Tota Scriptura

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 100:1-5
• Hymn — All People That on Earth Do Dwell (Old Hundredth)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A 33
• Scripture Reading — Ephesians 1:1-23
• Hymn — Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
• Sermon
• Hymn — In Christ Alone
• Benediction
• Doxology

---

Sermon Title: Tota Scriptura — The Totality of Scripture as Our Authority

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

I. Tota Scriptura and the Life of the Believer

A. All Scripture is profitable for four interconnected purposes (2 Timothy 3:16)

1. Teaching — right instruction about God, man, Christ, and salvation
2. Reproof — rebuking false teaching and wrong thinking
3. Correction — addressing immoral and godless behavior
4. Training in righteousness — forming life in accord with God's holy law

B. The goal: that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work

1. Tota Scriptura leads to tota man — all of man formed and shaped by all of God's Word
2. "Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian"

C. Timothy's formation illustrates the believer's life under Scripture (2 Timothy 3:14)

1. Paul exhorts Timothy to continue in what he has learned and firmly believed
2. Three teachers are in view: Paul himself, Timothy's mother Eunice, and grandmother Lois (2 Timothy 1:5)
3. Timothy's mother, a Jewish believer, taught him the sacred Scriptures despite his Gentile unbelieving father
4. The credibility of those who taught shapes confidence in the Word — consider who taught you and how your life commends the Word you present

II. Tota Scriptura and the Life of the Spirit

A. "All Scripture is breathed out by God" — theopneustos (2 Timothy 3:16)

1. A uniquely Pauline word, found nowhere else in Greek literature
2. Combines theos (God) and pneuma (breath/spirit) — Scripture is the visible mark of God's invisible breath
3. Parallels the Spirit compared to wind in John 3:8 — unseen yet its effects are visible

B. God-breathed language recalls the creation of Adam — God breathed ruach (breath/spirit) into lifeless man

1. Scripture is a living, breathing, Spirit-wrought book
2. Hebrews 4:12 — the Word of God is living and active

C. The unity of Scripture under the one Spirit

1. Many genres, authors, and writing styles across 66 books, yet one mind, one breath, one Spirit
2. The Bible is not a pile of disconnected blocks but an organic unity — every truth connected to every other truth (John Murray)
3. 444,919 total words (306,757 Hebrew OT + 138,162 Greek NT), yet one Word of God

III. Tota Scriptura and the Life of the Son

A. The sacred writings make one wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15)

1. "Sacred writings" is a Jewish idiom for the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)
2. The Old Testament is the age of preparation; the New Testament is the age of fulfillment
3. All of Scripture points to Jesus Christ as its end, climax, and crescendo

B. Salvation lies not in the Scriptures themselves but in the person to whom they point (Gordon Fee)

1. The treasure of Christ is hidden under every word of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation
2. Luther's concept of alien righteousness — a righteousness not our own, received through faith alone in Christ alone

C. The living and active status of Scripture depends on the risen Son

1. Unlike the words of Plato or Aristotle — words of dead men — Scripture is the living God speaking through the living Spirit by the resurrected Son
2. The Old Testament apart from Christ only brings death and condemnation (2 Corinthians 3; 1 Corinthians 15)
3. God spoke through prophets who died; now he speaks through the Son who lives — Hebrews 1:1-2
4. Matthew 24:35 — heaven and earth will pass away, but Christ's words will never pass away

D. Practical conclusion: to be a tota Scriptura believer is to affirm the five solas

1. To believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to God's glory alone, is to embrace the lifegiving treasure of all Scripture
2. Christ is the yes and amen of all Scripture — Augustine's call applies: "Pick up and read"