Perhaps we are living in the midst of a crisis of authority. Who or what is our authority? How do we know what is real and good and true? Jesus will help us answer this question. The gospels make it clear in their description of his life and words.
Jesus first shows us during his temptations from the devil in the wilderness. Satan tempted the hungry Jesus to turn stones to bread, to test God by jumping from the pinnacle of the temple, and finally to fall down and worship him (see Mt. 4:1-11). In all three cases Jesus answered, “It is written…” and each time quoted from Deuteronomy: 8:3, 6:16, and 6:13. Men and women are to live on the life-giving words of God, to never test God, and to worship God alone. Jesus, our Savior and our example, obeyed the law of God.
Jesus was often tested by the Pharisees. They once did so, referring to the law of Moses, “by asking, ‘Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?’” (see Mt. 19:1-12). Note his response. “He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?” So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate’” (Mt. 19:4-6 ESV). In this case Jesus referred to Genesis and his belief in our first parents, Adam and Eve. He looked to the Old Testament narratives for his understanding of the created order and how we are to live within it.
Toward the end of his earthly life Jesus spoke of his second coming. He wanted us to realize how it will come suddenly. He said, “’For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man’” (Mt. 24:37-39). Jesus recounted the judgement on all living creatures other than those within the ark as he prepares us for the judgement at the end of time as we know it. Old Testament events served as types for the events of Jesus’ life and even the future judgment of the living and the dead.
Finally, on another occasion Jesus was asked by both the scribes and the Pharisees for a sign to authenticate his words (see Mt. 12:38-42). Jesus, however, did not do signs on command. Therefore, not unlike his reference to Noah above, “he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of earth’” (Mt. 12:39, 40). Jesus believed in the miracles his Father performed throughout the Old Testament as well as his own fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
So what was Jesus’ authority? The infallible and inerrant Bible, the word of God (at that time made up of the 39 books of the Old Testament). God’s word is the first word and the final word. As Jesus said, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass away from the Law until all is accomplished” (Mt. 5:18). And he added, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35b).
Our Westminster Standards remind us clearly. Our only authority for glorifying and enjoying God as well as our only authority for faith and practice, is the word of God, the Bible, which is made up of the Old and New Testaments. (See WLC questions 1-4.) Thank God for the Bible. Let us continue to read it, study it, preach it, meditate on it, and obey it.
Pastor Josh
- The above is my church newsletter article for Feb. 2024