 |  |
It is clear from these words of our Lord that what He taught and spoke was what He
had Himself been taught (8: 28) and commanded to speak.
A.--Do I understand by this that you deny the Deity of Christ?
B.--By no means. That the Word "was God" this same Gospel declares, and that I
believe with all my heart. But the Lord humbled Himself and took upon Him the form of
a servant. As the "sent one" He did not speak His own message, but the words of Him
that sent Him.
A.--Well, accepting this, I do not see your intention. If every utterance of the Lord's was
actually the Word of God, that seems all the more reason why I should abide by them.
B.--Abide by them by all means, but do not forget that the point is that the authority
for Christ's teaching is the Father that sent Him. Now let us look at the Epistles. Turn to
I Thess. 2: 13:--
"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the
Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in
truth, the Word of God."
You see by this statement that Paul, Silas and Timothy, acting in their capacity as
"sent ones", claimed the self-same authority for their words as did Christ Himself. In
I Pet. 1: 25 we read:--
"The word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you."
In II Pet. 1: 20, 21 Peter speaks of the inspiration of Scripture, and in II Pet. 3: 16
he links Paul's epistles with "the other Scriptures". In I Pet. 1: 11 Peter, speaking of the
Old Testament prophets, says that they spake by "The Spirit of Christ". Paul in Rom.
15:, after having spoken, in verse 8, of the Lord's earthly ministry, goes on to say of
himself, "That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles" (verse 16). In II
Tim. 1: 8 Paul says to Timothy, "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me His prisoner". Does it not therefore appear to you that these facts
emerge clearly from these quotations?
(1). The words of Christ and His Apostles are not to be considered as their own, but
as the words of Him that sent them.
(2). The testimony of the epistles is still considered to be the testimony of Christ, this
time as the risen One, and speaking through those who had been chosen and
"sent" by Him.
(3). In each case the authority for the message is that of the "sender"; in the Gospels
Christ is the Sent One, in the Epistles the Apostles are the sent ones [the very
word apostle (from apostello) means a sent one] and Christ still speaks to us,
even though in Person He is now at the Right Hand of God.