The Basic Doctrines

When we set out to study the Bible in detail, is there some easy way to identify the basic and most important doctrines that should be studied first?

This is a reasonable question, and, like all such questions related to the study of the Bible, an answer to it may be found within the pages of the Bible itself. The Bible does clearly state that certain of its doctrines are more important than the rest and should therefore be studied first. In fact, the Bible gives a list of six such basic, or foundational, doctrines.

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Jesus, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement (Heb. 6:1-2).

In the margin of the 1611 edition of the King James Version, the alternative reading suggested for the elementary principles of Jesus is “the word of the beginning of Jesus.” This brings out the point that we are here dealing with the doctrines which should constitute the beginning – the starting-off point – in our study of Jesus and His teaching as a whole.

This point is further emphasized by the use, in the same verse, of the phrase “the foundation.” The writer of Hebrews is setting two thoughts side by side: 1) the laying of the right doctrinal foundation; 2) going on after this to perfection – that is, to a completed edifice of Christian’s doctrine and conduct. The purpose of his exhortation is that we should go on to perfection, to the completed edifice. But he makes it plain that we cannot hope to do this unless we have first laid a complete and stable foundation of the basic doctrines.

In speaking of this foundation, the writer lists in order the following six successive doctrines: 1) repentance from dead works, 2) faith toward God, 3) the doctrine of baptisms, 4) laying on of hands, 5) resurrection of the dead, 6) eternal judgement.

We need to note one particularly important feature of this inspired outline of basic doctrines. If we follow it through in the order given, it spans the entire gamut of Christian’s experience. It starts – in time – from the sinner’s initial response: repentance. It takes us on, by a logical succession, to the climax – in eternity – of all Christian’s experience: resurrection and final judgement.

While it is important to study carefully each of these individual doctrines, we must never lose the vision of the single divine and perfect plan that runs through them all. In particular, we must never become so occupied with the things of time that we lose the vision of eternity. Otherwise, we may suffer the tragedy described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:19.

If in this life only we have hope in Jesus, we are of all men the most pitiable.

The studies that follow in this section focus on the first two of these doctrines: repentance and faith.

Repentance – Explained From Greek and Hebrew

First of all, we need a clear understanding of the meaning of the word repentance as used in the Scripture.

In the New Testament the English verb “to repent” is normally used to translate the Greek verb metanoein. This Greek verb metanoein has one definite meaning throughout the history of the Greek language, right through classical Greek down into New Testament Greek. Its basic meaning is always the same: “to change one’s mind.” Thus, “repentance” in the New Testament is not an emotion but a decision.

Knowing this fact serves to dispel many false impressions and ideas connected with repentance. Many people associate repentance with emotion – with the shedding of tears and so on. It is possible, however, for a person to feel great emotion and to shed many tears and yet never repent in the scriptural sense. Other people associate repentance with the carrying out of special religious rites or ordinances – with what is called “doing penance.” But here, too, the same applies: It is possible to go through many religious rites and ordinances and yet never repent in the scriptural sense.

True repentance is a firm, inward decision; a change of mind.

If we turn back to the Old Testament, we find that the word most commonly translated “to repent” means literally “to turn,” “to return,” “to turn back.” This harmonizes perfectly with the meaning of repentance in the New Testament. The New Testament word denotes the inner decision, the inner change of mind; the Old Testament word denotes the outward action which is the expression of the inward change of mind – the act of turning back, of turning around.

Thus, the New Testament emphasizes the inward nature of true repentance; the Old Testament emphasizes the outward expression in action of the inner change. Putting the two together, we form this complete definition of repentance: Repentance is an inner change of mind resulting in an outward turning back, or turning around; to face and to move in a completely new direction.

The Sinner’s First Response to God

The perfect example of true repentance, defined in this way, is found in the parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-32). Here we read how the prodigal turned his back on father and home and went off into a distant land, there to waste all that he had in sin and dissipation. Eventually he came to himself, hungry, lonely and in rags, sitting among the swine, longing for something to fill his stomach. At this point he made a decision. He said, “I will arise and go to my father” (v. 18).

He immediately carried out his decision: “And he arose and came to his father” (v. 20). This is true repentance: first, the inward decision; then the outward act of that decision – the act of turning back to father and home.

