Sola Scriptura: Part 2
Tom Sugimura
Martin Luther stood firmly on Scripture at the Diet of Worms, yet on his way home a gang of armed men surrounded him at sword point. These were, thankfully, Luther’s protectors, who safely secured him from his enemies. Then, in seclusion, Luther occupied his time by translating the Bible into the common language of the German people. Luther believed so strongly that Christians must base their lives on Scripture that he labored to put those Scriptures into the hands of every person. It wouldn’t do just to hear Latin snippets at the Catholic mass or to relegate study to the scholars alone. The common people needed to hear and read the Bible in their own heart language. So, Luther labored at translating the Scriptures until, by his death in 1546, more than half a million copies of the Bible were in the people’s hands. These Bibles became so precious that many Christians clung to them even while being executed. Some of those Bibles in museums today still show the bloodstains splattered across their pages. Martyred saints would give up their lives before giving up their Bibles.
Read Your Bible
The first way to apply Sola Scriptura is to read your Bible. Open it daily and eagerly apply. Search the Scripture thoroughly to find out what it means. Shake every branch on this mighty tree and look under every leaf for the fruit it yields. Luther himself was converted when he read Romans 1:17 in its context: “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Read the Bible personally, but also read the Bible publicly in the gathered church. As Paul instructs Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim 4:13). Revere the Bible with the honor it deserves. Open the lion’s cage and let the Scriptures roar.
Preach the Bible
Read the Bible, then also preach it. As Paul urges Timothy, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim 4:2). Preacher, do not manipulate the Bible to teach your pet ideas that scratch the itching ear (see v. 3). Instead, subject your thinking to being shaped by Scripture. Preach the Word as you explain the meaning of the text. Show your church why the Bible was written to its original hearers, then show how it applies for believers today. This bridge between two worlds is called expository preaching, for Scripture alone can penetrate souls and transform lives. As Luther wrote, “People are not to believe me, the church, the fathers, the apostle, or even an angel from heaven if we teach anything contrary to the Word of God. But the Word of the Lord should stand forever” [1] Preach the Word, for “God is speaking through the voice of the preacher who brings God’s Word” [2]
If the Bible is our final authority, then we must faithfully preach the Word even when it is out of season. In 1662, the British Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity—a law to restrict the public preaching of God’s Word. Yet many preachers stood upon the authority of Scripture above the authority of the government. So, on August 24, 1662, two thousand pastors were put out of their pulpits in what became known as the Great Ejection. They could not preach within five miles of the city limits, so they took to preaching in the open fields. They were imprisoned and persecuted. And when they died, they weren’t even buried with honor: John Owen, Isaac Watts, John Bunyan, Thomas Goodwin, and many other giants of the Christian faith were buried outside the city limits with rarely a headstone. Sadly, though, many pastors today have ceased to preach God’s Word under lesser persecution.
Perhaps your present church does not exposit Scripture. Then, teach the Bible in your home. Study it together with family and friends. Cultivate in your church a love for God’s Word. Meanwhile, encourage your pastor to be faithful. Pray for him as he studies. Ask good questions of whatever passage he is preaching. Like the Bereans, examine the Scriptures to hold your preacher accountable (e.g., Acts 17:10–11). Give honor to the one who preaches the Word, but search the Scriptures to see if what he says is true. And if you are starving from spiritual famine, then plead with him to preach the Word.
Sing the Bible
We must also, in worship, sing the Bible in both spirit and truth (John 4:24). We sing God’s Word in spirit when rapturous joy enlivens our souls to “make a joyful noise to the LORD” (Ps 100:1). Yet we also sing God’s Word in truth as Colossians 3:16 reveals the fountainhead of our worship: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Our psalms and hymns and spiritual songs spring forth from Scripture. In fact, we are only Spirit-filled when we are filled with the word of Christ (Eph 5:18–19). We are only Spirit-controlled when we are Scripture-saturated, for God’s Spirit never speaks in conflict with his Word. Let us worship Christ in both spirit and truth.
Pray the Bible
Also, commit yourself to pray the Bible. Talk to God with the Scriptures open. Pray Psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (vv. 23–24). Claim 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Find your comfort in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Intercede for others with the language of Scripture. If God is not answering your prayers, then go back and check your theology. Learn to pray the Bible.
Counsel from the Bible
Our counsel to fellow Christians must be thoroughly biblical, for Scripture alone has authority in counseling. So, if you don’t know your Bible well enough, it’s time to learn. Ignorance is no excuse for incompetence when fellow believers are dying for lack of counsel. As Paul exhorts ordinary Christians in Rome: “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another” (Rom 15:14). Paul encourages them that they already possess the character of Christ, have already learned the wisdom of Christ, and are already competent in Christ to counsel others. If we proclaim the Word in public, then let us also counsel the Word in private (see Acts 20:20).
Live out the Bible
Finally, we must live out the Bible ourselves. The threat to Sola Scriptura has always boiled down to man’s attempt at replacing God. Instead of Scripture plus Tradition, the danger today is Scripture plus personal preference. Too many Christians whine, “I know that’s what the Bible says, but…” And so begins an elevation of self above God and his Word.
Listen to Luther’s advice: “…a person must by no means rely on himself, nor must he be guided by his own feelings. Rather, he must lay hold of the words offered to him in God’s name, cling to them, place his trust in them, and direct all the thoughts and feelings of his heart to them” [3].
Scripture is the inspired Word that changes lives and the inerrant Word that revives the soul (Ps 19:7a). It is the all-sufficient Word to equip the saints for every good work (2 Tim 3:16–17) and the authoritative Word we must obey and teach (Matt 28:20). As Luther testified, “I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept...the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything” [4]. May that spirit live on in the church today.
Tom Sugimura - New Life Church - Woodland Hills, California
[1] Cited in What Luther Says: An Anthology, vol. 3 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1959), 1479.
[2] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, vol. 22, ed. Walther I. Brandt (St. Louis: Concordia, 1962), 527.
[3] Martin Luther, “Luther's Works,” vol. 42: Devotional Writings (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 183.
