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| Photo Credit: Lukas Van Dyke (Shepherd's Conference) |
When
Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; or He was
teaching them as one having
authority, and not as their scribes (Matthew 7:28-29).
These
things speak and exhort and reprove with all
authority. Let no one disregard you (Titus 2:15).
·
This
truth led John Calvin to say: Let
the pastors boldly dare all things by the Word of God, of which they are
constituted administrators. Let them constrain
all the power, glory, and excellence of the world to give place to and to obey
the divine majesty of this Word. Let them enjoin
everyone by it, from the highest to the lowest. Let them edify the body of
Christ. Let them devastate Satan’s reign. Let them pasture the sheep, kill the
wolves, instruct and exhort the rebellious. Let them bind and loose, thunder
and lightning, if necessary, but let them do all according to the Word of
God.
[1]
·
This understanding of the preacher’s
role produced a pro found sense of humility in Calvin as he rose to preach. He saw himself as standing under the
authority of the Word. As Hughes Oliphant Old explains:
“Calvin’s
sermons . . . [reveal] a high sense of the authority of Scripture. The preacher
himself believed he was preaching the Word of God. He saw himself to be the
servant of the Word.”[2]
·
T.
H. L. Parker agrees about Calvin and his understanding
of the authority of Scripture:
“For
Calvin the message of Scripture is sovereign,
sovereign over the congregation and sovereign over the preacher. His
humility is shown by his submitting to this authority.”[3]
·
Calvin wrote: “The
office of teaching is committed to pastors for no other purpose than that God alone may be heard there.”[4]
·
Charles Spurgeon addressed the authority of
Scripture when he spoke: The
Holy Ghost revealed much of precious truth and holy precept by the apostles, and to His teaching we would
give earnest heed; but when men cite
the authority of fathers, and councils, and bishops, we give place for subjection,
no, not for an hour. They may quote Irenaeus or Cyprian, Augustine or Chrysostom; they may remind us of the
dogmas of Luther or Calvin; they may find authority in Simeon, Wesley, or Gill—we will
listen to the opinions of these great men with the respect which they deserve as
men, but having done so, we deny
that we have anything to do with these men as authorities in the church of God, for there nothing has any authority, but “Thus saith the Lord of hosts.” Yea, if you shall bring us the
concurrent consent of all tradition—if you shall quote precedents venerable
with fifteen, sixteen, or seven- teen centuries of antiquity, we burn the whole
as so much worthless lumber, unless you put your finger upon the passage of
Holy Writ which warrants the matter to be of God.
[5]
‘Thus
saith the Lord’—this is the motto of our standard . . . the only authority in God’s Church.” [6]
“Oh, Book of books! And wast thou written by my God? Then will I bow before Thee. Thou Book of vast authority! Thou art a proclamation from the Emperor of heaven; far be it from me to exercise my reason in contradicting thee.” [7]
·
Martin Luther writes of the highest authority of Scripture, which
must be preached. It is by the word that God exercise rule in the church:
“The
pulpit is the throne for the Word of God.”
[1] Calvin,
as quoted in Pierre Marcel, The Relevance of Preaching (New York, NY,
and Seoul, South Korea: Westminster Publishing House, 2000), 59.
[2] Hughes
Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the
Worship
of the Christian Church, Vol. 4: The Age of the Reformation (Grand
Rapids,
MI, and Cambridge, England: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002), 131.
[4] Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah,
Vol. 1, trans. William
Pringle (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1979
reprint), 95.
[5] Charles
H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle
Pulpit, Vol. X (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1976), 535.
