Revisiting Bible Authority

by Andy Sochor
via Plain Bible Teaching

It is good and necessary to revisit certain topics from time to time. We do not want to “drift away” from what we have previously learned (Hebrews 2:1). Some topics are so foundational that they affect what we believe, teach, and practice – individually and collectively.

One of these foundational topics is Bible authority. Although it has been covered multiple times here, I want us to revisit it in this article, perhaps in a different way, to help reinforce the concept.

The Authority of Christ

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20).

When we discuss Bible authority, we need to begin with the authority of Christ. Jesus told His apostles that He possesses “all authority” (Matthew 28:18), and this was the basis for the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). After the apostles converted people to be disciples of Christ, they were to teach them to do what He commanded (Matthew 28:20). After all, He is Lord; therefore, He has a right to expect us to obey Him. Jesus asked, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).

The will of Christ, which contains instructions for His disciples, would be expressed through the teaching of the apostles He commissioned. They were His “ambassadors” (II Corinthians 5:20), serving as His official spokesmen as the Holy Spirit guided them “into all the truth” (John 16:13).

We do not have living apostles today who can carry out the same commission, yet we can follow the teachings they delivered from heaven. Paul told Timothy, “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 1:13). Timothy was to hold fast to the message taught by Jesus’ apostles. He was to “entrust these [words] to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2). The apostles taught with the authority of Christ so that their writings were equal to “the Lord’s commandment” (I Corinthians 14:37). Therefore, if we want to know what to do by the authority of Christ, we need to find out what has been authorized in the words handed down by the apostles by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The Importance of Patterns

“…who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, ‘See,’ He says, ‘that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain’” (Hebrews 8:5).

God has always used patterns to instruct His people; the verse above is one example. The Hebrew writer cited God’s instructions to Moses about building the tabernacle: “See that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain” (Exodus 25:40).

How important was it for God’s people to follow the pattern He gave them? Notice what the Hebrew writer said about Jesus:

“Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law…” (Hebrews 8:4).

This verse was right before the one above that emphasized making “all things according to the pattern” (Hebrews 8:5). In fact, it is a continuation of the same thought. The Hebrew writer used the example of Jesus to show how essential it is to follow the pattern that God has given. Why could Jesus “not be a priest” under the old law? He explained why in the previous chapter: “For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests” (Hebrews 7:14). Priests came from the tribe of Levi (Numbers 3:5-7). Jesus was of the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1:1-3; 2:1, 6). There was no specific prohibition against men from Judah serving as priests, but God's pattern did not include them. The rule established by this pattern could not be altered even for Jesus.

We also see patterns in the New Testament:

• When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He gave the bread to represent His body on the cross and the fruit of the vine (cup) to represent His blood that was shed in His death (Matthew 26:26-29). When Paul reminded the church in Corinth about how they were to partake of the Lord’s Supper, he repeated Jesus’ instructions as the pattern they were to follow (I Corinthians 11:23-26).
• Paul explained to the saints in Rome that when they were converted to Christ, they “became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching” (Romans 6:17). The word “form” means a pattern or mold. What pattern did they follow in obeying the gospel? Earlier in the chapter, Paul reminded them how they had been “buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Just as Jesus died, was buried, and was raised from the dead, we follow the same pattern when we are converted – we die to sin, are buried in baptism, and are raised to live a new life in Him.

The fact that there are patterns like these is why churches that strive to follow God’s pattern will generally look the same. Paul told the Corinthians, “For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church” (I Corinthians 4:17). The message Paul preached, and the practices he taught were the same in every church. He knew that when Timothy arrived, he would preach and teach the same things.

As we noticed earlier, we are to hold fast to the pattern handed down by the apostles (II Timothy 1:13). We are to “walk according to the pattern” and follow the example of those who do (Philippians 3:17).

Identifying Patterns

If we understand that the authority of Christ is expressed in His word and that He provides instructions in patterns that we are to follow, how do we identify patterns? How can we know what the Lord wants us to do?

Patterns are often found by examining a comprehensive list of passages. This means combining several passages on a particular topic to get a comprehensive picture of what the Lord expects us to believe, teach, and practice.

As an example of how this works, notice the instructions about conversion that are recorded in the three accounts of the Great Commission:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned’” (Mark 16:15-16).

