Question 28: How ought we to respond to the authority of the word of God?
Answer: We ought to respond to the authority of God’s word by wholly submitting to what it says, by exercising our own authority according to its direction, by measuring and making our confession of faith by its standard, and by rejecting all false authorities and doctrines.
Question 29: Why do we say that we ought to wholly submit to the authority of God’s word?
Answer: Because God has the right to determine all that is and ought to be, and is to be feared in his almighty accomplishment of the same, we ought to wholly submit to the revealed will of his word by faith that we may live and not die. This submission begins with a sincere conversion unto Christ, and continues on in a life of obedience to God’s word as we walk in the Spirit.
Submission is a dirty word today. I went to a wedding recently, a good time was had by all. The wood-fired pizzas were absolutely magnificent. One thing that sticks out in my memory from the ceremony was the fact that the bride and groom chose to use the words “lead” and “submit” in their respective vows. These friends of mine are sincere Christians, and I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged to hear them make this inclusion. The bride, a little humourously, but with conviction, emphasised the word “submit” in her vow. It illustrates how unusual and counter-cultural it is to recognise the biblical call for wives to submit to their husbands (Eph 5:22). Even many Christians today would prefer to omit “submit” from their vows as something distasteful. In western culture more broadly, weddings and vows are seen as an optional extra, and the idea of including “submit” in the vows would most likely invite scorn.
It’s not only in marriage that submission has come upon hard-times. Certainly in Australia, although the idea of submitting to civil authority is begrudgingly acknowledged, the emphasis is much more placed on how elected officials ought to be serving the populace as our representatives. On a grassroots level, I’ve heard a number of teachers in the school system bemoan their lack of power to control or direct unruly students. Parents do not require first-time obedience, or even generally know that such a thing exists. Elders in churches, while understanding the principle of spiritual authority to some extent, seem reluctant to exercise authority, and the drastic neglect of church discipline has been the fruit of that.
Why do we so recoil from the idea of submission? In one sense, we might say that the roots of this rebellion against authority go right back to our original and fallen condition. Human history is a story of rebellion against authority. How, then, ought we to respond to all this as disciples of Jesus? The first and most obvious principle is that we, as Christians, ought to be fully committed to the idea that submission to the authority of God’s word is necessary. That is a starting point. It is not a question of “if” we should obey, but “how” should we obey.
Now it’s important at this point to be very clear on the question of how to obey God, because there are dangers on either side. There is antinomianism on the one hand, lulling us into an easy-believism that has no robust obedience. On the other hand, there is legalism, that seeks obedience in the wrong way (i.e. by our own force of will) and for the wrong reasons (i.e. to earn favour with God, or even salvation from God). We must outline a clear and biblical doctrine of obedience and submission to God’s authority, and so it’s important that we pursue as much doctrinal precision as possible.
How then ought we to obey? And what is the means of obedience that God provides? These are topics deserving lengthy treatment of their own (which we will pursue later if God permits), but at least we can draw the sketch in outline here. Firstly – we are called to submit to the gospel call of repentance and faith. God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Submission and obedience to God starts with turning from our sins, and believing in Christ. The gospel itself is a call to submission unto the Lord Jesus.
Having entered the gate of salvation through Christ our Lord (Mt 7:13), we are then called to go on walking in the way of obedience to God (Mt 7:21). True faith results in a consistent and growing lifestyle of obedience to the revealed will of God (James 2:17). And so Jesus said: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (Jn 14:21). A sincere, discernible, and growing obedience to God’s law is thus a natural consequence of genuine faith. Submission to God’s word, then, is clear both through true conversion and an ongoing life of growing obedience to God’s word.
With these two things in mind, repentance and a new life of obedience, we see why scripture teaches that submission to God’s word is an essential condition of life for all humanity. Certainly prior to the fall, this was very clear (Gen 2:15-17) and it remains the case after the fall (Lev 18:5; Gal 3:12). We must be clear, however, that this is not an obedience of our own strength that earns eternal life for ourselves or empowers Christian living. It is rather the obedience of faith. The principle of life by obedience could theoretically be accomplished by living a life of perfect obedience, but no one is actually now capable of obtaining life in that way (Rom 3:19-20; Gal 3:11). We see the evidence of this all around us. The world rejects Christ as God’s Anointed King, and – left to itself – pursues a lifestyle increasingly characterised by corruption. We saw the pattern prior to the flood in the early chapters of Genesis, we see it after the flood on the road to Babel, and we see it in our own culture today. Indeed, the nations by nature rage against God (Ps 2).
The glory of the gospel is that, through Christ, and by receiving his imputed obedience, we may now be graciously justified before God (Rom 3:20-24) by faith (Rom 3:28). Faith, or trust, is now our principle of life rather than obedience, for “the just shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17). Again – these are things we will consider in more detail much further down the track when we look at the doctrines of salvation (soteriology). We are saved by grace, through faith.
Having been delivered from the guilt of our disobedience by Christ, the principle of obedience to the revealed will of God remains in place for believers – but is likewise realised on the principle of faith (Rom 1:5). “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom 6:1-2). Submitting to God’s authority is not now distasteful to us, as it is to the nations (Ps 2:3), but is rather a glad submission (1 Jn 5:3). As the Holy Spirit writes God’s law upon our hearts (Heb 8:10), we now declare with the psalmist: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps 119:97). To be sure, a principle of sin and rebellion does remain in our hearts even as believers (Rom 7:17; Gal 5:17), and so we do need daily forgiveness for our sins (Mt 6:12; 1 Jn 1:8-10). The way of obedience is hard (Mt 7:14), for it requires that we kill our sin daily (Mt 16:24). But as we walk by his Spirit, and are strengthened by him, we will steadily win victory in this battle (Rom 6:1-14).
The final piece of the puzzle here is: What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? How do we avoid obeying by our own strength, and yet still pursue obedience with all our might? In the first place, it is in walking by the Spirit that this is accomplished. In Galatians 5:16 Paul thus says: “I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” What does it mean then to walk by the Spirit? We received the Spirit by “hearing with faith” (Gal 2:2), and we go on walking by the Spirit in the same manner. It’s another way of saying that: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). As we abide in God’s word, constantly feeding on it (Psalm 1), the Holy Spirit works through the word in us. Our minds are renewed by the Spirit working through the word of God. Thus God’s word is in one place called the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17). In other words, give constant, prayerful, believing attention to God’s word, and the Spirit will work in you – that is what it means to walk by the Spirit, and that is the pathway of Spirit-empowered obedience. And that is our rough sketch of what it means to submit to God’s word in the Christian life! SDG.
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