Source of Authority in the Christian Life: Not Just the Bible?

God is infinite we cannot be in complete accordance with God’s will since we are finite and cannot comprehend God totally. However, we can comprehend what God has graciously expressed to us through His Word and in several extra-biblical sources. The chief source of God’s self-expression is the Bible. The Bible provides us with a story of redemption. The pinnacle of this story is the person, work, ministry and story of Jesus Christ. God’s Word provides us with all that we need for living a godly life. The apostle Peter in II Peter 1:3 instruct believers that through God’s power we have everything we need for living a godly life through knowledge. So as we grow in our knowledge of God, our moral and ethical fiber as a Christian, our maturity and likeness to Jesus ought to as well increase. Yet how do Christians handle issues of moral and ethical decision making when the Bible is silent on a particular issue? I believe this problem is best rectified by understanding the Bible as the supreme and final source of truth, but not the only source of truth. To explain further, in Psalms 19:1-4b the psalmist explains what has been made by God declares the truth of God. Therefore, we can understand God outside of special revelation i.e. the Bible, the incarnation of Christ, divine meeting as in the case of Abraham. In fact, the apostle Paul further instructs in the New Testament specifically Romans 1:18-20 that the declaration of creation of God’s glory, power and the knowledge ushering forth is not only enough to inform the seeker, but is also enough to condemn the one who rejects that knowledge. Paul goes on to say in Romans 2:14-16 that we also have God’s law written on our hearts. So we can see that is without the person pours forth knowledge of God and condemns. And all that is within such as our conscience pours forth knowledge of God and condemns.

Plato's Question About God

Plato put forward an objection to the idea that morality is based in the commands of God in his treatise Euthyphro. The argument goes as since the basis for doing what is right depends on God commanding what is right, does the system of what is right supersede God? Is God just the facilitator to what is right to humanity? His commands are the vehicle of truth in service to the truth instead of to God? Or is morality arbitrarily determined by God’s will? This surely is not the case. God is a person, and there is an objective, invariant and coherent standard for truth and morality. Yet some set these two things apart and see them as mutually exclusive. It seems impossible that God who is a person can be also the standard for truth. That when He acts He acts perfectly moral. What He wishes and desires is the standard for truth not just because God wants it to be true, but because it is true. The two are one and the same. In other words, God’s nature is true therefore it is the source of truth. What we often separate since it is hard for us to accept— I think because we project our understandings of personhood on God— is not to be separated. Objective truth and God’s character are one and the same.