The Supreme Authority of Scripture (Part Two)

In this presentation, I address an important question left unanswered in part one: How does Jesus authenticate the authority of the New Testament when it had not yet been written during His earthly ministry?

Before answering that question directly, however, we must first consider an even more fundamental issue: Why did God choose to reveal Himself through written Scripture rather than through an ongoing succession of prophets or continual divine appearances? The result is a rich biblical presentation of written revelation as God’s enduring means of speaking to His people across every generation.

Review of Part One

A brief review of the central themes of part one should prove useful. The Bible possesses what theologians call self-authenticating authority. Drawing from Hebrews 6, we recall God’s oath to Abraham. Because there is no authority higher than God Himself, God swore by His own name. Likewise, if Scripture truly is God’s speech, there can be no higher authority to which it can appeal for validation. Attempting to authenticate Scripture by something greater would imply that another authority stands above God. Thus, Scripture is authoritative because it is God’s own Word.

Two essential attributes of Scripture discussed previously are inerrancy and infallibility. Scripture is inerrant because God is incapable of speaking in error. It is infallible because it unfailingly accomplishes God’s purposes. These doctrines are illustrated through Jesus’ own treatment of the Old Testament. During His earthly ministry, Christ consistently regarded Scripture as the final and unquestionable authority. He appealed to Scripture rather than human tradition, declared that it could not be broken, affirmed that not even the smallest detail would pass away until all was fulfilled, and presented Himself as the fulfillment of everything the Scriptures foretold. Jesus’ unwavering confidence in the authority of Scripture establishes the model that Christians are to follow.

Written Revelation

Since Jesus ministered before the New Testament existed, how should believers understand Christ’s relationship to those writings? If Jesus affirmed the Old Testament so strongly, what grounds exist for believing that the New Testament carries the same divine authority? Before addressing that directly, we can first explore a more fundamental question: Why did God choose to give His revelation in written form?

The first biblical answer comes from Psalm 102, where the psalmist declares that God’s mighty acts are to be recorded for future generations, including people who have not yet been born. This passage reveals an important principle about divine revelation. God’s saving acts are not intended only for those who witnessed them firsthand. Rather, they are preserved so that succeeding generations may know the Lord, praise Him, and trust His promises. Written revelation enables God to continue speaking long after the original events have passed.

This principle is reinforced by Paul in Romans 15:4, where he explains that everything written in former times was written for our instruction. Although the Old Testament was originally given under the Mosaic covenant, it continues to instruct Christians today because it reveals God’s character, purposes, and redemptive plan. While certain ceremonial regulations have been fulfilled in Christ and are therefore no longer binding, the Scriptures themselves remain God’s living Word, providing encouragement, endurance, hope, and wisdom for His people. Through the written text, God continues to address every generation of believers. Thus, Scripture is not merely an ancient historical document. It is God’s ongoing voice to His people. (Deuteronomy 31:24–26; Isaiah 30:8). Unlike a dead letter preserved only for historical interest, the Bible remains living and active because God continues to speak through it whenever it is faithfully read and proclaimed. Until Christ returns, Scripture remains the divinely appointed means by which God reveals Himself and shapes His people.

Numerous examples from the OT illustrate God’s deliberate intention that His revelation be preserved in writing. God repeatedly commanded His prophets not merely to proclaim His message verbally but also to record it permanently. Jeremiah was instructed, “Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you” (30:2). Likewise, Habakkuk (2:2–4) was commanded to “write the vision” plainly so that both present and future readers could understand it. These commands demonstrate that written revelation was never an afterthought. God intended His words to endure beyond the lifetime of the prophets themselves.

Habakkuk’s declaration that God’s revelation “will not prove false” points directly to the doctrine of inerrancy. What God reveals through His prophets is completely trustworthy because God Himself cannot lie. Every prophetic word is absolutely true and ultimately comes to pass exactly as God intends.

A particularly powerful illustration of the importance of written revelation comes from the reign of King Josiah in 2 Kings. During a period of widespread spiritual decline, the Book of the Law had been neglected and virtually forgotten within the Temple. When it was rediscovered, Josiah was deeply convicted, recognizing how thoroughly Israel had departed from God’s commands. Rather than introducing some new revelation, the reforms under Josiah consisted of returning to the written Word that God had already given through Moses. The problem was never a deficiency in Scripture but the people’s neglect of it. God’s solution was not to provide another revelation but to call His people back to the one they already possessed.

There are also several practical reasons why written revelation is necessary. First, written revelation protects God’s truth from the inevitable corruption through purely oral tradition. Human beings are fallen and prone to distort, exaggerate, or forget what God has done. Without an authoritative written record, each generation would gradually alter God’s revelation according to its own preferences and cultural assumptions. Scripture therefore serves as an objective anchor, continually calling God’s people back to the truth rather than allowing them to reshape revelation according to the vanity of fallen human imagination.

