Clear for all: A look at the Clarity of Scripture

Imagine having a guide that makes the most complex ancient texts understandable for everyone. In this episode, we’ll explore what the clarity of scripture means and provide some practical steps to deepen our understanding of God’s word.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast, where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives. I am Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Hi everyone, welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast, where we strive to encourage you to live for Christ faithfully by offering guidance on how to study the Bible, how to understand the Bible better and how to remain faithful to historic Christianity and a contemporary society. In this episode, we're going to talk about the clarity of scripture. It's our ability to understand the message of the Bible. So when I was in high school, I struggled with English literature, especially when it comes when it came to poems. I could never understand what the poet was saying and I always thought to myself like why could the poet not just tell us plainly what they meant? But unlike my struggles in English, the Bible has been written so that we can understand it. So when reading and studying the Bible, I'm sure you come across passages that are easier to understand and then others that are more challenging to understand. And even though we have this variation in understanding, the Bible is written where a person can learn what's needed to be a follower of Christ and to live for one. The Bible is the word of God In terms we can understand. It is God's will for us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Clarity of Scripture is one of the doctrines called Bibliology. As usual, I'm going to define our terms. Wayne Goodham in his definitions in the Doct the clarity of Scripture from systematic theology and introduction to biblical doctrine. His definition is the clarity of Scripture means that the Bible is written in such a way that it is able to be understood. But right understanding requires time, effort and use of ordinary means and willingness to obey and the help of the Holy Spirit. And our understanding will remain imperfect in this lifetime.

Speaker 1: 2:32

During the Reformation the Reformers believed that the general public should be able to understand the Bible. I got a little history from gotquestionsorg. It says the doctrine of the clarity of scripture was a main belief of the reformers. Martin Luther taught against the Roman Catholic claim that the Bible was too obscure and difficult for the common people to understand. The Bible the priests and bishops taught was unclear and the people should not be trusted to interpret or even read it for themselves. On the contrary, the Reformers encouraged lay Christians to study and interpret God's word on their own. The Reformers believed that the Bible proclaimed itself to be inherently clear and that God is able to communicate his message to all men, even the unlettered. The main tenet of the Reformation is that scripture is clear enough for the simplest person to live by. Because of their belief in the clarity of scripture, men like John Wycliffe, john Wycliffe, william Tyndale, martin Luther, thomas Matthews, went to great lengths to translate the Bible into the vernacular.

Speaker 1: 3:54

The Bible is clear about the fact that God wants us to understand his word. We can know the truth. Rc Skrull, truth, rc scroll. So in the definition that are the definition I um quoted from wayne grudem's systematic theology talked about different elements on how to understand the bible more clearly.

Speaker 1: 4:20

So let me just rehash the definition that he had. He says the clarity of scripture means that the Bible is written in such a way that it is able to be understood. But right understanding requires time, effort, the use of ordinary means, a willingness to obey and the help of the Holy Spirit, and our understanding will remain imperfect in this lifetime. So Dr Goodams lists out specific requirements on how the Bible could be understood. And scripture can be understood, but it will require, like he says effort, time. Effort, use of ordinary means the reader's willingness to obey help from the Holy Spirit and will not always understand it rightly or completely. So let's talk about time first.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Understanding the Bible is not going to happen overnight. It's going to take time for us as we study and read it over and over again. It's going to take our lifetime of reading and understanding the Bible. So the only way that the Bible shows us is by meditating on God's word. When we meditate on something we tend to rehearse it over and over again in our minds. We have this illustration in the book of Joshua. It's in Joshua, 1.8, that says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For when you for, then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. So time is essential factor in understanding God's word. And then, along with time, it will take effort to understand God's word. That means you're going to have to put something into it. You're going to have to consciously decide what's what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. In the book of Ezra we read that Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules to Ezra. And that was that's in Ezra 7, 10. So Ezra was a priest and a scribe, so he knew God's law already, but he took time to study it fully.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Next is using ordinary means. Dr Gruner explains this as using ordinary means would entail having a Bible translation in one's own language, listening to teachers of the word, reading, commentary, studying with other believers in a small group Bible study and using tools such as commentaries or Bible handbooks, to name a few. So now, as Christians in America, we have access to many translations of the Bible, so we have the ability to find a translation that we can read and understand. So we don't have an excuse on this one as far as finding ordinary means, all right. Next, we must be willing to obey it. In other words, we have to be willing to apply God's word to our life. So we know studying the Bible is great, but it's no good if you don't put it into action. We must be willing to obey scripture.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Psalms 119 connects a prayer of understanding with a desire to obey what is understood. Psalms 119.34 says Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. When you want to understand something, you tend to spend a lot of time and effort to get to understand it. And it's kind of like when you go to school or you're going for a degree you want to do your best and you put time into studying and trying to understand the material. And that's the same way with the Bible. If you have a heart to know and understand the Bible, you're going to put time in to learn and to know and understand the Bible. If you have a heart to know and understand the Bible, you're going to put time in to learn and to know and understand the Bible. A person's understanding of God's word can only be as deep as their understanding of themselves, jr Packer.

Speaker 1: 8:38

So next on the list for specific requirements on how to study the Bible could be understood from Wayne Goodham is that we don't always understand rightly and we need help from the Holy Spirit. So let's face facts. We're all still sinners and our understanding of the Bible can be distorted at times, of the Bible can be distorted at times. Our understanding could be partial or is partial, because we are finite beings and we're liable to misunderstand something that we read in the Bible and we're not going to always understand it rightly. So that's why it's important for us to not forget to ask for help for the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 9:22

The Holy Spirit is a teacher John 14 26 tells us but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom God will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. So every time you open up your Bible, it's important to ask the Holy Spirit to help you in your understanding of God's word. And then, lastly, we will never completely understand the Bible. So as we continue to read and understand the Bible, we're going to grow in maturity and develop a deeper understanding of God's word and develop a deeper understanding of God's word. But we have to have in the back of our mind that we are finite and trying to understand an infinite God, we're never going to understand him completely and we're not going to understand his word completely. So you know, in God giving us his word, he has revealed to us what he wants us to know and he has given his word to us so that we can understand him better.

Speaker 1: 10:28

I love what dion moody says. He says it's it is a masterpiece of the devil to make us believe that children can't understand religion, when christ have made a child the standard of faith if he had known that it was not capable of understanding his word. So clarity is a property of scripture, not a property of his readers. You know, what god has revealed to us in his written word can be understood, and sometimes we just a lot of times, rather, we need a little help to understand it. Alright. So knowing what we believe about the Bible is important, and knowing that you can understand God's word with just a little help is helpful to know and comforting to know. So I hope you learned about the doctrine of the clarity of scripture and knowing that you can understand the Bible. Until next time, remember God is always good and he's always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you. You.