In other words, the Bible is true from Genesis 1:1 right on through to the very last verse of Revelation.

Christ and His apostles, like all believing Jews of their time, accepted the absolute truth and authority of all the Old Testament Scriptures, including the five books of the Pentateuch.

In the account of Christ’s temptation by Satan in the wilderness, we read that Christ answered each temptation of Satan by direct quotation from the Old Testament Scriptures (see Matt. 4:1-10). Three times He commenced His answer with the phrase “It is written...” Each time He was quoting directly from the fifth book of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy. It is a remarkable fact that not only Christ, but also Satan, accepted the absolute authority of this book.

In the Sermon on the Mount Christ said:

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. [This phrase ‘the Law or the Prophets’ was generally used to designate the Old Testament Scriptures as a whole.] I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matt. 5:17-18)

The word jot is the English form of the name of the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, roughly corresponding in size and shape to an inverted comma in modern English script. The word tittle indicates a little curl or horn, smaller in size than a comma, added at the corner of certain letters in the Hebrew alphabet to distinguish them from other letters very similar in shape.

Thus, what Christ is saying, in effect, is that the original text of the Hebrew Scriptures is so accurate and authoritative that not even one portion of the script smaller in size than a comma can be altered or removed. It is scarcely possible to conceive how Christ could have used any form of speech which would have more thoroughly endorsed the absolute accuracy and authority of the Old Testament Scriptures.

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Jesus Christ is the only, God appointed foundation for the Christian life. How, then, does a person build upon this rock, which is Christ?

How, then, does a person build upon this rock, which is Christ?

Let us turn back again to that dramatic moment, when Christ and Peter stood face-to-face, and Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16).

We have seen that Christ is the rock. But it is not Christ in isolation or abstraction. Peter had a definite personal experience.

There were four successive stages in this experience:

A direct, personal confrontation of Peter, by Christ. Christ and Peter stood face-to-face. There was no mediator between them. No other human being played any part at all in the experience.
A direct, personal revelation granted to Peter. Jesus said to Peter, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17). This was not the outcome of natural reasoning or intellectual understanding. It was the outcome of a direct spiritual revelation to Peter, by God the

Foundations

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