The Doctrine of the Bible 6 - Authority of the Scriptures

"If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John 10:35)

The Scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) were recognized by the early church as the final authority on all matters of faith and practice. Jesus spoke of the letters (Matt. 5:18) and verb tenses (Matt. 22:31,32) as being significant and authoritative. Part of Paul's argument against the legalism in Galatia was based upon a simple noun that the apostle held as authoritative (Gal. 3:16). Jesus said the Scripture could not be broken, that is, treated as though it does not exist.
Illustration: A brief reading of Matthew shows how authoritative the Old Testament was to early Christians. That this authority applied also to the New Testament is illustrated by Paul in 1 Timothy 5:18. There Paul quotes from both Old and New Testaments (Deut. 25:4; Luke 10:7) in biblical support of his argument.
Application: As we study the Scriptures, we must be careful to be doers of the Word and not hearers only.