The authority of scripture goes beyond other religious texts. It’s not just that the Bible is more authoritative than the Quran or book of Mormon. Rather the law of God, as revealed in scripture, is more authoritative than those we talk to, associate with, and go to for advice. The law of God is a standard of grace which offers us a greater way of understanding. It also offers us something you can’t mine from anywhere else in the world: righteousness. For all the great things that the world has it cannot offer us righteousness.

Let me ask you something: under what circumstances have people come back to life? Has it been because of their great wealth? Has it been because of their scientific knowledge? Has it been because of their great families? What brings men from death to life? Truly there is only one man who has walked this earth who has controlled the realm of life and death. This man is Jesus Christ. He followed the law of God in every way and was counted as righteous and he was given righteousness.

Psalm 1 is a celebration of this fact:

(The righteous man) is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

(Psalm 1:3-4 ESV)

The wicked cannot face the judgment of God and in the end their ways lead to death. Consider today what kind of sins we are allowing to control our lives. In what ways do we listen to the wicked counsel of the world? How do we neglect the law in pursuit of the ways of this world. This is the greatest part about Christianity: you will not be able to keep up constantly with the law (which leads to life). Christ already did that. The life of the Christian is spent keeping the law out of love for Christ, repenting of sin, and rejoicing in the glory of the completed work of Jesus on the cross.