Christ's authority as Teacher

This is plain as to the authority He assumes as a teacher both of
truth and duty. Everything which He declared to be true, all
Christians have ever felt bound to believe, without examination and
all that He commanded them to do or to avoid, they have ever regarded
as binding the conscience. His authority is the ultimate and highest
ground of faith and moral obligation. As the infinite and absolute
reason dwelt in Him bodily, his words were the words of God. He
declared himself to be the Truth, and therefore to question what He
said was to reject the truth; to disobey Him was to disobey the truth.
He was announced as the Logos, the personal and manifested Reason,
which was and is the light of the world, -- the source of all reason
and of all knowledge to rational creatures. Hence He spake as never
man spake. He taught with authority. He did not do as Moses and the
prophets did, speak in the name of God, and say, Thus saith the Lord,
referring to an authority out of themselves. But He spoke in his own
name, and the Apostles in the name of Christ. He was the ultimate
authority. He uniformly places Himself in the relation of God to his
people. Ye shall be saved "if ye do whatsoever I command you." He that
heareth me heareth God. I and the Father are one; He in me and I in
Him. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass
away. Moses said unto you thus and so, but I say unto you. He did not
deny the divine mission of Moses, but He assumed the right to modify
or repeal the laws which God had given to his people under the old
economy. The whole of revealed truth in the Old as well as in the New
Testament is referred to Him as its source. For the ancient prophets
taught nothing but what "the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify," which is equivalent to saying that they spake "as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost;" or "that all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God." And the Apostles presented themselves simply as
witnesses of what Christ had taught. Paul declared that he received
all his knowledge "by the revelation of Jesus Christ." And in his
Epistle to the Corinthians he expresses the same truth by saying
negatively, that his knowledge was not derived from human reason (the
spirit that is in men), but from the Spirit of God. Nothing is more
obvious to the reader of the New Testament than this divine authority
as a teacher everywhere claimed by Christ and for Him. To disbelieve
Him is to disbelieve God; and to disobey Him is to disobey God. This
is entirely different from the authority claimed by the prophets and
Apostles. They assumed nothing for themselves. Paul disclaimed all
authority over the faith of God's people, except on the ground of the
proof which he gave that it was "Christ speaking in" him. (2 Cor.
xiii. 3.) (Hodge v 1 p. 499-ff)