The Absolute Authority of the Word of God (2)

Thus saith the Lord!

Did it ever occur to you that Paul and other Bible authors always fall back on the Word of God? Although for some of them the Word, the Old Testament, was already one or two thousand years old, yet they continually appealed to it as authoritative. The conclusion is irresistible: Although so old, yet the written Word was still for them as the voice of the living God. Even for the Lord Jesus the Word had such authority. Every time the devil tempted Him in the desert, we hear Him appeal to the authority of what is written (Matthew 4). He spoke as One having authority (Matthew 7:29), and yet He accepted the authority of the Word without any reservation. For Him, “It is written” was the end of all dispute.

To counter this by saying that Jesus spoke that way because He accommodated Himself to the Jewish tradition, with its great reverence for the books of Moses, doesn’t hold true. In His teachings, we cannot fail to observe that He was not afraid to question, or rather to overthrow, many of the popular interpretations which the Jewish rabbis gave of the revered books of Moses (see Matthew 5-7).

If the written Word of God had such authority for the Lord Jesus and His apostles, then it is high time to ask ourselves, “Who am I to dispute the authority of the Scriptures?” If the Word had such a normative authority for the authors, yes, for Jesus Himself, would it then not have the same character for us today?

Why then is it not sufficient anymore, when we wrestle with questions involving marriage and divorce, simply to fall back on the authority of the written Word of God, wherein God has clearly revealed His unchangeable will? Does the sanctity of the Lord’s Day as legislated in God’s Word no longer apply to our days? Is the place which the Bible gives to the woman in ecclesiastical and marriage life merely a description of how it was “back then,” or is it God’s will for today as well? If you notice that Jesus did not say, “It was written,” but “It is written,” then you know the answer to such questions.

Submission

Do we hear the high and lofty God speaking to us in the Scriptures? How important it is that we acknowledge the voice of God in His Word. “Thus saith the Lord” requires submission. We need to direct our faith and life according to the Word. A. A. Hodges, in his book The Outlines of Theology, answered the question, “What is meant with the saying that the Scriptures are the only infallible rule of faith and practice?” as follows:

Whatever God teaches or commands is of sovereign authority. Whatever conveys to us an infallible knowledge of His teachings and commands is an infallible rule. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the only organs through which, during the present dispensation, God conveys to us a knowledge of His will about what we are to believe concerning Himself and what duties He requires of us.

The Roman Catholic Church still maintains that the authority of the Scriptures is dependent upon the Church because she recognizes them as authoritative. However, Scripture does not require submission because ecclesiastical authority calls for it; the Bible carries its own authority. God used the Reformation to free the authority of the Word from the paralyzing grip of the Roman Church. However, today we need to be faithful and guard that the authority of God’s Word does not fall prey to the equally paralyzing grip of the relativising (toning down of the absolute authority) of the Word of God, with sentiments like, “Certainly, that is what the Bible says, but that is not tenable for today.”

Especially our young people facing the liberal teachings of these days must continually be pointed to the timelessness of the authority of God’s Word.

Time-bound?

It will be obvious to all of us that the circumstances of our lives are enormously different from the times when the Bible was written. As a result, there are definite passages which at first sight seem to have a “time-bound” character. A great deal of the struggle for every faithful preacher of the Word is related to precisely this fact. He is called to be God’s mouth in today’s world. Every preacher and reader is to search for the underlying principles in Old and New Testament passages and to seek the application for us today. Therefore our first task is to listen to the voice of God in the Word, with the continual petition, “Show me Thy ways, O LORD; teach me Thy paths” (Psalm 25:4).

Many of the prophets’ utterances have definite historical backgrounds which have no direct connection or literal application to our situation. One example is the command of God to kill all the Canaanites in the land. Although this is an express command, it is not literally to be carried out in our days. Yet it is possible to hear, even in such passages, the voice of God with application and direction for faith and practice today. In other words, even certain historic Old Testament portions have a normative authority for our circumstances and life. For example, we can trace the same underlying principle of the command to kill all the inhabitants of Canaan in several New Testament passages. When God admonishes the believer not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, or not to have fellowship with the unrighteous, but to come out from among them and to be separate, then we meet the same principle which formed the background of the command to the Israelites.

Hence, even though certain historical passages have a time-bound characteristic, they still have a moral authority and practical significance for our daily walk. We must not be so rash as to conclude that certain parts of Scripture have no moral authority simply because they have a time-bound character. God teaches us to tremble at His Word and to seek to know His unalterable will for life and faith in such passages.

A fence

Despite the ever-changing circumstances and the complications of living in this day and age, we must maintain that the Word of God remains the only and absolute authority for faith and practice. Without the knowledge that the Scriptures are the Word and Truth of God, there is no comfort, no certainty, and no unchangeable standard. When the preacher and the congregation lose the conviction of the divine authority of God’s Word, then they become like a ship without a rudder in a tumultuous storm.

We conclude with a passage from Bavinck’s Dogmatics. He wrote, “There is nothing humiliating when a person listens to and obeys, in a childlike way, the Word of God. To believe God on His Word, i.e., to accept His authority, is no more humiliating than when a little child relies entirely on the word of his father.” It is exactly here that the “shoe pinches.” We do not want to be children. The safeguarding fence, which God in His authoritative Word has placed around us in His love, we find bothersome, restricting our liberty and independence.

Let us learn to see the absolute authority of the Word as God’s protecting fence around our life. What would you think of parents who would allow their children to play beside a dangerous road or near a treacherous swamp? Loveless! May God teach us to see His will for faith and practice as a token of His loving care for our well-being.

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