The critical issue in religion today is the question of authority. Authority means the right to command and enforce obedience. When Christ walked among men and taught them, they were astonished at His doctrine, “For he taught them as one having authority” (Matthew 7:28-29). “Never man so spake” (John 7:46). “All power is given unto me (Jesus) in heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18), “Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (1 Peter 3:22).
Therefore, we may correctly conclude that what men believe in practice today in the name of religion MUST be authorized by the Lord Jesus Christ. Men MUST respect the authority of Christ! Paul wrote, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Col 3:17). We must do all “in His name” or by His authority. Honest and sincere people today need to appreciate the fact that the authority of Christ is now exercised exclusively through the New Testament. This is the problem today in religious world; people fail to respect the authority of the New Testament. How? By appealing to the Old Testament for their authority in religion to practice things which are not authorized in the New Testament. What things?
1. Polygamy
2. Mechanical instruments of music
3. Keeping the Sabbath
4. Keeping the Ten Commandments
5. Burn incense in worship
6. Infant baptism.
“Oh, you people from the church of Christ don’t believe in the Old Testament.” Yes, Christians believe in the Old Testament, it is the word of God, “So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good” (Romans 7:12). When Christ died, He fulfilled the Law of Moses (Matthew 5:17) and thus cancelled it, nailing it to His cross (Colossians 2:14). Since it has been abolished (Ephesians 2:15), men today are not accountable to its legal statues, though it contains many valuable lessons (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:6, 10).
People need to read and study the scripture, “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Notice these passages please: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). We are “made dead to the law through the body of Christ, … we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in the newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:4, 6). Men shall be judged by the word of Christ, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). When the apostle Peter on the mount of transfiguration desired to build three tabernacles, one for the lawgiver Moses, one for the representative of the prophets Elijah, and one tabernacle for Christ, God said from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matthew 17:5).
Not only does God require men to respect the authority of His Son; He has pronounced a condemnation upon those who refuse to hear His Son and thereby disregard divine authority. Listen: “Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me. To him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever he shall speak unto you. And it shall be, that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people” (Acts 3:22-23). People must not pervert or change the facts, commands or promises of the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:6-9). “Men must not go beyond that which is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6). People must not go beyond the doctrine of Christ! “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son” (1 John 9). What does it mean to abide in the doctrine of Christ? It means to be governed by the Law of Moses. NO! NO! Jesus is the only lawgiver now, not Moses. There is “one only is the lawgiver and judge, (even) he who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12). What does it mean to abide in the doctrine of Christ? It means to be governed by the authority of the New Testament. What does it mean to transgress, and abide not in the doctrine of Christ? It means simply to refuse to be governed by the authority of the New Testament. Well, what about one who refuses to abide in the doctrine of Christ? He hath not God; that is, he has no claim on God as being his God. What of the one who abides in the doctrine of Christ? He hath both the Father and the Son; that is, he sustains that relationship to the Father and the Son which enables him to claim both of Them as his own. Isn’t that simple? Not hard to understand what John was writing.
Therefore, what men practice in religion today must be authorized by God’s word and since God speaks to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2), the word of Christ is the authority that must be respected now, and this authority is exercised through the New Testament. Whatever is offered as worship to God, which is not authorized by the New Testament, is not acceptable to Him. The fact that something is intended to be worship to God does not mean that it will please God. The Bible authorizes by what it says, not by what it does not say!