UPWARD GLANCE: Sola Scriptura
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The first of the five solas is Sola Scriptura. It means, “Only Scripture.”
The idea is this: everything we can possibly know about God, our relationship with Him, the supernatural and moral living in this world can only be found in the 66 canonical books of the Bible. Everything else that makes claims regarding God, man’s relationship to God, the supernatural or moral living must agree with Scripture before it is accepted as truth.
This is a phenomenally unpopular idea and has been the subject of a lot of derision in our culture and even in some of our churches, but it is easily the foundational Sola for the other four. Without Scripture, everything we claim to know about God is irrational conjecture based more on how we wish God were than who He actually is.
Moreover, how can we take what Scripture says about heaven seriously if we don’t take what it says about hell seriously? If we don’t believe that Jonah was literally swallowed by a whale, how can we believe that Jesus literally died and was risen from the dead? By what criteria do we pick and choose what to believe out of the Bible? How much of that picking and choosing is based on feelings rather than truth?
Time and space do not avail me to talk about the external evidence for the reliability of Scripture, and smarter men than I have already tackled the issue. If you want to know why the Bible can be trusted, I strongly urge you to check out a couple of talks: Why I Choose to Believe the Bible by Voddie Baucham (on Youtube) and How Badly Did the Early Scribes Corrupt the New Testament? by Dan Wallace (at watermark.org).
Here’s what the Bible says about itself, though. Baucham quotes 2 Peter 1:16: “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” The Bible is not full of fairy tales, but accounts of what people actually saw. Luke, in Luke 1:3-4, claims to have “investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order” for the very purpose that we “may know the exact truth.”
How is the relevant to you and me? The Bible was intended by God to be His revelation about who He is and who He wants us to be. It is a guide about how to conduct our lives. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” In Scripture, 2 Peter 1:3 reminds that God, “has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.”
Sola Scriptura is relevant because the Bible is God’s primary communication to you personally, and He intends you to live your life by it and it alone, even when it’s hard, difficult, unattractive or unpopular.