Doctrine of Revelation: Sufficiency and Perspicuity

Having walked through the installments of God’s progressive revelation of Himself, let’s now consider two truths about God’s revelation.

First, God’s revelation of Himself in the Scriptures is sufficient. God has revealed everything about Himself that we need to know.  Nothing additional is needed. That does not mean God has revealed everything there is to know or even everything we might like to know. Chapter 1, paragraph 6 of the London Baptist Confession of faith explains this better than I can:

The whole counsel of God concerning everything essential for His own glory and man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated or by necessary inference contained in the Holy Scriptures. Nothing is ever to be added to the Scriptures, either by new revelation of the Spirit or by human traditions. [9]
[9] 2 Timothy 3:15–17; Galatians 1:8,9)

Second, although the Scriptures are not all easily understood, they are understandable.  There is a fifty-cent word for this: “perspicuity. ” A dictionary definition of this word is, “being clear or understandable.”  Again, not everything in the Bible is equally clear, but the essential message is abundantly clear.  We again quote from the Confession (Chapter 1, paragraph 7):

Some things in Scripture are clearer than others, and some people understand the teachings more clearly than others.[12]   However, the things that must be known, believed, and obeyed for salvation are so clearly set forth and explained in one part of Scripture or another that both the educated and uneducated may achieve a sufficient understanding of them by properly using ordinary measures. [13]
[12] 2 Peter 3:16  [13] Psalm 19:7; Psalm 119:130

Quotes from: 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith in Modern English,
 https://founders.org/library-book/1689-confession/