Christ the only Legislator for the Church – Charles Spurgeon

WE deny that either king or parliament can legislate for Christ’s church; for Thomas Cranmer’s church they may if they please, but for Christ’s church, never! In the midst of those churches which are true to Christ’s authority, the Bible is the only statute book, and the living Jesus the only lawgiver. As Christ alone is the fountain of all spiritual legislation, so he alone gives authority to that legislation. If we be commanded to baptize, we baptize not because we have been authorised by a consistory, or have been licensed by a bishop or a presbytery, but we baptize because Christ has said, “Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” If we come together to break bread, it is not in the name of a denomination or a court, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you rest any church practice upon the authority of Augustine, Chrysostom, Calvin, or Luther, or base your faith upon some living preacher, and depend upon the force of his oratory, or upon the cogency of his argument, you put Christ out of his proper place. The reason why we should believe revealed truth is because Jesus has borne witness to it. His ipse dixit is the great ground of all our theology, for he is “the word of God;” and his regal supremacy is the argument for obedience to his commands.