Category Archives: Authority

The authority of Christ

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Are we sufficiently mindful of the authority of Jesus Christ?

Consider:-

1. Its origin. Cf. Jn 3:35, “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.” Mt 11:27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father.” Eph 1:22 ‘God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.’ See also Ps 2:6-12; Ps 110:1. If all of Christ’s power and authority is derived from the Father, how much more is this the case with us.…

Spiritual authority

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In his excellent collection of essays and papers on the Puritans, J.I. Packer offers the following succinct account of spiritual authority:-

‘Spiritual authority is hard to pin down in words, but we recognise it when we meet it. It is a product compounded of

      • conscientious faithfulness to the Bible;
      • vivid perception of God’s reality and greatness;
      • inflexible desire to honour and please him;
      • deep self-searching and radical self-denial;
      • adoring intimacy with Christ;
      • generous compassion manward; and
      • forthright simplicity, God-taught and God-wrought, adult in its knowingness while childlike in its directness.’
…

The authority of the gospel

Walking With Giants Posted on by

James Denney (1856-1917) was a Scottish theologian.  In a day when liberalism was highly influential, he stressed the authority of the gospel of Christ, as the following quote shows:-

‘There is that in the Gospel with which no one is allowed to argue. All we can do is believe or disbelieve; to give it in our life the place of the final reality to which everything else must give way, or to refuse it that place.…