When God Speaks

by Micky Galloway

Lack of respect for divine authority is at the root of every problem of major proportion to face God’s people. Authority is the right to command or direct, to authorize a thing, to direct by authority. In spiritual matters all authority inheres in God.

In Hebrews 1:1-2 the writer said, “God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in (his) Son.” The fact that God speaks to us should be impressive to any discerning mind. This passage clearly teaches that God speaks to us today through His Son. In Matthew 17:5, as Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John, God the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (cf John 17:8). There was a time when God spoke through Moses the great lawgiver and through Elijah (representative of the prophets), but NOW God speaks through His beloved Son upon the pages of the New Testament. We are not under the Old Testament (Jeremiah 31:31-34; cf Hebrews 8:8ff; Ephesians 2:14-16; Colossians 2:14-16; Galatians 3:24-25). The apostle Peter wrote, “if any man speaketh, (speaking) as it were oracles of God; if any man ministereth, (ministering) as of the strength which God supplieth: that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (I Peter 4:11). The apostle John added, “Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son” (II John 9). The apostle Paul also wrote, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema” (Galatians 1:8). Clearly, the New Testament is God’s message to men today.

Christ chose His apostles and spoke through them (John 17:6-8,14,20-21; I John 1:1-3). Christ sent the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles into all truth (John 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:13; Acts 2:1-4; I Corinthians 2:10-13). The apostles, therefore, were His witnesses and ambassadors (Luke 24:46-48; Acts 1:8; II Corinthians 5:18-20; Acts 1:21-22; II Peter 1:16). When the apostles spoke they represented Christ, and their word must be received as the word of Christ (Matthew 10:40; John 13:20, cf John 12:48). Those who rejected the apostles rejected Christ who sent them. “He that heareth you heareth me; and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me; and he that rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me” (Luke 10:16). The apostles and other inspired men wrote the truth that was revealed to them. Their writings are known as the New Testament. It is a divine message, the word of God. Paul wrote concerning those in Thessalonica, “And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when ye received from us the word of the message, (even the word) of God, ye accepted (it) not (as) the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe” (I Thessalonians 2:13). It is a complete message. The Holy Spirit was promised to guide the apostles into “all truth” (John 16:13; cf II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:3). It is the final message. Jude wrote in verse 3, “Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.” It is the only message of salvation. Paul wrote to the saints at Rome, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). It is also an understandable message. As Paul wrote of the mystery revealed to the Ephesians, he said, “… I wrote before in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.” He then commanded, “understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 3:1-3; 5:17). It would be strange that we are commanded to understand this mystery, if indeed the revelation is not understandable.

But HOW does God speak to us through Christ? Just HOW are we to understand this communication of Christ through the Scriptures? As long as we are speaking where the Bible speaks and remaining silent where the Bible is silent, we are “speaking the same thing, … of the same mind, of the same judgment” (I Corinthians 1:10; cf 4:17; Philippians 3:16).

We could truthfully say that we come to understand Biblical authority in the same way that any rational person finds authorization from a superior. New Testament authority is established in one of three ways. 1) Command or precept involves a direct statement of instruction or direction. 2) Approved example involves a practice in the New Testament conducted under guidance of the apostles as they had received instruction from the Lord. 3) Necessary inference relates to that which, though neither expressly stated nor specifically exemplified, is necessarily implied by the language. It is a forced conclusion. This is not to suggest that we should not examine the text and context. Clearly there is need for studying the specific words, because the words used are inspired (cf I Corinthians 2:10ff). The Sadducees were rebuked for not knowing the tense of a verb "I AM" (Matthew 22). Paul makes a point on the singular use of the noun “seed” verses “seeds” in Galatians 3:16.

Jesus often gave instructions to His disciples in direct statements. These took several forms: commands, prohibitions, declarative affirmations, etc. We do not have to make a rule about accepting those kinds of statements. Jesus made the rule and His apostles confirmed it. John 14:15 says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Jesus said that judgment rests on our acceptance of this hermeneutical rule. “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” (John 12:48). The apostle Peter said, “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior” (II Peter 3:l-2).

The greater bone of contention in our day, relates to the authority of examples. Did Christ authoritatively instruct by illustration? Many appear inconsistent claiming that we should do as Christ did; but, on the other hand, we are not bound, they say, to the examples He and His apostles provided for the church. Again, Jesus and the apostles set forth this rule. John stated, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (I John 2:6). Paul said, “Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample … The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (Philippians 3:17; 4:9). The Lord's Supper on the first day of the week, was not an option with the disciples in Troas (Acts 20:7). We are to follow their example.

Certainly much truth is revealed by implication. This is not a man-made rule. The fact that action is authorized by necessary conclusions is illustrated in classic Bible examples. The baptism of Jesus (cf Matthew 3:16). We know by necessary inference that Jesus went down into the water, because you cannot come up out of the water without first having gone down into the water. It is a forced conclusion. The resurrection of the dead is taught by necessary inference by our Lord in Matthew 22:23-33. The Sadducees denied the resurrection, considering the dead to be annihilated. Jesus did not use a direct statement to refute them, but rather quoted Exodus 3:6,16, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When God spoke these words to Moses, the three patriarchs named had been dead for some four hundred years. Yet, Jesus concludes (necessarily) that “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” From the tense of the verb (“I am” and not “I was”), Jesus drew the conclusion necessarily that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, lived so as to be resurrected.

A desire to break free of biblical restraints has cultivated the soil for the planting of a new way to understand the Bible. However, it remains firm that in the matter of Biblical understanding and unity, we can only know the will of God when He speaks. Only when people appreciate the authority of the Scriptures and are determined to reproduce the faith of its message in their lives, will the unity of the Spirit be achieved and maintained.