The Last Word 2

In the first chapter of The Last Word, N.T. Wright lays out his central claim for the book: "The phrase 'authority of scripture' can make Christian sense only if it is shorthand for 'the authority of the triune God, exercised somehow through scripture.'"

He begins with the declaration that all authority is from God, which Jesus clarifies by claiming that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. The climax for John in his gospel is not the written word but the enfleshed word of Jesus Christ. Essentially, scripture itself authoritatively points away from itself and to the fact that the 'final and true authority belongs to God himself, now delegated to Jesus Christ.'

Wright then turns to the phrase 'the authority of scripture' and describes it as a phrase which acts as a 'portable story', a suitcase that is packed full of 'longer narratives about God, Jesus, the church and the world.' He uses the phrase 'the atonement' as another example. The phrase itself is very rare in the Bible, but we find statements like 'the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures'; 'God so loved the world that he gave his only son', etc. When we discuss the atonement, it is easier to use the phrase 'the atonement', assuming that it somehow encapsulates all that the Bible teaches about the atonement. It is useful and helpful to carry around these 'suitcases'. But Wright warns that the point of carrying them around is that they need at some point to be 'unpacked and put to use in the new location. Too much debate about scriptural authority has had the form of people hitting one another with locked suitcases.'

When we 'unpack the suitcase' of the authority of scripture, we recognize that it must mean something related to the authority of God exercised through scripture. Wright asks a number of questions that relate to this perspective: What might we mean by the authority of God or of Jesus? What role does scripture have within that? Where does the Spirit come into the picture? And, not least, how does this 'authority' actually work? How does it relate, if at all, to the 'authority' of leaders or office-bearers within the church?

Wright next looks at the fact that much of the Bible is a story and wonders how a story can be authoritative. His first example is a commanding officer briefing soldiers about what has been going on so that they will understand the mission they are about to undertake. His second example is a secretary of a club who has unsuccessfully warned the members of certain safety procedures and decides instead to put up a notice which contains a tragic story of a person who ignored the procedures and was harmed because of it. A third example is in the telling of a familiar story with a new twist or a surprising ending that causes the hearer to rethink their orientation to one another and to the world. In all of these cases, there is authority wielded, but it is not the kind of authority that we normally think about. His point in this section is that for the Bible to have the effect it is designed for, it can't be chopped up into little pieces (which he comes back to later).

Wright then asks what the Bible itself says about the authority of God. He writes, 'The biblical writers live with the tension of believing both that in one sense God has always been sovereign over the world and that in another sense this sovereignty, this saving rule, is something which must break afresh into the world of corruption, decay and death, and the human rebellion, idolatry and sin which are so closely linked with it...God's authority, if we are to locate it at this point, is his sovereign power accomplishing this renewal of all creation...In scripture itself God's purpose is not just to save human beings, but to renew the whole world. This is the unfinished story in which readers of scripture are invited to become actors in their own right." He thus ties in the authority of scripture with the mission of the church, the work of the spirit, the ultimate future hope, and the nature of the church and moves away from thinking of scripture as simply a rulebook or a suppository of correct doctrine. The question then becomes, "What role does scripture play within God's accomplishment of this goal?"

Wright concludes the chapter with a section about the devotional reading of scripture. He says that it is wrong to confuse devotion and authority. He gives examples of those who have 'heard God speaking' through scripture and have acted accordingly to great peril for everyone involved. Wright then offers three central tenets to the role of the Bible within the church and the individual believer. First, it reminds us that the God Christians worship is a God who speaks. Second, it is central that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, which means that as we read, our way of thinking is aligned to God's. Third, it reminds us that reading this book energizes us for the task of mission as we 'live out our calling to reflect the creator into his world.'