What Was so Different About His Teaching?

by David Gibson

“No one ever spoke like this man!” So said the officers sent by the Pharisees to arrest Jesus, but who came back without Him. After hearing Him teach, they could not bring themselves to take Him into custody.

Many people noticed Jesus’ teaching differed because He spoke with authority (Matthew 7:28-29; Mark 1:21-22). Unlike the scribes, He did not quote the teachings of the rabbis to authenticate His message. He spoke with all the authority of heaven behind Him.

The Source of His Teaching

“My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me” (John 7:16).

“For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me” (John 12:49-50—see 8:28).

In His prayer for the apostles, Jesus said, “For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me” (John 17:8).

What Are We to Learn from This?

What we have from Jesus and the apostles, as recorded in Scripture, is divine and not of human origin. That being true, it is authoritative to the highest degree.

Jesus made absolutely sure He taught exactly what His Father directed Him to teach. And so should we!