Teaching with authority

When Jesus finished that day, those who had listened recognized that He taught with authority. This contrasted with the way their educated men taught, who carefully followed the traditional interpretations.

"The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes." Matthew 7:28-29

Jesus taught what no one else had taught; He did not lean on the religious traditions in what He taught. he even used those traditions as a contrast to what He taught.

Yet Jesus did not set aside the Scriptures; He clearly made the point that the Scriptures will not pass away while the earth endures. but Jesus looked at the Scriptures in a very different way than their teachers had approached them. Their teachers looked at Scriptures as something to build around; the Jewish traditions were built to keep men from breaking the Law. They stated that they were building a fence around the law; they assumed that they could keep the Law if they worked at it diligently.

But Jesus sought to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, not just keep a distance from them. Jesus saw that the Law and the Prophets were meant to build something; they were not just rules. Jesus taught what the Scriptures were meant to accomplish not what men had built around them.

Jesus looked for something in the Law and the prophets. The traditional teachers had only built around the Law and the Prophets. [Read More]

Excerpt from "The Foundation of Discipleship" by Greg Whitten, angiken@gmail.com] or Basic Christianity