The Bible Alone

The Bible alone gives us true views of God. By nature man knows nothing clearly or fully about Him. All his conceptions of Him are low, groveling, and debased. What could be more degraded than the gods of the Canaanites and Egyptians, of Babylon, of Greece, and of Rome?

What can be viler than the gods of the Hindus and other heathen in our own time? By the Bible we know that God hates sin. The destruction of the old world by the flood; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah; the drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea; the cutting off the nations of Canaan; the overthrow of Jerusalem and the temple; the scattering of the Jews—all these are unmistakable witnesses.

By the Bible we know that God loves sinners. His gracious promise in the day of Adam's fall, His long-suffering in the time of Noah, His deliverance of Israel out of the land of Egypt, His gift of the law at Mount Sinai, His bringing the tribes into the promised land, His forbearance in the days of the judges and kings, His repeated warnings by the mouth of His prophets, His restoration of Israel after the Babylonian captivity, His sending His Son into the world in due time to be crucified, His commanding the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles-all these are speaking facts. The Bible alone explains the state of things that we see in the world around us. There are many things on earth that a natural person cannot explain.

The amazing inequality of conditions, the poverty and distress, the oppression and persecution, the shakings and tumults, the failures of statesmen and legislators, the constant existence of uncured evils and abuses—all these things are often puzzling to him or her. One sees but does not understand. But the Bible makes it all clear that there is a good time certainly coming, and coming perhaps sooner than people expect it—a time of perfect knowledge, perfect justice, perfect happiness, and perfect peace!

Adapted from Our Great Redeemer: 365 Days with J. C. Ryle