In his own unregenerate, sinful condition, every man that was ever born has turned his back on God, his Father, and on heaven, his home. Each step he takes is a step away from God and from heaven. As he walks this way, the light is behind him, and the shadows are before him. The farther he goes, the longer and darker the shadows become. Each step he takes is one step nearer the end – one step nearer the grave, nearer hell, nearer the endless darkness of a lost eternity.

For every man who takes this course, there is one essential act he must make. He must stop, change his mind, change his direction, face the opposite way, turn his back to the shadows and face toward the light.

This first, essential act is called repentance in the Scriptures. It is the first move any sinner must make who desires to be reconciled with God.

Distinguished From Remorse

Of course, there are some passages in some translations where the verb “to repent” is used in a different sense, but when we examine these passages carefully, we find that the English word “to repent” is used to translate some other word in the original language. For example, in the 1611 King James Version we read in Matthew 27:3-4 that when Judas Iscariot saw that Jesus had been condemned to death, afterward he “repented” of betraying Jesus for money.

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that.

Here we read that Judas “repented himself.” But the Greek word used in the original is not the word metanoein defined earlier. The Greek word used of Judas, metamelein, denotes that which people often wrongly interpret as repentance: remorse, anguish. There is no doubt that at this moment Judas experienced intense anguish and remorse. Nevertheless, he did not experience true, scriptural repentance; he did not change his mind, his course, his direction.

On the contrary, the very next verse says he went and hanged himself; in Acts 1:25 this is expressed by the words:

Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

Certainly Judas experienced emotion – strong emotion, bitter anguish and remorse. But he did not experience true repentance; he did not change his mind or his course. The truth is that he could not change his course; he had already gone too far. In spite of the Savior’s warning, he had deliberately committed himself to a course from which there could be no return. He had passed “the place of repentance.”

What a terrible and solemn lesson this is! It is possible for a man, by stubborn and willful continuance in his own way, to come to a place of no turning back – a place where the door of repentance has, by his own willfulness, been forever slammed shut behind him.

Another man who made this same tragic error was Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears (Heb. 12:17).

In a foolish, careless moment Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob in exchange for a bowl of soup. Genesis records: “Thus Esau despised his birthright” (Gen. 25:34). We must remember that in despising his birthright, he despised all the blessings and the promises of God that were associated with the birthright. Later, Esau regretted what he had done. He sought to regain the birthright and the blessing, but he was rejected. Why? Because he found no place of repentance. (In the margin of the 1611 King James Version the alternative translation is: “He found no way to change his mind” Heb. 12:17).

Here is further evidence that strong emotion is not necessarily proof of repentance. Esau cried aloud and shed bitter tears. But in spite of all this, he found no place of repentance. By a trivial, impetuous act he had decided the whole course of his life and his destiny both for time and for eternity. He had committed himself to a course from which afterward he could find no way of return.

How many men today do just the same as Esau! For a few moments of sensual pleasure or carnal indulgence, they despise all the blessings and promises of almighty God. Later, when they feel their mistake, when they cry out for those spiritual and eternal blessings which they had despised, to their dismay they find themselves rejected. Why? Because they find no place of repentance, no way to change their minds.

The Only Way to True Faith

The New Testament is unanimous on this one point: True repentance must always go before true faith. Without true repentance there can never be true faith.

The call to repentance begins at the very introduction to the New Testament with the ministry of John the Baptist.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight.”

John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Mark 1:3-4).

John the Baptist’s call to repentance was a necessary preparation for the revelation of the Messiah to Israel. Until Israel had been called back to God in repentance, their long-awaited Messiah could not be revealed among them.

A little further on we read the first message that Jesus Himself preached after John had prepared the way before Him.

Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel . . . and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15).

The first commandment that ever fell from the lips of Jesus was not to believe but to repent. First repent, then believe.

After His death and resurrection, when Jesus commissioned His apostles to go out to all nations with the gospel, once again the first word in His message was “repentance.”

Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Jesus to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).

Here again it is repentance first, and after that, remission of sins.

Shortly after the resurrection, the apostles, through their spokesman Peter, began to fulfil this commission of Jesus. After the Holy Spirit’s coming on the day of Pentecost, the convicted (but still unconverted) multitude asked: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). To this inquiry there came an immediate and definite answer.

