Authority

Still dealing with the word of God, now we're looking at it's authority. I had to laugh, because just after reading the chapter in Systematic Theology I took a break and opened my internet feed reader which had just one item - the manuscript of a talk on 2 Timothy 3:14-4:4 titled The Authority of the Bible! It's a pretty good talk, I think.

Back to the book and, like Dad, the main thing that struck me about this chapter was a lot of encouragement about how great the Bible is and how privileged we are to have it. In no particular order, then:

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is able to give his own considerations (v12) the same weight as instructions that Jesus gave while he was on earth (v10, see Matthew 5:32) - also in v25. This shows the authority of the apostles (and the parts of the Bible they wrote) that what they said was true and authoritative even where it didn't come directly from Jesus' lips. I say 'directly', because of course it still came from Jesus who promised in John 14:25 and John 16:13-15 that the Father would send the Holy Spirit who would remind the apostles of what Jesus said, and teach them things that Jesus didn't say while on earth but which the Holy Spirit has received from Jesus.

As Christians read the Bible, the Holy Spirit convinces us that they are the words of God, and we recognise Jesus' own voice in them (John 10:27). Indeed, the only possible source of the claim that Scripture is our highest authority must come from Scripture itself (as the Spirit works through it) or we are making the source of our claim a higher authority (p78).

"To disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disobey or disbelieve God" (p81). This is a chilling thought in many ways - as I think of the ways I'm inclined to disbelieve the Bible (see below) - but it's also incredibly gracious of God to have spoken so clearly and directly to us on what we are to believe and obey. Grudem ends this section by saying:

"Throughout the history of the church the greatest preachers have been those who have recognized that they have no authority in themselves and have seen their task as being to explain the words of Scriptures and apply them clearly to the lives of their hearers... Only the written words of Scriptures can give this kind of authority to preaching." (p82)

God's word is truth (John 17:17). It is not merely true, it is truth. My maths text book may be entirely true but it is not truth. The Bible is our final standard of truth.

Scripture as it is written is authoritative. The fact that Jesus' words have been translated to Greek when written isn't a problem - nor that different gospels say slightly different things. Nor were the writers ever confused, mistaken or unclear in what they wrote. That would be to say that the words of written Scripture have less authority than what those men thought or said. Not only does this give us confidence in the text we have, but it surely leads into the sufficiency of Scripture (chapter 6). While better understanding the circumstances and contexts the books of the Bible were written into (through archaeology, extra-biblical accounts, etc.) is certainly useful, all we need to know the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) is a decent translation of the Bible. That makes me happy, but also reminds me that we should be fearful (awe-full) when we come to the Bible, fully expecting that God will speak and will expect us to change our thoughts and our lives after hearing him.

Grudem asks "questions for personal reflection", and thinking about the first two gave me further encouragement. I'm going to share (briefly!) my thoughts and see what you think...

The first question is what would you want someone to read in order to persuade them that the Bible is God's word. Intellectually it's a no-brainer (you don't have to read the chapter, just the title, to guess the answer is the Bible itself!) but practically it can be easier to rely on other things. I was struck by this a few months ago when I was looking for a copy of Luke's gospel to give to a (non-Christian) friend who I thought would like the fact Luke made sure he'd spoken to as many eye-witnesses as possible before writing (Luke 1:1-4). I could only find John and asked a (more mature and godly) friend. He is someone who knows all sorts of theology and apologetics and answers and can argue very well. If anyone would be qualified to persuade my friend that the Bible is God's word then it would be him. His response was "just get him reading the Bible". He knew and lived out that the Bible has transforming power in itself and (through the work of the Spirit) is the only thing that will persuade people of the gospel. It was a challenge to value the Bible more highly in evangelism.

The second question is what would make people want to disbelieve or disobey something in Scripture, and what's a good approach to deal with this? Speaking personally I can think of three 'categories' of things I have been tempted with. There are intellectual things, such as the Trinity which I know many people who feel they have to accept but would prefer if it went away. There are things that don't 'feel' right, such as judgment and punishment which I sometimes want to not believe because I don't like. There are lifestyle things, where I wonder is life really better God's way, or would this or that sin make my life better? I can't think of anything outside of those, but there might be. Again, the obvious (and the biblical) answer to how to deal with them is "the Bible", and I can attest to this in a couple of examples from my life. Last year, I went to a week long conference on the Trinity last year where everything the Bible said on the relationships between Father, Son and Spirit were pulled out and explained and applied. I came away not only fully convinced of the Trinity, but praising God for the loving relationship that has existed since before time and with a new desire to live in community with other Christians. Last week (and I'm still ashamed of this) in church while we were singing I suddenly couldn't believe that a God who created people who he knew were going to be punished for rejecting their maker was loving. I don't know what happened - I just couldn't believe it any more. Throughout that time, the verse "The LORD is gracious and compassionate" (from the Psalms, though I can't even remember where!) was my anchor. I knew that that was true because my Bible said so, so I knew that my objections and disbelief could take a seat. (It wasn't long before I was reminded of Jesus on the cross and couldn't see how God could be anything but love.) In those two cases, it was the words of the Bible that transformed (or kept) my belief in and obedience to God's words.

Any thoughts on those two questions (or the other two) from the two of you? This chapter really did refresh me and spur me on to increase my love for and knowledge of the Scriptures.