The doctrine of Sola Scriptura is a doctrine that has been under siege since the beginning of history and has continually been a main target for Satan’s lies and schemes. But we who follow Christ and live in submission to His living and active word alone, we continue to read and love and fear His word so as to “not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden his angle of attack was to bring into question the sufficiency of God’s word. “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” Not only did Satan, like a good legalist, subtly add on to God’s word by adding the command ‘any tree in the Garden’”, he also more devastatingly brought God’s word into question, “Did God really say?” Eve’s bite into that presupposition was the fruit of flowering sin. At that moment, God’s word ceased to have the highest authority over her life.
Thousands of years later, the sons of Satan tried to embroil the Son of Adam in the same trap. The second Adam would not bite. But in their legalism they looked on with disgust as some of Jesus’ disciples ate food without ritually washing their hands. Mark tells us it was not so much a germ thing (because they didn’t know about germs back then) as was a religious thing. “The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders” (Mark 7:3). So, they asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?”
Here Jesus answered them with profound theological and practical insight. “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6-7). Here Jesus pinpoints their hypocrisy: they had exalted the traditions of men to a level that actually caused them to deny and leave God’s word! He ends his discussion with the Pharisees by telling them that by exalting tradition to a level of authority on par with Scripture they have actually “made void the word of God” (Mark 7:13). Satan’s tricks are as old as Eden.
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