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Jesus for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Here again it is repentance first; after that, baptism and remission of sins.

When Paul spoke to the elders of the church at Ephesus, he outlined the gospel message which he had preached to them.

I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Jesus (Acts 20:20-21).

The order of Paul’s message is the same: first repentance, then faith.

Finally, as we have already seen in Hebrews 6:1-2, the order of the basic foundation doctrines of the Christian’s faith is first repentance from dead works, then faith, baptisms and so on.

Without exception, throughout the entire New Testament, repentance is the first response to the gospel that God demands. Nothing else can come before it, and nothing else can take its place.

True repentance must always precede true faith. Without such repentance, faith alone is an empty profession. This is one reason why the experience of so many professing Christian’s today is so unstable and insecure. They are seeking to build without the first of the great foundation doctrines. They are professing faith but they have never practiced true repentance. As a result, the faith which they profess procures for them neither the favor of God nor the respect of the world.

In many places today the simplification of the gospel message has been taken one step too far. The message often preached today is “Only believe.” But that is not the message of Jesus. Jesus and His apostles preached “Repent and believe.” Any preacher who leaves out the call to repentance is misleading sinners and misrepresenting God. For Paul tells us that it is God Himself who “commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). That is the general edict of God to the entire human race: “All men everywhere must repent.”

In Hebrews 6:1 repentance is defined as “repentance from dead works”; in Acts 20:21 it is defined as “repentance toward God.” This means that, in the act of repentance, we turn away from our dead works and face toward God, ready to hear and obey His next command.

The phrase “dead works” includes all acts and activities that are not based upon repentance and faith. It includes even the acts and activities of religion – even of professing Christianity – if they are not built on this basis. It is in this sense that Isaiah cries out:

And all our righteousness’s are like filthy rags (Is. 64:6).

There is no reference here to acts of open sin and wickedness. Even those acts which are done in the name of religion and morality, if they are not based on repentance and faith, are not acceptable to God. Charity, prayers, church attendance, every kind of religious rite and ordinance – if they are not based on repentance and faith – are merely “dead works” and “filthy rags”!

There is one other fact about scriptural repentance which must be emphasized. True repentance begins with God and not with man. It originates not in the will of man but in the free and sovereign grace of God. Apart from the working of God’s grace and the moving of God’s Spirit, man left to himself is incapable of repentance. For this reason the psalmist cries out for restoration.

Restore us, O God . . . and we shall be saved! (Ps. 80:3,7).

The word translated “restore us” means literally “cause us to turn back.” Jeremiah uses the same word in Lamentations 5:21.

Turn us back to You, O Lord, and we will be restored.

Unless God first moves man toward Himself, man cannot of his own unaided will turn to God and be saved. The first move is always made by God.

In the New Testament Jesus expressed the same truth.

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him (John 6:44).

The supreme crisis of every human life comes at the moment of the Spirit’s drawing to repentance. Accepted, this drawing leads us to saving faith and eternal life; rejected, it leaves the sinner to continue on his way to the grave and the unending darkness of an eternity apart from God. The Scripture makes it plain that even in this life it is possible for a man to pass “the place of repentance” – to come to a point where the Spirit of God will never again draw him to repentance, and where all hope is lost even before he enters the portals of eternity.

It is fitting to close this study with the words of Jesus in Luke 13:3 (which are also repeated in verse 5).

Unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

Jesus was speaking of men who died in the very act of performing a religious rite; that is, a company of Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their own sacrifices. While carrying out their sacrifices in the temple, these men had been executed by order of the Roman governor, and their blood had been mingled on the temple floor with that of their sacrifices.

Yet Jesus tells us that these men perished; they went to a lost eternity. Even their religious act of sacrifice in the temple could not save their souls, because it was not based on true repentance.

The same is true of the religious ceremonies of many professing professing Christian’s today. None of these religious activities is any substitute for true repentance. Without such repentance, Jesus Himself said, “ . . . you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).

The Revelatory Effects of God’s Word

Cleansing

The seventh great effect of God’s Word is that of cleansing and sanctification. The key text for this is Ephesians 5:25-27.

Jesus also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. There are several important points in this passage that deserve attention.

Notice, first, that the two processes of cleansing and sanctifying are closely joined together. However, although these two processes are closely related, they are not identical.