This principle is illustrated in the widespread flood traditions found around the world. These accounts often preserve fragments of historical memory, including references to a great flood, a hero, a boat, and surviving animals. Yet they have been thoroughly reshaped by pagan mythology and idolatry. Genesis, by contrast, provides God’s own inspired version and interpretation of those historical events, preserving the truth without distortion.

Another important dimension of written revelation is its public accessibility. God’s Word is open to examination, proclamation, and study. Throughout history, skeptics have repeatedly challenged Scripture, yet the Bible has endured while countless critics have faded into obscurity. The enduring nature of Scripture testifies to its divine origin and continuing authority.

The universal accessibility of written revelation is also significant. Because Scripture is recorded in human language, it can be translated into every tongue and carried to every nation. This serves the worldwide command of Jesus in the Great Commission. Missionaries can translate the Bible into the languages of diverse peoples, allowing men and women throughout the world to hear God’s voice in their own tongue. In this way, Scripture becomes one of God’s greatest instruments of grace, extending His revelation across cultures, languages, and generations.

Scripture does more than record God’s mighty acts—it also interprets them. Events such as the Exodus, the death and resurrection of Christ, and God’s saving work throughout history could easily be misunderstood apart from divine explanation. Through Scripture, God not only tells His people what He has done but also explains the meaning and significance of those acts. The Bible therefore functions as God’s authoritative interpreter of His own redemptive work, ensuring that His people understand His purposes correctly rather than according to human speculation.

If this has consistently been God’s pattern throughout redemptive history, we should expect the establishment of the New Covenant to produce new covenant documents as well.

New Covenant Documents

Having established why God chose to reveal Himself through written Scripture, we can now turn to the central question at hand: How did Jesus authenticate the authority of the New Testament when it had not yet been written during His earthly ministry?

The answer is deeply Trinitarian. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit worked together to provide a new body of inspired writings that would stand alongside the OT as God’s authoritative revelation. The pattern established in the OT naturally prepares believers to expect the production of New Testament Scripture. Throughout the Old Covenant, God acted in history, interpreted His actions through divinely appointed prophets, and preserved those revelations in written documents for future generations. It would therefore be entirely consistent for God to follow the same pattern after the coming of Christ. If the Old Covenant was accompanied by covenant documents, then the establishment of the New Covenant should likewise result in new covenant documents that permanently preserve God’s revelation concerning Christ’s redemptive work.

Jesus Himself laid the foundation for this process during His final discourse with His disciples. In John 14 and 16, Christ made remarkable promises regarding the ministry of the Holy Spirit. These passages are often understood simply as promises of spiritual guidance for believers generally, but I would argue that their primary context concerns the disciples themselves and their unique role in transmitting divine revelation.

In John 16:12–15, Jesus tells His disciples the following:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (ESV)

“All the truth” should not be understood as unlimited knowledge about every conceivable subject. Jesus is not promising the apostles complete understanding of science, mathematics, history, or every aspect of human knowledge. Rather, He is speaking specifically about revelatory truth—the body of divine revelation that God intends to communicate concerning Christ, His kingdom, and the New Covenant.

The significance of this promise becomes even clearer when Jesus explains that the Holy Spirit will not speak on His own authority but will declare only what He receives from Christ, who in turn receives everything from the Father. This demonstrates the beautifully unified work of the Trinity. The Father commissions the Son, the Son sends the Spirit, and the Spirit communicates Christ’s words to the disciples. The New Testament, therefore, is not merely the product of human reflection on Jesus’ ministry but the result of God’s own ongoing self-revelation through the coordinated work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ promise in John 14:25–26 is especially significant. There, He tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit will teach them all things and bring to their remembrance everything He has said to them. This promise provides one of the strongest biblical foundations for understanding the inspiration of the four Gospels.

Let us also consider the historical situation facing the apostles. Jesus’ earthly ministry concluded in A.D. 30/33, but the Gospels were written later. Human memory naturally fades over time, and even eyewitnesses frequently disagree about details. Modern courts recognize the limitations of eyewitness testimony, testing witnesses carefully because sincere people often remember events imperfectly. Yet the Gospel writers were not left to rely solely upon ordinary human memory. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would supernaturally bring His teachings and actions back to their remembrance. The apostles therefore became more than ordinary eyewitnesses; they became Spirit-guided eyewitnesses. The Holy Spirit ensured that their recollections faithfully communicated the words and deeds of Christ exactly as God intended.

