Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Absolute Authority

"God’s authority is also absolute in the sense that his covenant transcends all other loyalties . We are to have no other gods before the Lord (Ex. 20:3). We are to love him with all our heart; there should be no competing loyalties (Deut. 6:4–5; Matt. 22:37). The Lord is the head of the covenant, and he forbids us to grant lordship to anyone else.  
Jesus strikingly claims deity by demanding the same kind of exclusive loyalty for himself. “Honor your father and your mother” (Ex. 20:12) is one of the fundamental commandments of the law, one that Jesus fully honors and urges against those who would dilute its force (Matt. 15:1–9). Nevertheless, Jesus demands of his disciples a loyalty that transcends the loyalty that we owe to our parents. In Matthew 8:19–22 and 10:34–38, he teaches that the demands of discipleship take priority over duties to our parents. Only God can legitimately make such a demand.  
The principle sola Scriptura follows from this teaching. No other authority may compete with God’s own words. No words may be added to God’s or put on the same level of authority (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Isa. 29:13; Matt. 15:8–9). It is wrong to bind the consciences of God’s people by mere human traditions. Only the word of God has ultimate authority."
John Frame - Systematic Theology

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