The distinction between them is this: That which is truly sanctified must of necessity be pure and clean, but that which is pure and clean need not necessarily be in the fullest sense sanctified. It is possible to have purity, or cleanness, without sanctification, but it is not possible to have sanctification without purity, or cleanness.

Thus cleansing is an essential part of sanctification but not the whole of it. Later in this study, we shall examine more closely the exact meaning of the word sanctification.

Turning again to Ephesians 5:26 we notice, second, that one main, definite purpose for which Jesus redeemed the church is “that He might sanctify and cleanse it”.

The purpose of Jesus’s atoning death for the church as a whole, and each Christian in particular, is not fulfilled until those who are redeemed by His death have gone through a process of cleansing and sanctifying. Paul makes it plain that only Christian’s who have gone through this process will be in the condition necessary for their final presentation to Jesus as His bride – and the condition which he specifies is that of a glorious church, “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing . . . holy and without blemish” (v. 27).

The third point to notice in this passage is that the means which Jesus uses to cleanse and sanctify the church is “the washing of water by the word” (v. 26). It is God’s Word which is the means of sanctifying and cleansing; in this respect, the operation of God’s Word is compared to the washing of pure water.

Even before Jesus’s atoning death upon the cross had been consummated, He had already assured His disciples of the cleansing power of His Word which He had spoken to them.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3).

We see, therefore, that the Word of God is a divine agent of spiritual cleansing, compared in its operation to the washing of pure water.

Side by side with the Word, we must also set the other great agent of spiritual cleansing referred to by the apostle John.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Here John speaks of the cleansing power of Jesus’s blood, shed upon the cross, to redeem us from sin.

God’s provision for spiritual cleansing always includes these two divine agents – the blood of Jesus shed upon the cross and the washing with water by His Word. Neither is complete without the other. Jesus redeemed us by His blood so that He might cleanse and sanctify us by His Word.

John places these two great operations of Jesus in the closest possible connection with each other. Speaking of Jesus, he says:

This is He who came by water and blood – Jesus; not only by water but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is truth (1 John 5:6).

John declares that Jesus is not only the great Teacher who came to expound God’s truth to men; He is also the great Savior who came to shed His blood to redeem men from their sin. In each case, it is the Holy Spirit who bears testimony to Jesus’s work – to the truth and authority of His Word and the merits and power of His blood.

John teaches us, therefore, that we must never separate these two aspects of Jesus’s work. We must never separate the Teacher from the Savior, nor the Savior from the Teacher.

It is not enough to accept Jesus’s teaching through the Word without also accepting and experiencing the power of His blood to redeem and cleanse us from sin. On the other hand, those who claim redemption through Jesus’s blood must thereafter submit themselves to the regular, inward washing of His Word.

There are various passages concerning the ordinances of the Old Testament sacrifices which set forth, in type, the close association between the cleansing by Jesus’s blood and the cleansing by His Word. For instance, in the ordinances of the tabernacle of Moses, we read how God ordained that the laver of bronze containing clean water was to be placed close to the sacrificial altar of bronze and was to be used regularly in conjunction with it.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base also of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. And you shall put water in it, for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it. When they go into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with water, lest they die. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die. And it shall be a statute forever to them – to him and his descendants throughout their generations” (Ex. 30:17-21).

If we apply this picture to the New Testament, the sacrifice upon the bronze altar speaks of Jesus’s blood shed upon the cross for redemption from sin; the water in the laver speaks of the regular spiritual cleansing which we can receive only through God’s Word. Each alike is essential to the eternal welfare of our souls. Like Aaron and his sons, we must regularly receive the benefits of both, “lest we die.”

Sanctification

Having thus noted the process of cleansing through God’s Word, let us now go on to consider the further process of sanctification.

First we must consider briefly the meaning of this word sanctification. The ending of the word – ification – occurs in many English words and always denotes an active process of doing or making something.

For example, clarification means “making clear”; rectification means “making right or straight”; purification means “making pure,” and so on. The first part of the word sanctification is directly connected with the word saint it is simply another way of writing the same word. Saint in turn is simply an alternative way of translating the word which is more normally translated as “holy.”

Thus, the simple, literal meaning of sanctification is “making saintly,” or “making holy.”

