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Scripture Is the Beating Heart of Biblical Counseling: Counseling the Confession (1689 LBC Chapter 1)

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By Daniel Szczesniak

June 23, 2025

The doctrine of Scripture is the beating heart of biblical counseling. Jesus commissioned his disciples to disciple others by teaching his word (Matthew 28:19-20), which means that the substance of Scripture (“all that I have commanded you”) is the substance of discipleship (“Go therefore and make disciples… teaching them”).

Similarly, the doctrine of Scripture is the beating heart of Reformed confessionalism.1 The LBC begins with this memorable opening line:

“The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.”2

It’s easy to breeze past, but it’s worthwhile to stop and think about the weight and beauty of these words: Only. Sufficient. Certain. Infallible.

The Sufficiency of Scripture

When I meet a new counselee for the first time, I often begin by asking them what they know about biblical counseling. This gives me the opportunity to introduce or explain in more detail how what we do is all rooted in the Bible. We read 2 Peter 1:2-4, and I ask a series of questions.

Verse 2

“According to Peter, how are grace and peace multiplied to you?”
In the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.

“You’re here because you want grace and peace in your life, right?”
Yes, of course.

“I’m convinced that this is true; that we receive grace and peace as we come to know God and Jesus Christ through his word.”

Verse 3

“Peter says that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness… through what?”
Through the knowledge of him.

“Exactly! How do we come to know Christ?”
In the Bible.

“Yes! So as we come to know him, he gives us everything we need for (1) life, and (2) godliness. Which, if you think about it, covers pretty much everything.”

Verse 4

“Here, Peter says that we have fellowship with God (we ‘become partakers of the divine nature’) and escape from the corruption of the world… through what? What does the verse say?”
Through his promises.

“Yep! And where do we find God’s promises?”
In the Bible.

“So as we come to know God in his word, we experience grace and peace (v. 2), we find everything we need for life and godliness (v. 3), and we have a right relationship with God as we escape the corrupting influences of the world and our sinful desires (v. 4). That’s what biblical counseling is all about.”

The Scope of Scripture

Establishing the sufficiency of Scripture is an important start to biblical counseling, but the confession articulates more: The “scope of the whole… is to give all glory to God.”3

The Bible teaches plainly the purpose of man: To glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31), to praise him (Psalm 150:6), to honor him (Proverbs 3:9), to give thanks to him (Colossians 3:17), to image him (Colossians 3:10), to please him (2 Corinthians 5:9).

Biblical counselors often appeal to 2 Corinthians 5:9 to help counselees understand that their life is not about pleasing themselves, but God. The confession affirms this reality, but claims further that Scripture itself gives glory to God. At the end of the day, it’s not about us making God happy or honored or glorified; God is glorified in himself and his glory radiates out from himself to us in his revelation (Isaiah 60:1; Hebrews 1:3). God is glorious whether we please him or not.

This is a humbling truth, but a necessary one. Counselees often encounter problems because they have consistently made themselves the center of their universe. An authentic encounter with God in his word should leave them humbled, perhaps even limping (Genesis 32:31), but with a new name and a new reality that rightly sees God at the center of all things.

Scripture is not primarily about fixing our problems. It’s about giving glory to God.

Counseling from Chapter 1 of the LBC

As I see it, there are two ways to counsel the confession.

First, you can teach the confession as the substance of your counsel. I would call this discipleship, and would use this approach with new Christians or those whose lives are disordered but are not facing a pointed, peculiar problem such as marriage conflict, self-harm, addiction, etc.

Let the confession dictate the topics of conversation and discipleship. Move through the content systematically, arranging your counsel around the shape of the confession. This is more than a class or topical study because you are seeking to shape your counselee’s life according to the essential doctrines of the Christian faith, and you will be assigning homework and working towards practical application.

Second, you can use the confession to inform, influence, and supplement your counsel. I would call this biblical counseling because you are using Scripture topically to address the heart and life of your counselee as they deal with a specific problem. At the same time, by regularly using the confession to complement your counsel, you are helping them see the practical significance of theology in context of the faith and life of the church.

Counsel much as you normally would, but use the confession’s teachings to help them see the glory and goodness of God. The goal of biblical counseling is to help your counselee address their problems biblically with an aim to please the Lord, and the only way to do that is to know him for who he is. The confession is a wonderful tool to promote that knowledge. Your role will be to help them see the confession not as old, dry theology that churches copy and paste onto their website’s “we believe” page, but that it is rich, powerful, helpful, and life-sustaining as it points them to a truly biblical view of God, man, sin, Christ, salvation, obedience, the church, and the life to come.

Chapter 1 Outline

  1. God clearly and faithfully revealed himself to the church in Scripture, which is both necessary and sufficient for our faith, obedience, comfort, and preservation.
  2. Scripture consists of the 66 books commonly known as the Bible, is inspired by God, and is to be our standard for doctrine and practice.
  3. All other human writings, including the Apocrypha, are not inspired, and must be tested by Scripture as our only authority.
  4. Scripture is authoritative because it is God’s word, and this authority does not rest on the church or any human testimony.
  5. Scripture proves itself to be the word of God by means of the beauty, power, harmony, and purpose of its subject matter, and through the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and thus we should esteem it highly.
  6. Nothing outside of Scripture is necessary for our salvation and for the practice of our faith, yet we can only receive the word by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and there are some particulars in life which must be governed by wisdom, common sense, and the application of general biblical principles.
  7. Everything in the Bible is not immediately clear or understandable, yet the most important doctrines and commands are plainly and repeatedly set forth.
  8. The Bible is inspired in its original autographs, and by God’s providential care he has maintained the overall reliability of our extant manuscripts, which may be profitably translated into the common tongue of each people so that all may profit from them and worship him faithfully.
  9. Scripture interprets Scripture; meaning, the many clear parts of Scripture help you understand the fewer unclear parts.
  10. The Bible—not councils, theologians, or church leaders—is the supreme authority on which our faith rests.

Assignment: Summarize as You Study

There are few ways better to internalize biblical teaching than to externalize it through writing. The practice of reading, synthesizing, and summarizing doctrinal truth will force your counselee to understand in order to articulate.

To that end, I’ve created a template for study and discipleship, which provides brief instruction on how to study the confession and also provides space for the student write a short, one-sentence summary of each paragraph of the 1689 LBC.

Recommended Resources

Books

Articles & Assignments

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  1. The LBC (Reformed Baptist) and Savoy Declaration (Congregationalist) were based on the Westminster Confession (Presbyterian), and all three open with a strong doctrine of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. The Second Helvetic Confession (Reformed) likewise begins with the doctrine, and the Belgic Confession (Dutch Reformed) and 39 Articles (Anglican) introduce the doctrine of Scripture after a brief opening article on the existence and attributes of God. ↩︎
  2. LBC 1.1. ↩︎
  3. LBC 1.5. ↩︎
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Daniel Szczesniak is the founder of Confessional Counsel. He graduated from Reformed Baptist Seminary with an MA in Biblical Studies and is an ACBC certified biblical counselor.

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