AUTHORITY-GOD

God speaks by the Church (the true Church we mean); but He speaks nothing by her but what He speaks in the Scriptures, which she does only ministerially declare to us; and therefore the authority of God and His law is above hers, who, though she publish, yet did not make it, but is herself subject to it.

John Owen

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 57.

A God with whom we are on…easy terms and whose reality is little different from our own,…who is merely there to satisfy our needs – has no real authority to compel and will soon begin to bore us.

David Wells

God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams, Eerdmans, 1994, p. 93.

The word command carries the idea of authority. The most basic meaning of the word is “to direct with authority.” A command does not just give guidance that one may accept or reject; a command implies that the one giving it has the authority to require obedience and the intention of doing so. This is true of the commands of God. As the Sovereign God of the universe, He has the authority to require obedience and He does insist that we obey Him.

Jerry Bridges