The New Testament mentions five distinct truths in connection with sanctification:

1) the Spirit of God,

2) the Word of God,

3) the altar,
4) the blood of Jesus,

5) our faith.

Following are the main passages which mention these various truths of sanctification:

God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth (2 Thess. 2:13).

Peter tells Christian’s that they are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus (1 Pet. 1:2).

Thus, both Paul and Peter mention “sanctification of [or by] the Holy Spirit” as an element of Christian’s experience.

Sanctification through the Word of God was referred to by Jesus Himself when He prayed to the Father for His disciples.

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (John 17:17).

Here we see that sanctification comes through the truth of God’s Word. Sanctification through the altar is likewise referred to by Jesus. He told the Pharisees on Matthew 23:19:

Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

Here Jesus endorses that which had already been taught in the Old Testament – that the gift which was offered in sacrifice to God was sanctified, made holy, set apart, by being placed upon God’s altar. In the New Testament, as we shall see, the nature of the gift and the altar is changed, but the principle remains true that it is “the altar that sanctifies the gift.”

Sanctification through the blood of Jesus is referred to in Hebrews 10:29. Here the author considers the case of the apostate – the person who has known all the blessings of salvation but has deliberately and openly rejected the Saviour.

Concerning such a person Paul asks:

Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

This passage shows that the true believer who continues in the faith is sanctified by the blood of the new covenant which he has accepted – that is, by Jesus’s blood.

Sanctification through faith is referred to by Jesus Himself, as quoted by Paul as he related the commission which he received from Jesus to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me (Acts 26:18).

Here we see that sanctification is through faith in Jesus. Summing up these passages, we arrive at this conclusion: Sanctification, according to the New Testament, is through five means or agencies:

1) the Holy Spirit,

2) the truth of God’s Word,

3) the altar of sacrifice,

4) the blood of Jesus and

5) faith in Jesus.

The process may be briefly outlined as follows:

The Holy Spirit initiates the work of sanctification in the heart and mind of each one whom God has chosen in His eternal purposes. Through the truth of God’s Word, as it is received in the heart and mind, the Holy Spirit speaks, reveals the altar of sacrifice, separates the believer from all that holds him back from God, and draws him to place himself in surrender and consecration upon that altar. There the believer is sanctified and set apart to God both by the contact with the altar and by the cleansing and purifying power of the blood that was shed upon the altar.

To accomplish their sanctifying work in each believer is decided by the fifth factor in the process; that is, by the individual faith of each believer. In the work of sanctification, God does not violate the one great law which governs all His works of grace in each believer – the law of faith.

As you have believed, so let it be done for you (Matt. 8:13).

Let’s examine a little more closely the part played by God’s Word in this process of sanctification. First, we must note that there are two aspects to sanctification – one negative and the other positive.

- The negative aspect consists of being separated from sin and the world and from all that is unclean and impure.

- The positive aspect consists of being made partakers of God’s holy nature.

In much preaching, both on this and on other related subjects, there is a general tendency to overemphasize the negative at the expense of the positive. As professing Christian’s we tend to speak much more about the “do not” in God’s Word than about the “dos.”

For example, in Ephesians 5:18 we usually lay much more stress upon the negative “do not be drunk with wine” than we do upon the positive “be filled with the Spirit.” However, this is an inaccurate and unsatisfactory way to present God’s Word.

With regard to holiness, the Scriptures make it plain that this is something much more than a negative attitude of abstaining from sin and uncleanness. For example, in Hebrews 12:10 we are told that God, as a heavenly Father, chastens us, His children, for our profit that we may be partakers of His holiness. Again, in 1 Peter 1:15-16 we read:

But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

We see that holiness is a part of God’s eternal, unchanging nature. God was holy before sin ever entered into the universe, and God will still be holy when sin has once again been banished forever. We, as God’s people, are to be partakers of this part of His eternal nature. Separation from sin, just like cleansing from sin, is a stage in this process, but it is not the whole process. The final, positive result which God desires in us goes beyond both cleansing and separation.

God’s Word plays its part both in the negative and in the positive aspects of sanctification. Paul describes the negative aspect of Romans 12:1-2:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

There are four successive stages in the process which Paul here describes.

