How hard can it be to read and understand personal correspondence?

One volume that has had an enormous amount of influence in this area is one by Merrill C. Tenney, Galatians: Charter of Christian Liberty.

Definition

• Definition

• In this anthology of the different ways one may approach the study of the biblical text, Tenney defined the devotional study of the Bible as “not so much a technique as a spirit; it is the spirit of eagerness which seeks the mind of God; it is the spirit of humility which listens to the voice of God; it is the spirit of adventure which pursues earnestly the will of God; it is the spirit of adoration which rests in the presence of God.”

Definition

• Definition

• The Bible itself urges believers to enter into the regular discipline of approaching the Word of God in order that each person might be daily refreshed by the instruction, encouragement, rebuke, and guidance that is to be found in that Word.

• Perhaps the best-known text encouraging this kind of exposure to the Word of God is the word the Lord gave to Joshua as he took over the reins of leadership: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you might be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Josh. 1:8).

Definition

• Definition

• This text practically defines the devotional approach in its entirety.

• Devotional study must be regular (“day and night”), reflective (“meditate on it”), retentive (“be careful to do everything written in it”), and regulated (“do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth”).

• The Scripture was not intended to be the special province of scholars and professional clergy; it was directed to the people themselves.

• Indeed, one of the central issues in the Reformation itself was the issue of the clarity of the Scriptures and their availability to all readers.

The Clarity of the Scriptures

• The Clarity of the Scriptures

• If all believers are encouraged to use the Bible devotionally, there must be a presumption that the words of Scripture are clear enough that all can understand what they say without needing the counsel of a scholar at their elbow to instruct them.

• Is this a reasonable presumption? Can we ensure such readers that they will not fall into error when they wander off into the full canon of Scripture, reading the text for themselves and according to their own insights and understandings?

• No one was more forceful in taking a stand that the Bible is plain in its meaning, and that it should therefore be accessible to all, than Martin Luther.

The Clarity of the Scriptures

• The Clarity of the Scriptures

• His most vigorous affirmation of this principle was in debate with Erasmus.

• In the end, the argument between Luther and Erasmus was not over the application of learning and scholarship, or even over whether the texts of Scripture were sufficiently clear so that the main message of the Bible could be understood by the average reader.

• At the bottom of all this debate was this question: To what degree was the average reader, indeed the whole church, obliged to submit to tradition and the official pronouncements of the pope for the proper exposition of Scripture?

The Clarity of the Scriptures

• The Clarity of the Scriptures

• To this question, the Reformers shouted a loud, “None, for the essential meaning of the message of the Bible!”

• There was no need of anyone’s history of tradition to interpret the Scriptures; the Bible was sufficiently perspicuous without it.

• What, then, was meant when the Scriptures were declared to be clear and perspicuous for all?

• Simply this: the Bible was understood to be clear and perspicuous on all things that were necessary for our salvation and growth in Christ.

The Clarity of the Scriptures

• The Clarity of the Scriptures

• It was not a claim either that everything in the Bible was equally plain or that there were no mysteries or areas that would not defy one generation of Bible readers or another.

• If readers would exert the effort one generally put into understanding a literary work, it was asserted that they would gain an understanding that would be adequate and sufficient to guide them into a saving relationship and a life of obedience with their Lord.

The Clarity of the Scriptures

• The Clarity of the Scriptures

• This definition on the clarity of Scripture was represented in many Protestant works; the best known is paragraph 7 on the doctrine of Scripture in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647).

• All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly pro pounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

The Clarity of the Scriptures

• The Clarity of the Scriptures

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