Today's post only deals with the first full sentence in this paragraph. Due to the length of the original post, it is being divided into two sections.
The sixth paragraph of the first chapter of the confession is one of the most important sections in the document. Once we recognize that the authority of Scripture resides in its nature as God-breathed and fully authoritative, what do we do with it?
First, we are told that the Bible provides for us all we need to know with regard to how we are to glorify God, how we are saved by and in his Son, what we are to believe and how we are to live in light of his saving grace. There is no other source of revelation as to what God's will for his people is. Scripture provides this instruction along two related yet different paths. The first is by expressly stating these things. We know what we are to believe concerning the resurrection of Christ on the third day because Scripture clearly and expressly states that he rose from the dead, that he did so with a human body, etc.
The second way we come to know God's will for our life, belief and practice is a little more complicated. Some things are expressly set down in Scripture, other things must be deduced from Scripture. In other words, Scripture teaches us some things as a matter of consequence derived from other things expressly set down in Scripture. For instance, much of the doctrine of the Trinity is based upon consequences of what is clearly set forth in the pages of Scripture. You will nowhere find the word "trinity" in the Bible, but that does not mean that trinitarian doctrine is "unbiblical".
The divines provided two important qualifications for these consequences. First they must be "good". That is, they must be based upon sound and right reason. They must "follow" from Scripture, and not contradict some other portion of Scripture. More on this in the discussion of paragraph seven. Second, the consequences must be "necessary". In other words, they may not merely be "possible" consequences, they must be inevitable given the fullness of Scriptural data.
This is saying that we can derive principles for faith and practice from all of Scripture - sometimes by what is expressly set down, others by what necessarily follows from the whole counsel of God. Further, the revealed and delivered will of God in Scripture is the only rule of faith and practice - we may not add any so-called additional revelation nor the traditions of men. What is promoted as something to believe or do which cannot be established on the basis Scripture, either directly or logically, is not and cannot be binding upon God's people. Yet, we see that both what is expressly laid down in Scripture and that which can be deduced by good and nessassary consequence IS Scripture, and must be adhered to. To reject, as an obvious example, the Trinity (on any ground) is to place oneself outside of the sphere of biblical teaching, and to declare oneself to be unsaved.
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