Sola Scriptura: The Authority of the Word of God
By Owen Strachan
In an accurate historical reconstruction of the famed Leipzig Disputation, Martin Luther is likely not cool and collected.
He’s probably sweating up a storm.
Before a packed room hanging on his every word at the disputation of 1521, Luther parried with Johannes Eck for several hours over the matter of objective authority. The questions twisted and turned, but the epic struggle between the firebrand monk and the expert theologian boiled down to one simple matter: for Christians belonging to the church, what had final authority—the Pope, church councils, or Scripture?
Luther’s answer threatened to place his entire life in jeopardy. His cataclysmic answer to Eck’s question left him sweating, fearful, and as yet unaware that his answer would forever alter the course of human history. Sola Scriptura, the doctrine that the Word of God alone has theological and spiritual preeminence, came at great cost to the reformer—and to his clerical robes.
Biblical and Historical Foundations
The people of God have always believed that the word of God alone has ultimate authority and power. The supremacy of the Word is evident in Genesis 1, when God creates all that is by speaking. He continues to speak to humanity as its absolute authority, assigning Adam and his progeny his essential role in life (Genesis 1 and 2), decreeing terms of covenant relationship (Genesis 2, 6, 12, 15, 22), pronouncing sentences of life and death (Genesis 3 and 4), and charting right from wrong (Exodus 20), among many other functions. The word of God spoken to Israel comes from above, and is not taken as a suggestion by His people. From the beginning, God’s speech is understood as preeminent, binding, wise, certain, and right.
The nation of Israel faces many challenges in its existence as a tiny upstart in the Ancient Near East, but its fate always stands upon one essential matter: whether it receives the Word of God and obeys it. The people may face insurmountable obstacles from their perspective—whether hordes of Egyptians or arid deserts or Babylonian sieges–but they are not required to overcome these problems in their own strength, to solve them by planning and ingenuity. They are called merely to hear the Lord their God, to acknowledge His authority, and to respond in turn. In the words of Isaiah, the prophets of Israel call them simply to “Hear the word of the Lord!” (Isaiah 1:10) All that is needed to live is to listen to the authoritative one.
This kind of relationship is pictured poignantly in the relationship between Jesus, the very Word of God, and His disciples (John 1). Jesus’ preaching and miracle-working draws a crowd in the early days of his ministry, but this does not prevent many from dropping out. The confession of his inner circle, however, is that they cannot leave him: “Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, 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.” (John 6:68-69) This is sola Scriptura by way of personal declaration. Jesus is the Son of God, and as such, He alone has “the words of eternal life.” Peter’s confession was an objective one, yes, but it was also personal. The Lordship of Christ exercised itself in words and claimed not only philosophical assent but spiritual obeisance.
The early church upheld this idea in seed form. Justin Martyr asserted rightly that Scripture is to “be believed for its own nobility and for the confidence due to him who sends it.” (Allison, 80) Impelled to “take up” the Bible, Augustine knew that he was being summoned by a holy authority that would call him to heel and end his life of sin and searching. Later, the theologian would call fellow believers to “yield our assent to the authority of holy Scripture,” the first duty of every person and every church (Allison, 82).
Augustine’s exhortation allows us to reflect on this matter of “assenting” to God’s truth. The doctrine of sola Scriptura is nothing other than the popular evangelical saying that in conversion, we confess at the core of our being that God is right, and we are wrong. Whether a heavy-cloaked pulpiteer or a child attending Vacation Bible School, every true believer comes to spiritual terms with this foundational theological reality. The faith that saves and justifies, after all, proceeds from a basic understanding that only the Lord can give such a salvific gift to His creation.
As Gregg Allison has shown, the Augustinian conception of Scripture held sway in the church for several centuries following. In the latter half of the Middle Ages, though, the authority of the Roman Catholic Church gradually usurped the rule of Scripture. Catholic theologians like Guido Terreni located ultimate authority in the church. The church rendered the Scriptures authoritative based on its spiritual supremacy, Terreni argued. Thomas Aquinas worked from a different angle but similarly undermined the authority of the Word of God through his development of natural theology into a means by which mankind could know God apart from the Scriptures. Aquinas was more nuanced than theologians sometimes present him to be; in his Summa Theologica, he pointed out that special revelation came in order that “the salvation of men might be brought about more fitly and more securely” (I.1.1). Nonetheless, the brilliant “Dumb Ox” helped lead the church away from the only sure guide to faith and practice.
The rise of the conciliar movement in the High Middle Ages due to papal corruption and widespread spiritual malaise further contributed to the climate of detachment from biblical authority. Though the councils attempted to address real problems in the church, they failed to cede theological and spiritual preeminence to the Word of God alone. The ecclesial vineyard, long malnourished and even poisoned in soil, worsened in health. Soon, a bull would enter it. Nothing would ever be the same. . . .
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Is Scripture inspired by God or is it merely the work of man? Peter writes, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21). The October issue of Credo seeks to affirm the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture as doctrines that are faithful to the testimony of Scripture itself. Contributors include: Gregg Allison, John Frame, Timothy George, Fred Zaspel, Michael A.G. Haykin, Tim Challies, Matthew Barrett, Thomas Schreiner, Tony Merida, Owen Strachan, J. V. Fesko, Robert Saucy, and many others.
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