But when it was now the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. The Jews then were marveling, saying, “How has this man become learned, not having been educated?” So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but from Him who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God or I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
John 7:14-24
“Did not Moses give you the Law? And yet none of you does the Law. Why do you seek to kill Me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
Introduction
When discussing matters of morality which must be adhered to, Christians typically use phrases like “binding the conscience.” The origin of this lies in the Protestant Reformation when Martin Luther, discontent with the rules imposed by Rome, stated that his “conscience is captive by the Word of God.” Rather than letting the religious rulers of his day dictate what must and must not be done or believed, Luther relied on the unchanging Word of God to dictate that to him.
And as much as modern protestants like to think we are only bound by the Word of God, there are many teachings we also bring into our doctrines which are informed by tradition first. Some of those teachings are more or less justified by scripture than others, but our joint commitment to sola scriptura compels us to revisit these from time to time.
In Jesus’ day, particularly in Jerusalem, tradition was king. It was the center of high thinking among the Jews, and rulings went out from Jerusalem to the rest of Judea. Even the changing of the months was declared from Jerusalem, as according to tradition a new month could only be judged by the Sanhedrin receiving two reliable witnesses of a new moon. So it makes sense that any teacher worth his salt would emerge from Jerusalem and not some other part of the world.
Becoming learned without education
Not to be misunderstood: I am a big fan of education. Personally, I have received education through graduate school. Learning is something I am very passionate about. But typically education takes the form of learning something from someone else. The more highly esteemed that someone else is, the better the education is considered. That is why two people who learn the exact same information can have wildly different outcomes in life when one learned that information at Harvard, but the other at a Community College.
When Jesus stood up to teach in Jerusalem, people were astonished. Not because what He was saying had some deep profundity to it, but because He spoke with authority and gravitas without ever having passed through the trials of schooling in the City of David. His education came from the Father and from His Word.
It is natural for people to default into credentialism. “Believe me because I learned from [fill in the blank].” You have undoubtedly witnessed this in your own life, and it has been the case throughout human history. It is the same attitude Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians 3:4 when speaking against division in the Church. Glory in a teaching is always due to the teacher. So when a teaching arises out of the mind of a man, that man seeks his own glory. But when a teaching comes from the mouth of God, the glory is God’s alone. That is why Jesus said, “he who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he who is seeking the glory of the One who sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”
The glory of Moses
Moses was given the Law from the mouth of God. All that he taught was given to him from God, and God alone. And yet the traditional way of speaking about the Law is to call it the Law of Moses. The traditional way of speaking of the teachings from the first five books is to say it was a teaching given by Moses. But the Law was not given by Moses, it was given to Moses who shared it with the people.
But because the people revered Moses the man, they considered it an offense against Moses to do anything they interpreted as being against the teachings of Moses. But what they failed to understand was the origin of the teachings always came from God, not Moses. So when they hated Jesus for healing on the Sabbath as He pointed out, they did so because they were less concerned about why the Sabbath was given and more concerned about what the boundaries of Sabbath observation were. This is the very essence of deferring to “the letter of the law” over “the intent of the law.” That is why Jesus commands the people “do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
When we step back and consider what God considers righteousness to be, the scriptures offer us a guide. We may freely bind our consciences to the Word of God, knowing in it we find righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ. A renewed heart loves the ways of God and does not stop very long to consider what this or that teacher has to say on the matter. That is not to eschew the value of education, only to temper it.
Insight from great teachers is helpful to a point, but we must always turn back to the Word of God. Scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith on which we ought to base our understanding of things, because scripture alone is formed by the very breath of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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