The Authority of Scripture

Introduction

Today we are going to transition from beliefs that make us Christian from the catechism to some unique traits that make us Methodists.

Today that unique trait has to do with Holy Scripture.

Today, we will be answering the question, “Are reason, tradition, or experience sufficient guides for Christian doctrine?”

Now, that sounds like an oddly specific and complicated question, doesn’t it?

Well, there is a reason it was phrased this way in our new catechism book:

It has to do with a man named Albert Outler, who was a John Wesley scholar and Methodist theologian in the 20th century.

He came up with something he called the Wesleyan quadrilateral, which is a diagram he used to explain how John Wesley approached theology.

The quadrilateral explains that John Wesley used scripture, reason, tradition, and experience as sources for his sermons and theology.

The problem with this is that Outler seems to suggest that John Wesley used those four “legs of a stool” equally.

This has been the reason that some other Methodist denominations have rejected scripture as the ultimate authority for Christian living & doctrine.

But, we know from Wesley’s writings and his sermons, that he was a self-proclaimed “unius libri,” a man of one book.

This doesn’t mean he just read the Bible. He actually read all sorts of books.

He called himself this because he meant that the Bible was his ultimate authority for how to live his life and his faith.

He measured the writings of all other books against scripture.

John Wesley

Now, since we are talking about John Wesley this week, I wanted to give you a few little-known facts about the founder of Methodism:

When he was just five years old, the Wesley family home caught fire. Young John was trapped upstairs, and a neighbor climbed on another man’s shoulders to pull him from the window just before the roof collapsed.

John Wesley was an Anglican priest. He never started his own denomination, and in fact, Methodism started in America at the Christmas Conference of 1874 in Baltimore, MD.

The name “Methodist” was a derogatory term given to him and his friends when he was studying at Oxford.

He was adamant about not breaking his vows as a priest and not leaving the Church of England.

Also, John Wesley was married. He was always traveling from place to place preaching, so they rarely lived together. He would write her letters giving her his suggestions of the things she should be working on to improve herself!

Although Wesley earned income from his writings, he gave nearly all of it away to help the poor. He famously said, “When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart.” When he died in 1791, his estate was worth less than £30.

John Wesley was not perfect, and at times could be downright rude, but God still used him powerfully to advance the gospel, much like he uses us!

The Bible

But we are not here this morning just to talk about John Wesley.

We are here to talk about what makes us uniquely Methodist, and the first trait is that scripture is our ultimate authority.

We believe that the Bible is our sacred text that shows us the way to salvation.

The Bible has been passed down to us through many centuries and the Bible we have today is the result of careful translation of the original work.

So why is the Bible our ultimate authority? What makes it so unique?

Bears witness to Jesus Christ

First, the Bible bears witness to the person, ministry, and love of Jesus Christ.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is God’s story of love for humanity.

It shows us his rescue story, his character, and what he expects from his people.

The Bible points us to Jesus, always.

John 1:1–2 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

In John’s gospel, Jesus is referred to as the Word.

We can call Jesus the Living Word. Jesus was God-incarnate, all of God and all God’s words made flesh.

We can call the Bible the written word.

They are not the same thing, the Bible is not God or God-incarnate, as Jesus is.

But, the Bible gives us all the information we need for salvation.

The scriptures alone are sufficient to point us to the saving work of Jesus Christ, and the eternal life that can be ours in his resurrection.

We do not need reason, tradition, or experience for salvation.

So to answer our question from the catechism, “Are reason, tradition, and experience sufficient guides for Christian doctrine?” The answer is no.

Now, all those things can help us in our walk with Christ, but they are not necessary for salvation and they do not give us our doctrine without scripture.

We need the Bible to guide us in our beliefs.

The Bible tells us how to be reconciled to God through Christ.

We cannot reason this salvation, we cannot get it by human tradition, and we cannot have enough experience to gain our salvation without the Holy Scriptures.

Is the Gift of the Holy Spirit

Second, the Bible is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

It is a gift of the Holy Spirit because the writers of our scriptures were inspired by Him.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The words, “God-breathed” mean that the Holy Spirit inspired and instructed the writers of the texts contained in the Bible.

We can trust the words written in the scriptures because we know they came from the Holy Spirit.

As a part of this gift from the Holy Spirit, we are able to perceive the salvation of Jesus and to grow in our faith.

The Holy Spirit is with us as we read the Bible, and He is changing us from the inside.

Have you ever read a section of scripture a hundred times, and on the 101st time, you see or understand something more than you had before? That is the Holy Spirit working within us.

Hebrews 4:12 NIV

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The words on the page of the Bible have no power on their own, but it is the Holy Spirit who gives them their power!

The Holy Spirit brings verses to our minds when we are in trouble, when we pray, or during times of high anxiety.

The Holy Spirit uses the words of scripture to remind us of God’s character, of the salvation we have in Jesus Christ, and how we should act as children of God.

Therefore, the Bible is a means of God’s grace.

God has given us everything that we need to be “equipped for every good work.”

A History of our Modern Bible

The Bible is an incredible resource and gift that we in the modern age have access to.

But how did we get the one that we read from each day?

Let’s go through a brief history of how the Bible, as we know it, came to be:

The story of how we got our Bible is really the story of God faithfully guiding His Word through history.

The Old Testament was written over about a thousand years, from Moses to the prophets, between roughly 1400 and 400 BC.

Those writings, in Hebrew and Aramaic, were treasured by the Jewish people as sacred Scripture.

Around 250 BC, Jewish scholars in Alexandria translated them into Greek — a version called the Septuagint — which became the Bible used by Jesus and the early Church.

The New Testament was written between about AD 45 and 100, as the apostles and their close companions recorded the life of Jesus and the message of salvation.

By the late 300s, the Church had recognized the same 27 New Testament books we have today.

In 382 AD, Jerome translated the entire Bible into Latin — the Vulgate — which became the standard for more than a thousand years.

During the Middle Ages, monks faithfully copied the Scriptures by hand, and Jewish scribes known as the Masoretes preserved the Hebrew text with remarkable care.

Then in 1455, the printing press changed everything, making it possible for ordinary people to own a Bible for the first time.

The Protestant Reformation of the 1500s brought new translations into everyday languages — Martin Luther in German and William Tyndale in English — emphasizing that everyone should be able to read God’s Word for themselves.

In 1611, the King James Version was published, shaping English-speaking Christianity for centuries.

Since then, thousands of manuscripts and discoveries, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, have deepened our understanding, leading to the faithful modern translations we use today.

Closing Thought

The Bible we hold today is the result of God’s faithful guidance through generations — written, preserved, translated, and shared so that His Word can live in every heart and every language.

As Christians, we must trust that the Bible in our hands is the Bible that God meant us to have.

Conclusion

The Holy Scriptures are more than just a big book we should read because we are Christians.

It is a guidebook for living, it is a tool for our faith, and it is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit.

It gives us constant access to God. We can pick it up anytime we need it.

When it is proclaimed out loud in a sermon, it has unique power to reach those sitting in the pews.

The Holy Spirit uses the proclaimed word of God to speak to the hearers in a manner that is unlike reading it by ourselves.

The disciples went about preaching and teaching the message of Jesus, because the message was empowered by The Holy Spirit.

We continue that tradition today.

So let us give thanks for the Holy Scriptures, and the access to God that they provide.

Let’s not take for granted the fact that we can read the words inspired by the Holy Spirit any time we want to.

Amen.