
Belief in the clarity of Scripture means affirming that “the Bible is written in such a way that all things necessary for our salvation and for our Christian life and growth are very clearly set forth in Scripture…[so] that its teachings are able to be understood by all who will read it seeking God’s help and being willing to follow it.”[1] You may immediately notice several things in this careful definition:
- Clarity does not mean that every passage of Scripture is equally clear. Many passages remain unclear even after extended study, yet all things necessary for “life and godliness” are clear.
- Both the way of salvation and the particulars of Christian obedience are easily discerned from the Bible.
- The Bible can be understood by anyone who reads it, regardless of his age, gender, education, ethnicity, or social status.
- The Bible cannot be rightly understood without God’s help.
- The Bible cannot be rightly understood if we are unwilling to believe and obey it.
First, clarity does not mean that every passage of Scripture is equally clear. In fact, Peter, in his second epistle, says Paul writes things that are hard to understand, a fact I’m sure most of us have experienced. Not everything in the Pauline epistles (or many other portions of both Testaments, for that matter) are plain to us. Does that mean Scripture isn’t clear?
Not necessarily. Peter doesn’t say those sections cannot be understood, only that they’re difficult to understand. Many 0f those difficult texts can be understood through careful study and with the Spirit’s help. Even then, some Scriptures cannot be fully apprehended. Does that negate Scripture’s clarity? No. Everything we must know can still easily be known, despite certain unclear sections. The Bible on the whole is still clear.
What, then, can be clearly understood? All things necessary for life and godliness. The gospel. The Bible is clear about our problem: sin. It is clear about our attempts to save ourselves: fruitless. It is clear about the One who would come to save us from sin: Jesus Christ. It is clear about what we must do to receive salvation: believe in Him.
It is also clear about the call of the gospel on our lives. We are to bear fruits worthy of repentance, to walk worthy of the gospel, to live for God’s glory. We are to obey Christ’s commands, commands which can be known by the study of the same clear Word. We can know how Christians ought to live. In sum, we can know the way of salvation and the particulars of Christian obedience. The how of salvation and the what of Christian service are both easily discerned in the text of Scripture.
Third, understanding the Bible is not just for some elites; the Bible can be understood by all people. As said earlier, there are some passages that are difficult to understand, and many of us will never comprehend them. Yet, as Proverbs 2 says, if we apply ourselves to wisdom and understanding, we can expect to “understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.” Similarly, James 1 says that those who desire wisdom, yet lack it, need only ask God. He “gives to all liberally and without reproach.” And where does that wisdom come from? The Word of God. Every believer who desires to know God—and know His Word—can do so if they ask in faith and apply themselves to understanding.
And that leads us into the fourth point. The Bible cannot be rightly understood without God’s help. 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Without spiritual discernment, no one can understand the things of the Spirit. What are those things? How does God speak? Through His written Word. Who can receive the truth from the Word? Only the spiritual man.
This begs the question, who is the spiritual man? For starters, we know that those who have not accepted Christ are dead in their sins. They have no spiritual life and cannot understand the truth about God. In fact, not only can they not understand the truth, but they don’t even want to. The things of the Spirit are foolishness to the natural man. He does not want the Word. The unregenerate man has no desire to read the Word, understand it, receive it, and apply it. His spiritual state is corrupt, lifeless. The first requirement for rightly understanding the Word is spiritual regeneration, being made alive through Christ. Without that, Scripture will never be clear to us.
We also need the Spirit’s enablement to rightly understand the Bible. We need His illumination. Spiritual discernment is not something we can manufacture. Without the Spirit’s help, we will never rightly understand the Word. But as we read in humble faith, He teaches us from the Word and applies those truths to our hearts. With His help, we can understand, receive, and apply the truths of Scripture.
Does all this mean that the words of the Bible are strange gibberish to all unbelievers? Do the words mysteriously transform once we receive Christ and begin to depend on the Spirit? Not necessarily. To answer this, we must first think about what it means to understand something. There are three levels of spiritual understanding: intellectual, personal, and transformational.[2] Intellectual understanding comes when we read Scripture and know what the words mean. We can look at the grammar and syntax and know, fundamentally, what a text means. An unregenerate person can read “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” and understand that the text means there are those who can be saved by calling on the name of the LORD.
Does that change his life? No, not if the understanding is merely intellectual. But, if he studies further and understands that the gospel is not just available to some people but is personally available to him, he has moved into the second level of understanding. He sees that the gospel has bearing on his own life; it applies to him and requires something of him. He understands the words in a general sense and knows that those words apply to him.
But does he now understand everything in that text? Not yet. He may know the gospel in his head, and he may know that it is for him, but has he received it in faith? If not, he has not fully understood the gospel. The third level of understanding—transformational—comes when he accepts the truth of the gospel in his heart. Since the purpose of the text is to lead him to salvation, he only fully understands the text if he receives the truth and is saved. His understanding is complete if he knows the gospel in his head, realizes that it applies to him, and receives it in a life-transforming way.
Knowing this, when we look at 1 Corinthians 2, we see that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, since those things are spiritually discerned. He may comprehend the sense of the text, he may even see them as applicable to his own life, but the natural man does not receive that truth—he does not allow it to affect his life. Only upon accepting the grace of God and having his eyes opened to the truth can he move from seeing those spiritual truths as foolishness to seeing them as the glorious revelation of God. And that full spiritual understanding is a gift of the Spirit. By God’s grace, we are given the ability to not only understand Scripture, but receive it, believe it, and be saved.
So we conclude that properly understanding of Scripture requires God’s help. Scripture is only rightly understood when we accept it transformationally, and the full understanding that leads to transformation only comes through the Spirit’s work in our minds and hearts.
Finally, the Bible can only be rightly understood if we are willing to believe and obey it. Scripture will not be clear to us if we approach it unwilling to submit ourselves to it. If we are more focused on explaining away a text than on understanding it, we cannot expect to see the truth. Instead, we must come to the Bible willing to adjust our beliefs and our actions based on what it says. Scripture is only clear to the humble heart.
On the flip side, we know that, if we do come in humble faith, in dependence on the Spirit, we can expect to know what God is saying in His Word. The Bible can be easily understood by all born-again believers who read it with the Spirit’s help and with a willingness to receive what is read. “Ordinary people using ordinary means can accurately understand enough of what must be known, believed, and observed for them to be faithful Christians.”[3] God has spoken, and His spoken Word is clear.
[1] Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 108.
[2] These levels are lightly constructed from John S. Feinberg, Light in a Dark Place; The Doctrine of Scripture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 624.
[3] Kevin DeYoung, Taking God at His Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 59.