To hear the voice of its God, the church is to be centered on the inspired, sufficient, necessary, clear, truthful, authoritative, and powerful Scripture. 

As P. T. Forsyth urged, “If we are not going to use our Bible, it is of no use building our Churches.” This has specific reference to the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1–9). The call of God to salvation—the divine, effective summons to repent of one’s sins and believe in Jesus Christ—comes through the gospel (2 Thessalonians 2:13–14). By means of “the living and abiding word of God”—“this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25)—people experience the new birth (1 Peter 1:23) and thus become a part of the redeemed people of the church. Unsurprisingly, then, the church’s communication of the gospel is absolutely necessary in order for people to be saved and for the church to exist (Romans 10:13–17). 

Beyond its responsibility to spread the message of salvation beyond its own confines, the church is to teach Scripture—specifically, sound doctrine—for the advancement of its members. Sound doctrine is connected with maturity in the Christian faith. Indeed, Paul identifies his apostolic work as that of furthering “the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness” (Titus 1:1). He describes “a good servant of Christ Jesus” as one who is “trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:6), who follows “the pattern of the sound words” learned from him and who guards “the good deposit” entrusted to him (2 Timothy 1:13–14). 

Negatively, a person who is outside of the Christian faith is described as one who “teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3). Indeed, Paul warns the church: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3–4). 

Scripture Confronts and Convicts Us

Of course, the Word of God not only stands against false teachers and their false teachings; it stands over the disobedience, faithlessness, pride, underdevelopment, legalism, selfishness, xenophobia, lethargy, non-contextualization, and other sins of the church and its members. Appropriately, the Bible may be viewed as “our adversary”: it always confronts with existential demands for reformation. As John Webster notes, “Scripture is as much a de-stabilizing feature of the church as it is a factor in its cohesion and continuity.”

Gathered as the community of the Word, the church draws life and sustenance from Scripture in its midst, but it also receives conviction and rebuke from Scripture as it journeys on a pilgrim path that needs constant redirectioning in order for the church to reach its ultimate destination. If it is to arrive safely at that goal, the church does well to minimize the “other voices” and pay attention to the voice of God in Scripture.

See Dr. Allison
live at
Mars Hill Downtown TODAY, 
February 4, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm as he gives a lecture entitled, “The Bible: How We Got It and Why You Should Trust It.”

And buy Dr. Allison’s new book,
Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine.