Authority – Paul Nordman

When Smart Isn’t Smart

My friend drives a Smart car—you know, the little ones that look like a bobblehead football helmet on four wheels, and not much bigger. Curious as to its crashworthiness and occupant safety, I took the indirect approach to inquiry: “How does your Smart car do in snow?” I asked him. “Terrible,” he replied, “I only drive it in good weather.” He went on: “I once hit a racoon with this car. It cost me $300 in damage, and the racoon ran off!”

(Uh-huh. Just as I thought.)

Sometimes “smart” is, well, just not smart. Sometimes “thrifty” is costly. Sometimes “safety” is still perilous. This is true of our physical health, and even more so of our spiritual wellbeing. Yet when it comes to the latter, it is all too easy to be duped into death-trap theology, such as, “There are many paths that lead to God.” Such feel good assertions are “unsafe at any speed,” for Jesus himself taught us the exact opposite. “Enter by the narrow gate,” He urged His hearers, “For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”¹ Likewise, Peter, having sat under Jesus’ tutelage before witnessing the risen and ascended Christ, boldly proclaimed to the gathered crowd, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”² By what authority can we possibly assert anything else? And why would we thus imperil others?

Lest there be any doubt, Jesus proclaimed as clearly as can be, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”³ Place your entire trust in Him and in Him alone. Anything else is less, and anything less is just not smart.

“Lord [Jesus], to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”⁴ Father, “sanctify [us] in the truth; your word is truth.”⁵ Holy Spirit, “guide [us] into all the truth.”⁶ In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ Matthew 7:13-14 ESV
² Acts 4:12 NIV
³ John 14:6 ESV
⁴ John 6:68-69 ESV
⁵ John 1:7 ESV
⁶ John 16:13 ESV

The Authority We Want and Need

Attending college in Columbus, Ohio, I introduced a friend to the joy of skating at the OSU ice rink across town. She quickly grew in fondness and ability for this winter pastime, and decided to buy her own skates. While fitting her, the rink worker noticed she was wearing two pairs of socks. “You’ll only want one pair of socks for skating” he told her, at which point I interrupted and said, “No, she’ll need two.” We went back and forth a couple of times, so I pulled out my ace: “I grew up in northern Michigan and played four years of hockey in high school, and I’m telling you, she’ll need to wear two pairs of socks.” To which he replied, “I grew up in Ontario and played five years for the Boston Bruins; she will only want to wear one pair.” With a keen recognition of authority, I humbly conceded.

God’s Word is authority for life. His commands, wrote Paul, are “the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,”¹ and we live “on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”² Yet our sinful nature is prone to challenge His Word—and thereby, His authority—rebelliously subjecting His truth to our flawed judgments and twisting it to appease our self-centered desires. This is not new, for through Jeremiah God declared of ancient Israel, “every man’s own word becomes his oracle and so you distort the words of the living God.”³ Nor are we immune from it now or in the future, for as Paul warned Timothy, “the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”⁴

Then amid the escalating cacophony around us, how do we discern and flourish under the voice of authority? First, recognize that truth exists—“[God’s] word is truth”⁵—and that He who reigns in authority loves us, for “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”⁶ Then in such confidence we, like David, walk today with this assurance firmly placed in God: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”⁷ God’s Word is authority; we humbly concede. He speaks it in love; we gladly submit.

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”⁸ Light our path today in the truth of your Word. In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ Romans 2:20 NASB
² Deuteronomy 8:3
³ Jeremiah 23:36
⁴ 2 Timothy 4:3-4
⁵ John 17:17
⁶ Proverbs 30:5
7 Psalm 119:105 KJV
⁸ John 6:68