THE IMPORTANCE OF BOWING TO THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE.
Nothing can exceed the importance that our Lord and the servants of God in all ages have given to scripture. Our Lord exposed the infidelity of the Sadducees as to resurrection, by saying to them, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God," and by a quotation from Ex. 3:66Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. (Exodus 3:6). He also put the Pharisees to silence as to His Person, by quoting Psa. 110:11<<A Psalm of David.>> The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. (Psalm 110:1). We are told that the disciples were perplexed, because "they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead." The Lord also sharply rebuked the two unhappy ones walking to Emmaus, by saying unto them, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." What an exposition of the Old Testament this must have been! Is it astonishing that they said, "Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the scriptures?”
The Corinthian believers were sadly wrong, because they knew not the scripture as to the resurrection of the body. The Galatian believers went wrong, because they were adding "circumcision" to the work of Christ, in order to make their salvation more secure; and the apostle, by the Spirit, uses scripture to set them right. The Colossian saints were not quite free as to ritualism and rationalism, because they got away from scripture, and therefore were "not holding the Head"-not in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ as Head of the body, the assembly. The Thessalonian believers were not clear on some points as to the Lord's coming, and were therefore sorrowful, which they would not have been had they known the truth as to the resurrection of the bodies of those who are Christ's, the change of the living, and the rapture to meet the Lord in the air.
Some of the Hebrew saints were in danger of giving up Christianity, and going back to Judaism, because they knew not the truth which the scriptures teach as to the eternal efficacy of the one offering of Christ once for all, and the liberty to enter into the holiest with boldness by the blood of Jesus since the veil was rent, and Jesus appears in the presence of God for us as our great High Priest. Could anything more be required than the consideration of these facts, to induce us to read and meditate on the Word of God for soul-blessing, and guidance as to life and walk?
Thank God, the Holy Ghost dwells in us, is able to teach us and guide us into all the truth, so that an apostle could say of believers, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.”
(Continued)