What does the sufficiency of scripture mean? It proclaims that because it is inspired by God, it is the final authority for all we need to know in order to be saved and it shows us how we can be equipped in order to live in light of that truth, through the guidance and spiritual eyes of the Holy Spirit.
The psalmist wrote in Psalm 119 verses 44 and 45:
I will always obey your instruction,
forever and ever. I will walk freely in an open place
because I study your precepts
The world tells us that Christianity is merely a straight jacket and that it only restricts us from being who we truly are. But, we know from God’s word that we only find our true freedom in Christ.
Sin is the real and continual threat to our freedom that we face daily. We have rebelled against the sufficiency of God’s word from the very beginning of time.
Although we strive to live according to His will for us, God’s grace covers us when we fall short because Jesus has kept the law perfectly as our substitute and then carried our burden with Him to the cross.
Through the divine gift of the Bible that was written to us, God shows us how we can know Him more closely and be protected from the slavery of our sin – that which only separates us from Him.
Tim Keller writes in The Reason For God:
“A fish, because it absorbs oxygen from water rather than air, is only free if it is restricted and limited to water. If we put it out on the grass, its freedom to move and even live is not enhanced, but destroyed. The fish dies if we do not honor the reality of its nature. In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions. Those that fit with the reality of our nature and the world produce greater power and scope for our abilities and a deeper joy and fulfillment.”
Despite what we are constantly told from outside interpretation and philosophy, we were made for God and our hearts will be restless unless we open our hands to receive the joy and rest freely given by Christ, who willingly opened his hands for us on the cross.
We now see through a dimly lit mirror that which the Bible gives us to live our lives on this earth for God’s glory but when we see Him face to face, we will see it all was not in vain. We will once again finally live in perfect relationship with Him, as we were designed to do.