Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 23:2 (Summer 2019)
Article: Retrieval, Christology, And "Sola Scriptura"
Author: Stephen J. Wellum

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Retrieval, Christology, And Sola Scriptura1

Stephen J. Wellum

Stephen J. Wellum is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and editor of Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. He received his PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and he is the author of numerous essays and articles and the co-author with Peter Gentry of Kingdom through Covenant, 2nd ed. (Crossway, 2012, 2018) and God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (Crossway, 2015); the co-editor of Progressive Covenantalism (B&H, 2016); the author of God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of the Person of Christ (Crossway, 2016) and Christ Alone—The Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior (Zondervan, 2017); and the co-author of Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ (Zondervan, 2018).

Systematic theology has rightly been viewed as the “queen of the sciences.”2 Properly understood, it is the “study of the triune God,” who is the Creator, Lord, and thus the source and standard of knowledge, and the application of all that God has said to every area of life.3 Indeed, the summum bonum of all knowledge is the knowledge of God, and all human knowledge is grounded in God’s speech and self-disclosure. For humans to know anything, is dependent on God’s initiative to make himself known to us, both in creation (i.e., general revelation) and uniquely Scripture (i.e., special revelation). And the purpose of all the theological disciplines, including biblical, historical, and philosophical studies, is to understand God’s Word and his entire plan of redemption centered in Christ Jesus.

As the “queen” and the culminating theological discipline, systematic theology is grounded and warranted in sola Scriptura. By sola Scriptura, I do not mean popular versions of it, which ignore the lessons from historical theology and tradition, but in the Reformation sense, namely that Scripture is our final, sufficient authority, not our only authority.4 Sola Scriptura does

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not deny a “ministerial” role for historical theology, philosophy, and other disciplines. In fact, the doing of theology is impossible apart from these other disciplines. Yet, as important as these other disciplines are, Scripture alone is the final, “magisterial” authority for all theological formulations.