God’s Revelation
There is a movement of false teachers within the church who try to turn the faith on its head with regards to scripture. Not only is it unnecessary, they claim, that a person accept the authority of scripture but, worse, it is actually idolatry to do so. In their argument, it is setting the text of scripture up as a god.
Already, many of you can see the absurdity of the claim. If my wife is talking to me and I ignore her words she will likely become upset fairly quickly. “I wasn’t ignoring you! I was only ignoring your words!” isn’t going to fly! Especially if there’s urgency in what she is trying to communicate.
However, there’s another problem and that is a question of “how do you know what you know?” We can no longer sit down with eye witnesses of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection to ask them about the matter. The Spirit may give you right desires to believe on Christ, but unless someone tells you of him you would be left wanting (Romans 10:14). Then, of course, there’s the question of reliability. If you know what you do about Jesus because someone told you, is that person infallible? If your source is not perfect, your knowledge will be imperfect.
Scripture is a Witness
Jesus (in John 5) was dealing with religious leaders questioning how they could know who he is as well. He was making some bold claims and were they just supposed to take his word for it? Even if what he was saying was true, how could they know?! Jesus came prepared with many witnesses.
There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
John 5:32-38
Jesus calls many witnesses here. First, John the Baptist had pointed people to Jesus. Second, the signs Jesus performed were a witness of who he was. Third, the voice of the Father had born witness about Jesus at his baptism.
However, he was not done yet! He had one more witness.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 5:39-40
In fact, Jesus said he has all the evidence he needed that they do not believe God. Not because they didn’t believe the signs or John. It is because they don’t believe the scriptures!
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
John 5:46-47
In fact, he implies here that it would be unthinkable that someone could possibly believe in Jesus if he rejects the scriptures.
Not Even a Resurrection
In Luke 16, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is recorded. In the story, the rich man ignores the plight of his impoverished neighbor until their deaths. In his death, the rich man finds himself in unbearable fire while Lazarus is safely kept with Abraham. First, he begs for a little relief and is denied. His thoughts then turn to preventing his brothers from suffering his fate. He begs that Lazarus may return from the dead to warn them.
And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
Luke 16:27-30
Here you can see, his family did not believe the scriptures yet he hoped they would believe a resurrection miracle. But what is Abraham’s reply?
He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
Luke 16:31
Jesus, in telling this parable, again expresses how those who reject the revelation of God as found in scripture are hopeless to believe. Those hearing this parable at that time lack context to fully appreciate the significance of this conclusion, but we now have record of the resurrection of Jesus and can understand the weight of this pronouncement even better. Those who reject the scriptures will not believe even one who returned from the grave.
Not Traditions of Man
While many want to create a false separation between faith in God and believing his revelation as recorded in scripture, Jesus himself states that it is impossible for a person to believe in God while rejecting scripture. If the god someone follows is a god after there own passions or the traditions they inherited against the witness of scripture, that god has no power to save.
Since the scriptures are a witness to Christ, those who reject them have only a Jesus of their own imagining. The only Son of God and savior for all mankind is the Jesus found in scripture.