“And He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things’” (Luke 24:46-48).

If we isolate these passages from one another, we can see Matthew’s account mentioning baptism, Mark’s account including belief and baptism, and Luke’s account containing repentance. Do we pick one of those and ignore the others? Or do we combine them to form a complete picture of what one must do to be saved? The record of the events on the day of Pentecost helps us answer that question:

“‘Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’ […] So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:36-38, 41).

What did those three thousand people do to respond to the gospel? They believed in Christ, repented of their sins, and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. Which of the Great Commission accounts explicitly mentioned all three of those steps? None of them did. But when we put them all together, we get a complete picture of what Peter taught and the people did on the day of Pentecost.

When we see various passages that address the same topic but contain different elements (like the three accounts of the Great Commission), we have two options: (1) we can either consider the passages comprehensively, as they complement one another, or (2) we can conclude they are contradictory. Jesus said, “The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), which means that God’s word will not contradict itself. Therefore, we have to view various passages that address a particular topic as parts of the whole that we are to put together to get a complete picture of the Lord’s will on that topic.

What Has Been Bound and Loosed

“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19).

When Jesus promised to build His church, He spoke of the power to “bind” and “loose.” However, He said that whatever would be “bound” and “loosed” would be done “in heaven.” In other words, rules (what is bound) are from God, and permissions (what is loosed) are also from God.

The rules from God are what He requires us to do. How do we know what this is? We find what He requires by looking at commands, examples, and implications revealed in His word. This is how all communication works. Someone is told what to do, shown what to do, or expectations of what to do are implied, and he draws necessary or unavoidable conclusions about what is to be done. We can see this in the New Testament teaching about the Lord’s Supper:

• The Lord commanded His apostles to “do this in remembrance of [Him]” (I Corinthians 11:24-25). This involved using certain emblems to represent the body and blood of Christ (Matthew 26:26-29).
• The church in Troas met “on the first day of the week” to “break bread” (Acts 20:7), a reference to the Lord’s Supper. Paul’s participation in this showed that this was an approved example.
• When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, it was during the days of Unleavened Bread (Matthew 26:17) when nothing with leaven would have been in the house (Exodus 12:15). This implies that the bread used for the memorial must have been unleavened. That is a necessary inference.

Combining all these passages gives us a picture of what the Lord expects us to do in observing the Lord’s Supper.

What about permissions? How do we know what God has allowed?

It is a matter about which God is indifferent.

This particularly relates to matters of individual action. Paul wrote, “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him” (Romans 14:1-3). Since God accepted the one who ate meat and the one who ate vegetables only, we know that neither was right or wrong; both were permitted.

It is a matter about which God was not specific.

We already noticed the example of Jesus and the instructions in the old law about which tribe the priests could come from (Hebrews 7:12-14). Because God specified that the priests were to come from the tribe of Levi, no one from another tribe could serve as priest. If we think about the music we use in our worship, the New Testament specifies singing (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16), which would exclude other types of music (such as instrumental music), but he did not specify the number of songs we sing in our worship (3, 5, 12, etc.), so we are permitted to decide that for ourselves.

It is not a violation of what has been revealed.

Paul wrote, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not” (I Corinthians 10:23, KJV). Many have claimed that various practices are expedient to argue that they are authorized. Yet this is backward. A practice must first be lawful (authorized) before it can be expedient. Returning to the example of the music in our worship, we know singing is authorized. Therefore, an expedient would be something that helps us carry out the practice (such as using songbooks). Some have argued that a musical instrument is also an expedient, yet the use of the instrument adds something to our singing (playing the instrument). As we noticed above, the New Testament specifies singing as the type of music we use in our worship, which excludes other types of music. Therefore, to add a musical instrument to our worship would be a change or deviation from the pattern we find in the New Testament.

It would not be possible to cover every area in which we might seek to determine what rules and permissions God has given. But in every area, we need to take the same approach: recognize Christ's authority and look to the sum of His word to find the pattern that has been revealed.

Conclusion

Bible authority is an important topic because Jesus has all authority, and His will is expressed in His word. We need to do all things by His authority, as Paul told the brethren in Colossae, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father” (Colossians 3:17).