To say that all Scripture is inspired by God is to say that all Scripture is important. It is not to say, however, that all Scripture is similarly clear. Even as eminent a man in the early church as the apostle Peter admitted that there were many things in the writings of the apostle Paul that were difficult to understand. “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Pt. 3.16). Not everything in Paul’s writings is hard to understand, but many things are.

The fact that a passage is difficult or easy to understand does not disqualify it from being the word of God. Just as grocery stores stock everything from baby food to steak, so there are things in the Bible that are appropriate to the condition of each child of God. “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” the publican said, and every child of God who is old enough to have consciously considered his sinful condition can feel that statement to fit his own condition. On the other hand, there are passages that have taxed the understanding of men as learned as John Gill, who at the age of twelve was learning his fourth language. The Bible was written to fit perfectly the case of redeemed sinners throughout all the history of mankind. We have no difficulty whatsoever identifying with David when he groaned, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” Those feelings have been common to God’s children since the first saint was born again. When Abraham confessed that he was not worthy of the least of God’s blessings, we can add our hearty “Amen!”

When we say that there are things in the Bible that are “hard to be understood,” we are not saying that we have an excuse for drifting with every wind of doctrine. “Hard to understand” does not mean “impossible to understand.” All the major points of doctrine are clearly laid out in the Bible. It is our task to find them and believe them. Though the Bible contains the words of an infinite God, yet it was given for the benefit of finite man; and if man had not been able to understand the great body of truth that has been preserved down through the ages, then how could the church ever have been the pillar and ground of the truth? All able ministers of the gospel are not geniuses, but it is not necessary that they all be so. The great truths of the Bible are understandable by a man of modest abilities if he will apply himself to the study of them and believe them when he finds them.