This explains why the four Gospels possess unique authority. They are not simply biographies written by devoted followers of Jesus. Rather, they are inspired accounts produced under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of Christ’s own promises. The Gospels therefore represent God’s trustworthy testimony concerning the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of His Son.

Jesus’ promise to guide the apostles into “all the truth” extends beyond the Gospels themselves. While the promise to “bring to remembrance” applies particularly to Jesus’ earthly ministry, the promise of further revelation points toward the remainder of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit would continue revealing God’s truth through the apostles as the church expanded following Christ’s resurrection and ascension. This broader revelation includes the Book of Acts, the apostolic epistles, and ultimately the book of Revelation. Through these writings, God explains the meaning of Christ’s work, establishes doctrine for the church, provides instruction for Christian living, and reveals some of His future purposes. Thus, the New Testament is not an accidental collection of early Christian literature but the fulfillment of Christ’s promise that His revelation would continue through His chosen apostles.

Apostolic Authority

Just as the Old Testament prophets spoke on God’s behalf, the apostles functioned as Christ’s authorized representatives under the New Covenant. They were not merely gifted teachers or influential church leaders; they occupied a unique, unrepeatable office established by Christ Himself.

The Apostle Paul frequently demonstrates his awareness of this special authority. In 2 Corinthians 3, he refers to himself and his fellow apostles as ministers of a new covenant. This language intentionally echoes the Old Testament. Just as Moses served as the mediator of the Old Covenant, the apostles served as divinely appointed ministers through whom the New Covenant was proclaimed and preserved.

1 Corinthians 7 often confuses modern readers. In discussing marriage, Paul writes, “Not I, but the Lord,” before later saying, “I, not the Lord.” Some have mistakenly concluded that Paul is distinguishing between divine revelation and his own personal opinions. This interpretation misunderstands Paul’s meaning. When Paul says, “Not I, but the Lord,” he is referring to teachings that Jesus had already given during His earthly ministry, particularly concerning divorce and marriage. When he later says, “I, not the Lord,” he is not denying divine inspiration. Rather, he is addressing new pastoral situations that Jesus did not specifically address during His public ministry. Paul is therefore extending Christ’s teaching under apostolic authority to circumstances facing the early church.

This becomes unmistakably clear later in the same letter when Paul insists that the things he is writing are a “command of the Lord.” Far from presenting personal opinions, Paul consciously understands himself to be communicating God’s authoritative revelation. His readers are expected to recognize that rejecting apostolic teaching is ultimately rejecting the authority of Christ Himself.

This self-awareness is significant because it challenges the common claim that the church only decided centuries later to regard Paul’s writings as Scripture. The New Testament itself reveals that the apostles already understood the divine nature of their commission. They wrote with the conviction that God was speaking through them, and they expected the churches to receive their writings with the same reverence shown to the OT Scriptures.

Peter likewise demonstrates an overt awareness of apostolic authority. (The same can be said of the Jerusalem council in Acts). In his second epistle, he reminds believers to remember both the words of the Old Testament prophets and the commandments delivered through the apostles of Jesus Christ. By placing OT and apostolic revelation side by side, Peter indicates that both possess equal authority.

The apostles did not invent Christianity or merely preserve inspiring memories of Jesus. They served as Christ’s appointed witnesses, empowered by the Holy Spirit to communicate God’s final written revelation to His people. Through their ministry, the promises Jesus made before His crucifixion became reality, providing believers with a complete and trustworthy New Testament that stands alongside the Old Testament as the inspired Word of God.

Canon

If the apostles were uniquely commissioned by Christ to produce New Testament revelation, how did the early church recognize which writings truly belonged to Scripture? Not every New Testament book was written directly by one of the Twelve Apostles, and this fact has sometimes confused people. The Gospel of Mark provides a good example. Mark himself was not one of the original apostles, yet from the earliest days of the church his Gospel was understood to be closely connected to the Apostle Peter. Early Christian testimony consistently viewed Mark as Peter’s close companion and interpreter, recording Peter’s eyewitness testimony under his apostolic oversight. Although Mark served as the human author, his Gospel ultimately rests upon apostolic authority. The same principle applies elsewhere in the New Testament. God often worked through close associates of the apostles while maintaining the apostles themselves as the divinely appointed eyewitnesses responsible for preserving Christ’s revelation. The process was organic rather than mechanical, but throughout it all Christ’s chosen witnesses remained central.

Many people speak as though the church centuries later selected certain books and declared them to be Scripture. This reverses the true order of events. The church did not create Scripture, nor did the church grant authority to the biblical books. Rather, God gave the Scriptures, and over time the church gradually recognized and received those writings that already possessed divine authority.

