How the Bible Teaches

If you are going to understand how the Bible teaches, you will need to understand authority in religion—what it is, why it is needed, how it is expressed and how it is established. You see, all authority in religion resides with God and He has expressed it to us in His word, the Bible, telling us what He wants us to do and how He wants us to live. If you are going to live a life that will please God, you must consider what His will for you is. You must, therefore, understand how that will is expressed to us in the inspired Scriptures determining how those Scriptures, the Bible, teach us.

The Old Testament Is No Authority for Us Today

The Old Testament has no authority today. Since it served its purpose (Galatians 3:24-27) and was fulfilled by Jesus Christ (Mat-thew 5:17), it was taken out of the way (Colossians 2:14). Hebrews 7:12 states that it was necessary to change the law in order to change the priesthood. For Jesus to serve as our high priest, the Old Law had to be taken away for only members of the tribe of Levi could be priests under it. Jesus was of the tribe of Judah. Verse 18 of Hebrews 7 says the Old Law had to be taken away because of its “weakness and unprofitableness.” It was never intended to serve throughout all time. Galatians 3:19 says it was only to be in force “till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made.” That “Seed” is identified for us as “Christ” (Galatians 3:16). Jesus came and fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17). No person should seek to justify any religious practices by the Old Law today. If one does, he is “estranged from Christ” and “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4). You might ask, then, “Why do we still have the Old Testament in our Bibles?” That is a good question. As with all questions that pertain to matters of faith, the Bible has the answer to it. The following passages supply it.

• John 5:39. “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” Jesus is the speaker in this passage. The “Scriptures” He is referring to are those of the Old Testament since the New Testament had not yet been written. Therefore, we can learn about Jesus from the Old Testament Scriptures because they “testify” of Him.
• Romans 15:4. “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” According to this text, the Old Testament Scriptures were “written for our learning.” We can learn many valuable lessons and gain much valuable information by reading the Old Testament.
• 1 Corinthians 10:11. “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.” The Old Testament examples of the sins of the children of Israel are given to warn us from falling prey to the same iniquity that caused them to displease God.

The New Testament Is Our Authority Today

The New Testament is our authority today because it contains the words of Christ (John 12:48; Hebrews 1:1-2), the one who has all authority (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:22-23). Jesus is God’s exclusive spokesman today (Hebrews 1:1-2). His words are to endure as long as this earth endures (Matthew 24:35; cf. Jude 3). Whatever we do spiritually, therefore, must be done in His “name” (Colossians 3:17), i.e., by His authority. All must be done according to His will, the New Testament. Since the New Testament Scriptures contain all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), we need nothing more than the body of teaching they contain. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 relates that the Scriptures thoroughly furnish the child of God in every good work he is to do. The New Testament Scriptures supply us with everything we need to be righteous before our God and to do all things that He would have us do.

How the New Testament Instructs

The authority of Christ is expressed in the doctrine of Christ (2 John 9). The doctrine of Christ is the perfect, complete revelation of God’s will in the gospel, the New Testament (Hebrews 1:1-2). We must neither add to it nor take from it (2 John 9; 1 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 22:18- 19). We are not to substitute anything in place of it. We cannot rebel against it without incurring the wrath of God (Matthew 15:7-9; 1 Peter 4:11).

• Christ’s authority teaches us in three ways: direct command or statement, approved example, and necessary inference or implication.
• Direct command or statement. This is a direct statement of something that must or must not be done. Acts 2:38 is an example of this type of teaching. The command or statement can either be specific (Ephesians 5:19) or general (Matthew 28:19). Specific commands exclude all things not specified. General commands include everything that is necessary to carry out the general command.
• Approved example or precedent. By this, we mean the example of the New Testament church and its practices under the guidance of the apostles (Philippians 4:9). The apostles taught and applied what they had received from the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:1). We do not follow every example, though, for many of them are purely incidental.
• Necessary inference or implication. A necessary inference or implication is something that, though not expressly stated or specifically exemplified, is necessarily implied or inferred by the clear import and meaning of the language used. A good illustration of this type of teaching is Hebrews 10:25. This passage commands Christians to assemble. While it does not specifically mention a place to assemble, we must necessarily infer that we cannot assemble without someplace at which to meet.