by Keith Sharp
Evangelist Oral Roberts claimed Jesus appeared to him and told him to raise millions of dollars for a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma or he would die. More recently, a preacher was arrested as he and members of his congregation rode together in a car from Texas to Florida. Their offense was public nudity. The preacher claimed God told them to strip off their clothing and drive to Florida. A number of times I have tried to have Bible studies with people only to have them inform me that God speaks to them directly and tells them what to do.
This is a very serious matter. Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus Christ is not one of many ways; He is the only way to God and His salvation. But, to come to Jesus and to receive salvation through Him, we must be “taught by God.” We must hear and learn and thus come in the way the Father directs
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me (John 6:44-45).
This raises a question of primary importance: How does God teach us? How does He make known His will? This is really a question of authority. “Authority” is the right to issue commands and the ability to enforce the commands. Our question could be posed: What is our authority in spiritual matters?
Primary Authority
All primary authority, i.e., original or first authority, in every realm belongs to God. “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24). He has all authority by right of creation. Furthermore, “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness” (1 Corinthians 10:26). Were one to travel completely around the globe and view in turn all the cultures of men and the natural beauty of the world, then to turn his gaze in awe upon the limitless, starry space above, one grand thought should crowd all others from the mind – it all belongs to God. God made and owns it all. He has all primary authority.
But no man can by human wisdom search out and discover the mind of God.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?’ ‘Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?’ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:33-36).
If we are to know His will, He must reveal it. How has God made known His authority?
Delegated Authority
Jesus Christ has all delegated authority, i. e., given or secondary authority. He claimed, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Christ has all authority because He makes known God’s will to man. Upon this basis He invites all men to come to Him.
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:27-30).
Because Jesus spoke from the Father, His word will judge us in the last day.
He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him–the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak (John 12:48 – 49).
In times recorded in the Old Testament, God spoke to men in “various ways,” but he has “in these last days spoken to us by His Son.”
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds (Hebrews 1:1-2).
But Christ has not spoken directly to any of us. Paul was the last witness of the raised Lord. “Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:8). How has Jesus revealed the will of the Father to us?
Revealed Authority
The Holy Spirit revealed the Lord’s authority to Christ’s apostles. John 13:1 – 16:33 is the record of a private lesson Jesus gave to His chosen eleven apostles (Judas had just gone out to betray Him) immediately after the Last Supper. The Lord promised the apostles that the Holy Spirit would guide them “into all truth,” because He would receive Jesus’ will and show it to the apostles.
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you (John 16:13-15).
The apostles of Christ, therefore, received the very “deep things of God … in words … which the Holy Spirit” taught.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (1 Corinthians 2:12-13).
The apostles of Christ thus became the “ambassadors (i.e., ones sent with authority) for Christ.” “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Written Authority
But how have the apostles of Christ made known His will to us? They “briefly” wrote the authoritative will of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. We can read these words and understand the apostles knowledge “in the mystery of Christ.”
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles– if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets (Ephesians 3:1-5).
Our Obligation
This New Testament is a “pattern of sound words” which we must “Hold fast” (keep, retain, be consistent with). “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13). It is a pattern of authority. Thus, we must pattern our lives by its’ teaching. “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17). We must refuse to go beyond that which it authorizes. “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9).
The New Testament is the divine standard of authority by which God teaches us today. Thus, you can only come to Jesus and be saved in the way it teaches (John 6:44-45). Will you not come to Jesus and be saved by hearing and learning from the New Testament and coming to Christ in the way it directs? (Matthew 11:28-30)
