St. John Chrysostom on the Completeness of Divine Scripture

We are called to depend on the divine Word.  Chrysostom knew well the divine authority of the written Scriptures.  The divine Word equipped a Christian for every good work.  It is referring to the all-sufficiency of the divine Word.  It also refers to the completeness of the Scriptures.  That is, we do not need to add something to it.  We do not need to add the wisdom of men to the divine Word.  For the divine wisdom of Scripture is thoroughly enough to equip a Christian for every kind of godly work.  The ancient Jews added "graven images" to the divine Word.  We must not forfeit the sacred Scriptures.  They are the very oracles of God and the faithful and true judgments of God.  No early church father is equal or above to Scripture.  If a great teacher conflicts with Scripture because of spiritual blindness regarding the nature of man, we must wholly cling to the divine Word alone apart from man-made tradition.  For John Chrysostom wrote:

"This is why the exhortation of the Scripture is given: that the man of God may be rendered complete by it.  Without this he cannot grow to maturity.  You have the Scriptures, he says, in place of me.  If you would learn anything, you may learn it from them."  (Gorday and Oben, ACCOS, NT IX, Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, pg. 269).

The divine Word teaches us the central and supreme message of spiritual salvation.  That is, the nature of justification is by faith alone through Christ alone.  A Christian is someone who is a saint of God that possesses the very imputed merit of Jesus Christ as the sole grounds for how they are right with God.  We learn this from the divine Scriptures as the only declaration of salvation among the sons and daughters of Adam (cf.  Romans 4).