According to the Bible, "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to [Jesus]." (Matthew 28:18) In our discussion of what the Bible, itself, says about authority, we have to start there. The triune God is our ultimate authority. Assuming we can agree about that, N.T. Wright asks the question, "But what is God doing with his authority?"
...God's model of authority is not like that of the managing director over the business, not like that of the governing body over the college, not like that of the police or the law courts who have authority over society.
Dr. Wright describes a God who is hands-on, through the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit. He describes God's authority as the result of his love, wisdom, creative powers, and redemptive intent for the world.
God is not a celestial information service to whom you can apply for answers on difficult questions. Nor is he a heavenly ticket agency to whom you can go for moral or doctrinal permits or passports to salvation...Those views would imply either a deist's God or a legalist's God...
Do you agree? What is your concept of God's authority?
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Links to the rest if this series: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IIIb, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIIb, Part VIII, Conclusion
I think we view authority through an industrial age lens, like God is the cosmic manager of an assembly line or something. But biblical images of authority are more organic, like kings and shepherds. That authority is more organic and fluid. If something happens on the assembly line, it's easy to view it as the manager's fault, whether personally or because he or she failed to manage the workers - there's an implicit understanding of control over the minutiae. But if a subject does wrong or a sheep wanders off, the image is different. My thoughts, anyway...
Posted by: ScottB | March 24, 2005 at 09:30 AM
Yes, Scott, or maybe we view God's authority through the lens of the nation/state authority. Nations and States with laws and governments is a rather novel idea. It was not the world of the Bible. They viewed "lords" and hierarchy of authority very different than we do today--especially our representative republic with the "rule of law" we have in America. They actually felt warm feelings toward a benevolent totalitarian king! They knew that a good king would love his people, and seek their best. It was not law, it was love (of course, not all the time, there were certainly evil rulers, but I think you understand what I'm saying).
What would happen if we tried to shed our ideas of authority based on "law" as we conceive of it today, and looked rather at authority based on "love"?
Posted by: Bob Robinson | March 28, 2005 at 07:45 PM