All the Words

Or "Whole Bible" Christianity

This post is based on a letter written to the Congregation of Grace Presbyterian Church of Alexandria, Louisiana on June 9, 2025.

The Bible is a big book.

It contains stirring poetry and stark prophecy, glorious visions and ancient histories, stunning declarations of love and terrifying warnings of judgment. Some parts bring immediate comfort. Others baffle or confront us. Some are familiar, others feel foreign.

And yet, Christian faith has long confessed that every word of Scripture is God’s Word. Not just the comforting parts. Not just the verses that fit nicely on coffee mugs. Not just the red letters.

All the words are God’s Words.

A Whole Bible for a Whole Christ

The apostle Paul once said to the elders of the Ephesian church:

“I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
— Acts 20:27

Paul was communicating to these elders that he had fulfilled his duty in preaching to them. He had been courageous to give them the whole counsel of God. But this is not just a philosophy of preaching—it’s a confession of who God is. Christians must be a whole-Bible people because we believe in the whole God. As all of us know well that there are hard passages in Scripture. Passages that vex and confuse us. One of my favorites is 1 Corinthians 6:3, where Paul asks “Do you not know that we will judge angels?” My reaction is to say “Well…actually, Paul, no. I did not know that. Can we get a bit more information about that, please?!”

There are hard and confusing passages in the Bible. But for Christians, there should be no “problem passages” in the Bible. We don’t mark out certain parts of Scripture as places where we have a problem. If there are parts of scripture where we have a problem, then we need to repent, and ask God to change us. There might be places that challenge our understanding or our ease or our familiarity, but we must affirm that it’s our responsibility to freely and gladly “amen” every word of the Bible, even if our understanding is still developing. There’s a parallel here with knowing God. We don’t select only the attributes of God we happen to like. We don’t shape God into our image. We proclaim the Whole Christ, because He is one Lord, and He has given us all His Words.

The Simplicity of God and the Unity of Scripture

The Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us that God is

“...without body, parts, or passions…”
WCF 2.1

This is the historic doctrine of divine simplicity—that God is not made up of parts or pieces. We often talk about the grace of God, or the wrath of God, or the love of God, and it’s easy to start to think of these things as “parts” or “pieces” of God. But God is not like a puzzle with lots of pieces of various sizes. It’s not only that you can’t get rid of any of the pieces. It’s that “pieces” is not even the proper way to think about God. He is simply One. He is not more grace than justice, or more love than wrath. God is His attributes. He is all that He is, all the time. To isolate one attribute from another, and to avoid the attributes we don’t like is to misunderstand God entirely.

As Augustine once wrote,

“All that is in God is God.”

God’s love is God. God’s wrath is God. God’s kindness is God. God’s grace is God. God’s patience is God. God’s justice is God. You get the picture. Thomas Watson, one of our Puritan fathers, said it beautifully:

“His justice is not one thing, and His mercy another, but they are all one.”

We may speak of the attributes of God individually (His grace, holiness, patience, etc.), but we must never forget that they are not isolated features. God doesn’t switch them on and off. He is always, entirely, Himself. It’s also not the case that only certain attributes of God get revealed to certain kinds of people. The Israelites knew of the love and the severity of God, and Ninivah learned the same things about their Creator (when Jonah finally stopped stalling). Unbelievers are given many warnings to repent and avoid judgement, but believers also (in the book of Hebrews) are warned not to fall away or fail to enter God’s rest.

For Christians, proclaiming “all the words” isn’t merely about quantity. It’s about refusing to trim God down. God is not to be reshaped according to our preferences. We don’t get to emphasize the “love of God” while quietly setting aside His justice, or extol His grace while hiding His call to repentance.

When we avoid parts of the Bible, we inevitably distort the picture of God it reveals. But if God Himself speaks through these words, then none of them can be safely ignored. They all matter. Even the ones that make us pause, ask questions, or wrestle. We can’t tear out the pages that challenge us without also tearing apart our understanding of who God is.

No Shrinking Back

This also grounds us as a Sola Scriptura people. We don't merely value the Bible—we submit to it, rejoice in it, and seek to obey it. All of it. Even when it challenges us. Especially when it confronts us. And if there are key parts of it that the unbelieving world around us especially rejects, we make sure that we do not whisper those parts. That will require courage! Paul himself in that text from Acts told the Ephesian elders “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” We must also be those who do not shrink back from this work.

“But my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
— Hebrews 10:38

All of Scripture reveals all of Christ, and there is no greater joy than knowing Him.

For Deeper Reading

If this resonates with you, consider reading The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson. It explores how a full view of Jesus—His person, work, and words—safeguards us from both legalism and license. It’s a great book about the beauty of knowing and following the undivided Christ. If you are a pastor or an elder, make sure this one is in your library.