8/3/2019 God's Word is Authoritative

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#7. God's Word is Authoritative

Luke 4:31– 32 And He [Jesus] came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on

the Sabbath; 32 and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority. 

Another quality that the Word of God possesses is authority. This should not be surprising, given what

we have already seen. A Word that is inerrant, pure, upright and everlasting Truth must necessarily be

authoritative!

In our text we see that the teaching of Jesus amazed the people - it almost overwhelmed them. What

was it about His words that had such an effect? Luke tells us it was because His message was with

authority. The word in the Greek conveys the idea of having the ability (or power) to perform an action.

Mark's Gospel explains that the crowd was comparing this teaching with the normal stuff they heard

from their Scribes, and the contrast was enormous. Here was something clear and distinctive,

something powerful coming with utter conviction from Someone, in such a way that there was no doubt

either of its truth, of its practicality, or of His ability to do all the things He promised.

The Scribes, on the other hand, taught as those who had no sense of the certainty of their words. They

laid out rules and regulations, but only as those who knew the letter of them and not their spirit. They

gave a framework for salvation which depended on man's efforts, but with great doubtfulness as to

their efficacy or sufficiency. Their words lacked the power and complete conviction that Jesus had. So

the crowd was amazed by Him.

This same authority characterizes not just the words of Jesus the Son of God, but all of God's Words as

they are recorded for us in the Bible. Do we have the same sense of amazement that the hearers of 

Jesus had as we read its pages? We certainly have no lack of people giving us man-made ideas for living

our lives on earth and achieving some sort of "salvation" afterwards. But as we compare their teaching

with the words of Scripture, they are empty and superficial. The words of the Bible are full of power and

have their origin in a God Who has no lack of ability to bring all things to pass that are recorded there for

us to read.

In this coming week, let’s strive to be students of this authoritative Word of God, and to put the lessons

we learn into practice in our lives!

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