AUTHORITY F O O T ================================
- H O L D
- AUTHORITY! –
The books which make up our Bible were not written to confuse or mystify us. They were given to us to be understood.
Paul put it succinctly for Timothy: ‘All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living’. (2 Timothy 3:16).
It is exciting to think that the divine ‘Inspirer’ is also present with us as the ‘Interpreter’! So we should expect the message of these books to become clear to us – if we stop and take notice.
The Bible’s message stands firm to confirm or correct our traditions and speculations; and to test our assumptions.
This is what the Bible’s authority is all about. It is not an authority that is based on human experience, expertise or wisdom. Its authority is built on God’s declaration of what is true and right.
JESUS AND THE BIBLE
On the attitude of Jesus to his Father’s word, Dr. James Packer writes:
‘It is remarkable to see how Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son, bowed to the authority of his Father’s voice speaking in the scriptures. When tempted he resisted Satan by quoting and cleaving to what was written (Matt 4:1-11). He told the crowd that he had come not to abolish the law and the prophets, but fulfil them (Matt 5:17), and hereby he showed that the scriptures had authority to set the pattern for his life as man and Messiah. (Repeatedly he taught that he MUST be put to death because this was the scripturally appointed destiny for the Messiah (see Mark 8:31; Matt 26:54; Luke 22:37; 18:31; 24:26). His deliberate courting of death was from one standpoint a sustained act of faith in, and obedience to, the authority of his Bible, an act of faith on which the Father set his seal of approval in raising Jesus from the dead. In his resolve to live under biblical authority, as in all else, the Master is the model for his disciples, whom he calls to walk in his steps’.