Tag: Gospel

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What We Believe – The Role and Authority of Scripture

This is a series based on short papers I’ve written for my church’s elder class. We are going through Boice’s Foundations of the Christian Faith and discussing different subjects out of our church statement of faith. Where appropriate I’ve edited them slightly to make them more general in tone as opposed to specific to my church, as well as expanded on areas that could use it since these were originally written to fit into a five-minute presentation time.
This entry’s subject: What is the Bible, and what does it mean for it to be an authority for the church?

Scripture holds a position in the Christian faith above all other rules, authorities, or leaders. It explains and displays God’s existence, and His nature, character, and actions are demonstrated and displayed through the text. We can deduce from creation itself that there is a Creator who has made all that is. But what the Bible does is place its reader in the position of hearing not just that God is, but that everything that exists is under His authority, and that it all serves to give Him glory. It declares that God is eternal, that He can be known on a personal level, and that He is actively working in His creation for His glory and for our good. We see this when we study it, and the more we learn about what it says and even how it came to be, we see how determined God is to complete His great work in redeeming creation.

That is why what Paul says about Scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16 is so important, that “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” What God reveals to us is the standard by which everything else is judged, specifically because it is His very speech. There cannot be a higher standard by which we can judge ourselves, because God has spoken clearly and directly through the writers of Scripture. And even better, He hasn’t left us alone to understand it by our own wisdom, but has blessed us with His Spirit to guide us.

One of the classic standards of the Reformation era was the phrase sola scriptura, meaning “Scripture alone.” But that didn’t mean that we need only the Bible and nothing else to live life as Christians. A fuller expression of this idea would be that “Scripture alone is the sole infallible rule of faith for the church.” We have other rules of faith – a church’s statement of faith or creed, for example, as well as traditions within denominations and teachings of wise people that have come before us and lived life in Christ. But they all must submit to Scripture as the measure by which they are judged. And it is lived in and with the church – one man alone with no others who may hold him accountable might land wherever he may wish, but among God’s people he has others who will minister to him like Priscilla and Aquila did to Apollos, in correcting and guiding him in his understanding and faith.

Whenever others attempt to place other rules of faith alongside Scripture, ultimately they must either fall beneath it or become an interpretive guide for it. The Roman Catholic church claims that Scripture, church tradition, and the teachings of the magisterium are equals in guiding the church, yet in practice it ultimately becomes the words of their leadership or tradition that influence how Scripture is understood. Mormons claim that they believe that the Bible is God’s Word, yet their leadership appends the phrase “so far as it has been correctly interpreted” to that concept. Ultimately, the Bible falls beneath the opinions of the current prophet of the LDS church and its meanings filtered through his claims.

For Scripture to serve as the standard by which we may minister to believers in “teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness,” it must be held above our human wisdom and desires, and instead all of those things must rub up against it and be guided by it. It must be more than base information to know, but it should guide our thoughts and correct our heart’s desires. By God’s grace we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to minister His Word through one another. Even where disagreements grow, He teaches humility and patience, and reveals that what He has revealed belongs to us and is worthy of trust and obedience.

How have you seen this work out in your life and faith? Where do you struggle with this? We welcome all questions and discussion below in the comments.

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New Feature – What We Believe

Dave here – Jake and I both are taking part in a class geared around diving deeper into theology and the statement of faith of our church. Part of that is focused around writing short papers on different questions related to that statement while we are studying the subjects in James Montgomery Boice’s Foundations of the Christian Faith. Jake has been encouraging me to take the ones I’ve put together and publish them, so that’s what this is going to be. The goal will be to sort of set out in an accessible and readable form what it is that we believe, to provide context that will go into the subjects we discuss. So without further ado, I’m going to begin with the first subject we addressed – defining the gospel, in a way that doesn’t require a lot of preexisting understanding of the language of church.

The gospel is good news, not just because that’s literally what the word means, but because it is a beacon of hope in a world that doesn’t exactly shine with hope. All you have to do is open your phone and look at your news app, or even scroll Facebook for ten seconds. You don’t have to look very hard to see how full of evil, despair, and loss our world is. How many times have you looked at a news story of someone doing something especially wicked, or just seen people acting out, and just shaken your head at that?

But the gospel isn’t something that starts its work simply “out there.” It begins “in here,” in each of us. Because the fact is, I don’t think you have to work very hard to see what evil comes out of you without having to work very hard. Have you taken things that weren’t yours? Said things that hurt someone deeply, and now you regret that moment and carry it like a weight? Even the thoughts that come across your mind – you don’t have to tell me what they are. Because I know, because…I’ve had them too. Everyone has. “I want, I want, I want…” even though having it will harm you, or someone else, or more. The list is endless.

But this is why the gospel is so incredibly important, and it’s why the Bible is so big. Start at the beginning, you see how humans tried to be their own gods, tried to take the concept of right and wrong into their hands, and instead found only death. And we still do it, over and over today. But the gospel came in right at the beginning – right in the shadow of sin’s curse taking effect, in Genesis 3, God promised the first humans that He would undo all of it, renew everything, through someone who was to come in the future.

That someone is Jesus. He was born in a time and place, and yet He has always been. The Son of God laid aside His divine glory to take on the life of a lowly human, because in taking on that life He was able to live perfectly. Then, He challenged that curse of sin, and its consequence – death. He died, and it was a horrible death, on a Roman cross – a death that was intended to mock and degrade its victim. But Jesus went to it with no shame.

But He didn’t just die and now we mourn Him. He defeated those curses – sin, He has overcome completely, because He stood in the place of all who believe in Him and died the death we all deserve, receiving that punishment as the perfect replacement. If you look at the Old Testament law you see over and over how animals were sacrificed because they took the place of their sinful owners, taking the death their sins deserved. Jesus did that for all who believe in Him, and His work is finished. But there’s another piece that’s critical – He isn’t dead. He rose again, defeating and destroying death. To believe in Jesus is to trust that He has paid for the sins you’re guilty of, and to hope in His work that will undo death. But, it’s also to participate in His great work on earth now, to undo those curses of sin and death through the love and service we give one another, and our neighbors. 

The gospel is good news for you, and for me, and for everyone who hears it and believes it, because it means we can let go of the weight we carry when we believe we can control our lives and our world, because we can’t. But we have a good God who does, and who calls us to Himself, in Jesus. His work is not heavy and exhausting, but gives joy and nourishes life.

Let us know what you think – how would you try to explain the gospel to someone? Leave a comment below!