(This material is left over from an article I recently wrote for the Mennonite Brethren Herald. Since I hate wasting things, I am putting it here.)

I once heard a speaker make a pithy quote about the object of his faith. He said that “I believe in the Word of God. His name is Jesus.” Of course. This but this kind of aphorism is not as helpful as it may seem. Christian faith has always focused on Jesus, but it has always relied on the testimony and teaching contained in the New Testament. We don’t know anything really meaningful about Jesus apart from what is written in the New Testament, and anything we try to say about Jesus that is not derived from Scripture cannot carry much weight.

For this reason, Anabaptists read Scripture carefully, and have been at pains to do what has been termed biblical theology (over against what is known as systematic theology)[1], because Scripture is the only place Christians can go to gain access to the life and teaching of Jesus. Not surprisingly, they read the Bible in light of the centrality of Jesus for Christian discipleship. Tim Geddert has pointed out that for Anabaptists, Jesus’ teaching clarified some issues that could have been difficult otherwise. For example, notwithstanding what God permitted in terms of marriage, Jesus reoriented people’s attention to what God intended for marriage “from the beginning” (Matthew 19:8).[2] Foundational elements of theology need to be rooted in the priorities revealed in Scripture, and those that are not cannot carry equal weight.

The New Testament is part of a theological tradition. It builds firmly on the foundation of God’s covenant dealings in the Old Testament, so much so that some scholars prefer to call them the First and Second Testament in order to convey that they are both vitally important for believers in Jesus.

Jesus himself affirmed the enduring moral validity of the law. His teachings contradicted not the law itself, but rather the self-centred and misguided distortions of the law that were popular in Jesus’ day. In doing so, Jesus reminded his hearers what purpose the law actually served – to point to him. Thus, for example, Jesus countered “love your neighbour and hate your enemy” with “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).

As the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17), Jesus announced himself as the focal point of discipleship. His identity as God, his teaching, and his works, culminating in his death and resurrection are essential elements to which Christ-followers yield themselves. And it is not surprising that it was the eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life – especially the resurrection – who provided the earliest substantive teaching for new disciples.

But how did later Christians know what Jesus the Christ was like? After all, it was not long before the last eyewitnesses to his life and teaching were gone. Then what? The answer is deceptively simple. First, they remembered what he said and did. Then, they wrote it down. Third, they taught one another what they had learned. Fourth, they read other letters written by people like John, Peter, and Paul, and they sifted them from the other documents that purported to be authentically about Christian faith, and they collected them, forming the Scriptures we still read today.

The growth of the Church, and the spread of the Kingdom of God, have in large part boiled down to the issue of authority – specifically, the authority of Christ. What does yielding to Christ’s authority mean for his followers? What are the implications of Christ’s authority for Christians when their circumstances change significantly? The first centuries of Christian history saw debates about who Jesus the Christ is gave way to conversations about what Christians are called to be and do in the world — not only in a society that is hostile to Christian faith, but also in a setting where structures purport to be Christian.

The establishment of the biblical canon was the recognition of the intrinsic authority of the books included by virtue of their having been inspired. This was discerned both in their origin and in their content. They were included because they were seen to be consistent with the rule of faith that church leaders of the period had long identified with faithfulness.

Not every idea or commitment historically has been consistent with the trajectory of Jesus’ teaching, but Christians have access to Jesus’ words recorded in Scripture, as well as the larger tradition in which Jesus lived, so we can check our work as we go.

The books of the Bible were not seen as being in lock step in terms of content — and they are not — but that was never the point. They were seen to be consistent in being integral elements of the grand story that Scripture tells of God’s work in the world. Along the way, the narratives, poetry, and other literary pieces conveyed stories about God’s work in the world that conveyed insights into what it means to be Christ-followers, citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Scripture provided not only answers, but also sheds light on what questions and priorities are important in the lives of the faithful. This is true not only at a micro level, but also at a macro level. Faithful living is a tapestry of values and virtues embraced according to the variety of texts that speak to the implications of life before God. The idea was the believers, reading the texts together, were to see themselves in the stories and lived according to what they learned. The same is true today.

There are many sources of knowledge that vie for the attention of Christians, many voices that demand a hearing, and many priorities that attempt to cast doubt about the enduring validity of what is written in the ancient collections of texts that we call the Bible. If we want to reinvent our faith using other foundational pieces, we can. But let’s not fool ourselves by calling what we invent Christianity.

---

[1] In truth, even biblical theology is a form of systematic theology, but I trust you get my point.

[2] Geddert, Tim. “The Authoritative Function of Scripture.” Direction Journal, 2020. https://directionjournal.org/49/2/authoritative-function-of-scripture.html.