By N. T. Wright
How does God exercise his authority through the Bible?
The [Bible was] written by …people…led by the Spirit… [It is] mostly narrative. …God has invested …this book [with] authority that is wielded & exercised through the people of God telling & retelling their story as the story of the world, telling the covenant story …of creation …through [God’s] people singing Psalms …telling the story of Jesus. We must look …at the question of stories. What sort of authority might they possess?
The Authority of a Story
There are various ways in which stories might be thought to possess authority. Sometimes a story is told so that the actions of its characters may be imitated. …[But], I suggest …the biblical story, has a shape & a goal that must be observed & to which appropriate response must be made.
Shakespeare’s Play missing the 5th Act
…Let me offer you …an illustration [that] actually corresponds …to some important features of the biblical story, which …God has given to his people...
Suppose there exists a Shakespeare play [drama] whose 5th act had been lost… [Suppose] it is generally agreed that the play ought to be staged. Nevertheless, it is felt inappropriate actually to write a 5th act …Better, it might be felt, to give the key parts to highly trained, sensitive & experienced Shakespearian actors, who would immerse themselves in the first 4 acts, and …then be told to work out a 5th act for themselves…
This model …offers …the possibility of seeing the 5 acts [of the Bible’s story] as follows:
[1] Act #1: Creation;
[2] Act #2: The Fall;
[3] Act #3: Israel;
[4] Act #4: Jesus;
[5] Act #5 (scene 1): the Church.
The New Testament [Acts of the Apostles, etc.] would then form the 1st scene in the 5th Act, giving hints as well (Rom. 8; 1 Cor. 15; Revelation) of how the play is supposed to end. The church …[today is] required to [provide] the final act [Act 5, scenes 2, 3, etc]….
Old Testament, New Testament
The model enables us to add an important footnote... The Old Testament… is not the book of the covenant people of God in Christ in the same sense that the New Testament is. The New Testament is written to be the charter for God’s people between the 1st and 2nd comings of Jesus; the Old Testament forms the story of the earlier acts, which are vital for understanding why Act 4 [Jesus], & hence Act 5, [Church] are what they are; but [the Old Testament] is not at all appropriate to be picked up & hurled forward into Act 5 without more ado. The Old Testament has the authority that an earlier Act of the play would have, no more, no less. This… demands a more carefully worked out view of [how] the Old Testament is, and/or is not, ‘authoritative’ for the life of the church …
Old Testament not the Church’s Charter
There is a hard thing which has to be said here: there is a sense in which the Old Testament is not the book of the church in the same way that the New Testament is the book of the church. Please do not misunderstand me. The Old Testament is …the book of the people of God, God’s book, God’s word etc. But, the Old Testament proclaims itself to be the beginning of that story which has now reached its climax in Jesus; and, as the letter to the Hebrews says, ‘that which is old and wearing out is ready to vanish away’, referring to the temple. But it is referring also to all those bits of the Old Testament which were good (they weren’t bad…) but, were there [temporarily] for a time as Paul argues very cogently, as in Galatians 3.
New Testament: the Church’s Charter
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| N. T. Wright |
The New Testament, building on what God did in the Old Testament, is now the covenant charter for God’s people. We do not have a Temple; we do not have sacrifices —at least, not in the old Jewish sense of either of those. Both are translated into new meanings in the New Testament. We do not have kosher [food] laws. We do not require that our male children be circumcised if they are to be part of God’s people. We do not keep the 7th day of the week as the Sabbath. Those were the boundary markers which the Old Testament laid down for the time when God’s people was one nation [Israel], one geographical entity [Canaan], with one racial & cultural identity [Jewish]. Now that the gospel has gone worldwide we thank God that he prepared the way like that [in the Old Testament]; but it is the New Testament now which is the charter for the church.
Excerpt from “How Can The Bible Be Authoritative?” by N. T. Wright, The Laing Lecture 1989, & the Griffith Thomas Lecture 1989. Published in Vox Evangelica, 1991, Vol. 21, pp. 7–32.
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