When Jesus came into the Temple, and started teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people made a debut there and questioned His authority. They said, “By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority?” (Matt.21:23-27). Jesus shut their mouth by posing a question to them, which they could not answer.
Today also in our midst there are many church leaders and holders of doctorate degrees in theology and Bible likened to the chief priests and the elders of the New Testament period. These people question the authority of Christ, the Word and the authenticity of the Bible. They say that the miracle age is past; the gifts of the Spirit had ceased. During my interaction with some people on the ChristianBBS.com internet, they doubted the authenticity of the Bible and questioned the existence of the Devil.
These people have knowledge of the Bible but without anointing of the Spirit. Knowledge of the Bible without the anointing of the Spirit is very destructive. It is only the anointing of the Spirit which teaches us from the Bible. “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him” (I John 2:27)
Those who question the authority of the Word today are not better than those chief priests and the elders who had lived during the period when they had neither got the revelation of Christ nor had the presence of the Holy spirit with them. Jesus said in Matt 12:41-42 that the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south “shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it”. Similarly, those chief priests and the elders shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn them saying that had they received the revelation of Christ through the Holy Spirit, they would not have questioned the authority of Jesus and also saying that had they possessed the Bible as we have, they would not have questioned the authority or the authenticity of the Word.
At times, we also question the authority of Jesus by not believing in His power to heal our sickness or to perform a miracle for us. The Centurion whose son was sick unto death in the 5th chapter of Mathew had realized his unworthiness and had understood the authority of Jesus in healing the diseases when he said that he as a man under authority could command his soldiers and servants to do a certain thing. Marveling at his faith, Jesus said, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel”.
Let us remember the martyrs who laid down their lives either for translating the Bible into our mother tongues or for making available the Bible to us. Let us believe in the authority and the power of Christ Jesus, and meditate on the Word of God with reverential fear and on our knees.
- Job Anbalagan