The Bible Is Complete

Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
–Jude 3

You have to be convinced of the trustworthiness of Scripture if you are going to make it central in your life. But you also have to be convinced of the completeness of the Bible. How do you know for sure the Bible is God’s complete and final word to you?

Let me illustrate it for you this way: Imagine your mate is away on a trip to a foreign country without any internet connection or phone service. One day when you are really missing your mate, you remember you have some of their old love letters stored away in the attic. So you pull out the letters and begin feeling connected with your mate despite the current distance between you. All of a sudden, there is a knock at the door. A delivery man hands you a package from your mate. What would you do? Would you lay aside the package and go back to those old love letters? Or would you set aside the old letters and read the latest communication from your mate? I imagine you would choose to read the latest communication from the person you love.

A lot of Christians view the Bible as a collection of old love letters. They think it is filled with previous communication from God that is sweet, but outdated and irrelevant. Instead, they are looking for fresh revelation from God.

So is God giving new information about Himself? Let’s see how the Bible answers that question. In Jude 3, Jude told his audience to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” Jude was saying every truth you need to know about God has already been delivered to the saints and deposited in the Bible. There is no new revelation about God that is being given today. It has been once for all recorded and delivered to the saints.

Peter said the same thing in 2 Peter 1:3: “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” If you have the Spirit of God in your heart and the Word of God in your hand, you have everything you need to experience the power of God in your life.

Am I saying God does not lead Christians today? Of course not. He leads us through prayer, through the counsel of wise believers, and even through our own desires. But all those ways are subjective compared to the objective truth that is found in Scripture. The Bible is God’s final and complete revelation to us.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “The ABCs Of Spiritual Hygiene” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2011.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.