by Michael Jensen
Idea 1: The clarity of scripture is an evangelical clarity.
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that both unites scripture and renders it clear. Jesus is the ‘Yes’ who both explains and fulfils the promises of God. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 appeared baffled by his reading of Isaiah until he met Philip who explained it to him. We shouldn’t be distracted by the presence of an interpreter here: the point is not: ‘you need an authorised interpreter’ but rather ‘Jesus makes sense of it’. It is the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen that is the great shining light in the middle of the Bible, making the rest of its sometimes disparate parts cohere.
Idea 2: The clarity of scripture is a doctrine of the Holy Spirit
This evangelical clarity is a work of the Holy Spirit. The Ethiopian is able to read the Scripture and probably understand what the words mean but the significance is totally lost on him. For that, cue the Holy Spirit!
Idea 3: The doctrine of the clarity of the scriptures has little to do with how simple or how hard the scriptures are to understand.
Indeed, in 2 Peter 3:16, Peter complains that Paul’s letters have things in them that are very difficult! The clarity of Scripture does not mean that the matters and the subjects with which the scriptures deal are not mysteries that far exceed our human intellects.
Idea 4: Scripture itself speaks of its own clarity.
The Bible is a book whose authors expected to have readers who understood what they were talking about. The law in Israel was to be a light to the paths of the people (see also Ps 19:8): they were expected to read it and obey it, and were held accountable for it! Scripture is breath-out by God for the purpose of training the man of God (2 Tim 3:16). Scripture does not cast itself as a book of secrets, a book of codes and mysteries. These things are written, says John, that you might believe and believing have life! (20:31)
Idea 5: The clarity of scripture implies that scripture interprets scripture.
On account of the clarity of Scripture we discover that Scripture has the power of interpreting itself. By this the Reformers held that the basic ideas of Scripture clarify the parts, and that the obscure texts are explained by the plain ones. This was not to say that we should pretend we have no presuppositions when we approach the Bible - that would be sheer arrogance. But it does ensure that those presuppositions submit to the things we find in the pages of the Bible and are not held as an authoritative grid over it.
Idea 6: The clarity of scripture as a norm does not excuse the church and Christians from the responsibility of proper interpretation.
Having said that the Bible is self-interpreting, is not to excuse Christians and the church from the business of working hard at the text of scripture. But the Church's interpretation ought to be ministerial rather than magisterial - it serves rather than rules.
Idea 7: The clarity of Scripture is more about discipleship and holiness than it is about linguistic theory.
The clarity of Scripture, because it is an evangelical clarity, has more to do with the submission of the reader to the rule of Jesus than it does to some linguistic technique or skill. The disciples of Jesus know and recognise their master's voice. If you are converted, you are teachable: you are receptive to what the Spirit has to say to you in the Word of God.
Idea 8: We need to develop a proper ‘spirituality’ of reading
Reading the bible is a spiritual activity, to be attended by the virtue of humility and the business of prayer, as an anti-dote to our own pride and self-derived wisdom. See Psalm 119 for example!
Idea 9: But the clarity of scripture DOES have implications for linguistic theory.
If God's word is effective to communicate as a Word - that is, not as some wordless mystical silence - then words themselves are not ineffective instruments in his hands. Words may be the proper vehicles for the expression of concepts; and may even be effectively translated.
Idea 10: The danger of the doctrine of scripture's clarity is that we become rationalistic
The risk with the doctrine is that we will assume that Scripture can be understood by anyone possessed of native intelligence - which, is at one level, true. But though Scripture is human, it is not just human. It is the means by which the holy God reveals himself to us. As Paul Jewett puts it: 'its meaning is not simply at the disposal of our native intelligence.' That's why we pray before we read it, isn't it?
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Michael Jensen is rector of St Mark's Darling Point and is the author of the book My God, My God: Is it Possible to Believe Anymore?