Faith Begins with His Word

What does it mean to follow Jesus? For all the rich dimensions of discipleship, the answer begins simply to be a Christian is to be a disciple one who listens to, learns from, and lives in obedience to Christ. Yet too often, in our desire to personalize faith or avoid controversy, we forget that to follow Jesus is also to take the Bible seriously. Not as a secondary resource, not as a helpful guide but as God's own Word, trusted and treasured by Jesus Himself.

Christian theology starts with God, yet it always finds its focal point in Jesus Christ. He is the one through whom the Triune God is made known (John 1:18; Hebrews 1:1–3). He is the one who confirms the Old Testament and commissions the New (Luke 24:44; Matthew 28:19–20). And crucially, He is the one who shows us how to approach Scripture with faith, confidence, and obedience.

Jesus on Scripture’s Authority

When tempted by Satan, Jesus didn’t offer abstract wisdom or emotional conviction He quoted Scripture (Matthew 4:1–11). Each time, He turned to Deuteronomy, affirming that God's written word is powerful enough to resist the devil himself. And He didn’t question the clarity or relevance of those words; He trusted them fully.

His responses to the Pharisees followed the same pattern. He would say, “It is written,” or ask, “Have you not read?” (Matthew 19:4; Mark 7:6; John 6:45). For Jesus, Scripture wasn’t just reference material it was final. It bore the very authority of God. His ministry showed a deep confidence in the Bible’s clarity, truthfulness, and divine origin.

This trust extended to His identity and mission. When He read from Isaiah in the synagogue and declared, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21), Jesus aligned His entire ministry with the Old Testament promises. He saw Himself in the Scriptures not as a reader, but as the fulfillment of all they pointed to.

The Scriptures Jesus Trusted

Modern scholarship affirms that the Gospels were written within living memory of Jesus’s ministry and based on eyewitness testimony. They faithfully reveal not only what He did, but what He believed especially about Scripture. And what we see is consisten Jesus viewed the Old Testament as God’s Word, authoritative and true.

His interactions with religious leaders make this clear. He challenged them not because they honored Scripture too much, but because they failed to understand and obey it. His “have you not read?” questions implied they should have known better. Scripture was clear enough to guide and correct but their hearts were hard.

Even His reasoning in debates, such as with the Sadducees over the resurrection, showed deep insight into Scripture’s meaning. In Matthew 22, Jesus uses Exodus 3 to argue for life after death, not by quoting an explicit text on resurrection, but by showing what is necessarily implied in God’s words to Moses. This is the same method Christian theologians now call drawing a “good and necessary consequence.”

Jesus and the New Testament

Though the New Testament hadn’t yet been written during His earthly ministry, Jesus paved the way for it. He commissioned the apostles and promised them the Holy Spirit, who would bring to their remembrance all He had said and guide them into all truth (John 14:26; 16:13).

The apostles, under divine commission, became the foundation of the Church (Ephesians 2:20). Their writings what we now call the New Testament carry the same weight of authority, not because they were smart or persuasive, but because they were authorized by Christ Himself.

Jesus anticipated that His words would continue through them. In John 17:20, He prays not only for His disciples, but for those who would believe through their message. That includes us. To reject the authority of the New Testament is to reject the authority of the One who authorized it.

A Personal Word from God

Some today claim a false dichotomy “We follow Jesus, not the Bible.” But Jesus never made such a distinction. In fact, to follow Jesus is to follow the Scriptures He so deeply cherished. He didn’t view Scripture as distant or dry. He lived it, breathed it, obeyed it, and taught it.

Yes, faith is personal. It involves love and trust, not just intellectual assent. But those deep emotions and spiritual experiences are grounded in God’s revealed truth. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). The Word of God was not a barrier to relationship it was the foundation of it.

Isaiah 66:2 captures the posture of a true disciple: “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” To take Jesus seriously is to tremble at the Scriptures not in fear, but in awe, reverence, and trust.

So let us not separate Jesus from the Bible. Let us not pit relationship against revelation. Instead, let’s follow Jesus as He truly is the living Word who confirms the written Word, and who calls us to hear, trust, and obey both.

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