This distinction is crucial. The authority of Scripture does not depend upon councils, bishops, or ecclesiastical decisions. The church did not manufacture the canon any more than a scientist creates a law of nature. Instead, believers discerned which writings bore the marks of divine inspiration and apostolic authority. As these books circulated among the churches, they were received because God’s people recognized the voice of their Shepherd speaking through them.

To reinforce this point, we can turn to one of the most remarkable passages in the New Testament concerning the recognition of Scripture: 2 Peter 3:15–16. Here, Peter refers to Paul’s letters and acknowledges that some portions are difficult to understand. This observation is encouraging because it reminds Christians that wrestling with difficult passages is not a modern problem. Even during the apostolic era, believers recognized that Paul’s theological reasoning could sometimes require slow and careful study.

Yet Peter immediately balances this observation with an important warning. Although some passages are difficult, they are not impossible to understand. False teachers twist Paul’s writings, just as they twist “the other Scriptures,” bringing destruction upon themselves. The phrase “the other Scriptures” is extraordinarily significant. By placing Paul’s letters alongside them, Peter classifies Paul’s writings with the sacred writings of the OT. This demonstrates that, while the New Testament was still being written, at least some of its books were already recognized by other apostles as possessing the same divine authority as Israel’s Scriptures. This passage provides compelling evidence that the recognition of NT Scripture began within the apostolic age itself. The apostles understood the nature of their calling, recognized one another’s authority, and expected the churches to receive their writings as God’s Word.

Peter also notes that false teachers distort Paul’s letters just as Satan distorted Scripture during Christ’s temptation in the wilderness. When Satan quoted Psalm 91 to persuade Jesus to throw Himself from the temple, he was not denying Scripture but misusing it. Jesus responded by interpreting Scripture with Scripture, demonstrating that God’s Word correctly understood is the antidote to false teaching.

This principle remains essential for the church today. False doctrine rarely begins by openly rejecting Scripture. More often it begins by twisting, isolating, or selectively applying biblical texts while ignoring the broader teaching of God’s Word. Faithful interpretation therefore requires allowing Scripture to explain Scripture rather than forcing the text to conform to human preferences.

Summary

Christ stands at the center of God’s written revelation.

Looking back, Christ confirms the authority of the OT. Looking forward, He authorizes the New Testament. The Old Testament anticipates Him; the New Testament proclaims His fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan. The entire Bible therefore derives its unity from the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Every believer is tempted to resist portions of Scripture that confront personal desires or cultural assumptions. These temptations arise in many forms. Some struggle with biblical teaching on sexuality or marriage. Others resist Scripture’s teaching regarding money, politics, family relationships, entertainment, forgiveness, science, or countless other areas. Whatever the issue, fallen human nature constantly seeks to soften, reinterpret, or ignore those parts of God’s Word that produce discomfort.

This temptation is not new. It reaches all the way back to the Garden of Eden. The serpent’s first question to Eve—“Did God really say?”—represented the first assault upon God’s authority. Rather than openly denying God’s existence, Satan questioned God’s Word and encouraged humanity to substitute its own judgment for divine revelation. Every attempt to place human opinion above Scripture repeats the same fundamental error committed in Eden. To reinforce the seriousness of this issue, we can turn to Martin Luther’s maxim:

You are to deal with Scripture in such a way that you bear in mind that God Himself says what is written.

Because Scripture is God’s own speech, believers have no right to reshape it according to their personal preferences. Instead, they must allow God’s Word to confront, correct, and transform them. When reading difficult passages, Christians should resist the temptation to skip ahead to more comfortable texts. Those difficult portions are often the very places where God intends to expose sin, deepen faith, and produce spiritual maturity.

Rather than asking how the Bible can be adjusted to fit modern sensibilities, believers should continually ask how their own hearts must be changed to conform to God’s revealed truth. The Bible is not merely a source of information or an alternative to an encyclopedia. To open the Scriptures is to stand before the living God Himself.

Reading the Bible means being summoned before the Judge of the universe.

Additional Resources for Further Study

1. Download a PDF of the slides from this presentation.

2. “Wild West Evangelical Hermeneutics (Part Two): Jesus Christ and the Supreme Authority of Scripture.” Bible and Spade 34, no. 4 (Fall 2021): 25–32.

3. “By Whose Authority?” Bible and Spade 33, no. 4 (Fall 2020): 10–11.

4.Jesus Christ and the Infallible Authority of Scripture (Part One)

In part 1 of a 2 part series on Digging for Truth TV, I discuss Jesus’ teachings on the authority and nature of Scripture.

5. Jesus Christ and the Infallible Authority of Scripture (Part Two)

In part 2 of a 2 part series on Digging for Truth TV, I continue with a discussion of Jesus’ teachings on the authority and nature of Scripture. This episode emphasizes Jesus’ interactions with Genesis 1-9.