1. Presenting our bodies as living sacrifices upon God’s altar. We have already seen that the altar sanctifies that which is presented upon it.

1. Not being conformed to the world – that is, being separated from its vanity and sin.

1. Being transformed by the renewing of our minds – that is, learning to think in entirely new terms and values.

1. Getting to know God’s will personally for our lives. This revelation of God’s will is granted only to the renewed mind. The old, carnal, unrenewed mind can never know or understand God’s perfect will.

It is here, in the renewing of the mind, that the influence of God’s Word is felt. As we read, study, and meditate in God’s Word, it changes our whole way of thinking. It both cleanses us with its inward washing and separates us from all that is unclean and ungodly. We learn to think about things – to estimate them, to evaluate them – as God Himself thinks about things.

In learning to think differently, we also act differently. Our outward lives are changed in harmony with our new inward processes of thought. We are no longer conformed to the world because we no longer think like the world. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds.

However, not to be conformed to the world is merely negative. It is not a positive end in itself. If we are not to be conformed to the world, to what then are we to be conformed? The answer is plainly stated by Paul.

For whom He [God] foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29).

Here is the positive end of sanctification: to be conformed to the image of Jesus. It is not enough that we are not conformed to the world – that we do not think and say and do the things that the world does. This is merely negative. Instead of all this, we must be conformed to Jesus – we must think and say and do the things that Jesus would do.

Paul dismisses the negative type of holiness as quite inadequate in Col. 2:20-22:

Therefore, if you died with Jesus from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations – “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using?

True sanctification goes far beyond this barren, legalistic, negative attitude. It is a positive conforming to the image of Jesus Himself; a positive partaking of God’s holiness.

This positive aspect of sanctification and the part played in it by God’s Word, is beautifully discovered in 2 Peter 1:3-4,

His [God’s] divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

There are three main points to notice here.

1. God’s power has already provided us with all that we need for life and godliness. The provision has already been made. We do not need to ask God to give us more than He has already given. We merely need to benefit ourselves to the full of that which God has already provided.

1. This complete provision of God is given to us through the exceedingly great and precious promises of His own Word. The promises of God already contain within them all that we shall ever need for life and godliness. All that remains for us now to do is to take and apply these promises by active, personal faith.

1. The result of applying God’s promises is twofold, both negative and positive.

Negatively, we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust; positively, we are made partakers of the divine nature. Here is the complete process of sanctification that we have described: both the negative escape from the world’s corruption and the positive partaking of God’s nature, of God’s holiness.

All this – both the negative and the positive – is made available to us through the promises of God’s Word. It is in measure as we take and apply the promises of God’s Word that we experience true scriptural sanctification.

Jacob once dreamed of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. For the Christian’s, the counterpart to that ladder is found in God’s Word. Its foot is set on earth, but its head reaches heaven – the plane of God’s being. Each step of the ladder is a promise. As we lay hold by the hands and feet of faith upon the promises of God’s Word, we lift ourselves by them out of the earthly realm and closer to the heavenly realm. Each promise of God’s Word, as we claim it, lifts us higher above earth’s corruption and imparts to us a further measure of God’s nature.

It was for this reason that Jesus prayed to the Father: Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (John 17:17).

Victorious Effects of God’s Word

Victory Over Sin

We have already remarked that probably no character in the Old Testament had a clearer vision of the authority and power of God’s Word than the psalmist David. For an introduction to our present subject, victory over sin and Satan, we may turn once again to the words of David.

Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You (Ps. 119:11).

The Hebrew word here translated “hidden” means, more exactly, “to store up like a treasure.” David did not mean he had hidden God’s Word away so that its presence could never be detected. Rather he meant he had stored up God’s Word in the safest place, reserved for things he treasured most, so he might have it available for immediate use in every time of need.

In Psalm 17:4 David again expresses the keeping power of God’s Word.

Concerning the works of men, By the word of Your lips, I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer.

Here is a word of direction concerning our participation in “the works of men” – human activities and social interaction. Some of these activities are safe, wholesome, acceptable to God; others are dangerous to the soul and contain the hidden snares of the destroyer. (“The destroyer” is one of many names in Scripture for the devil.) How are we to distinguish between those who are safe and wholesome and those which are spiritually dangerous? The answer is, by the application of God’s Word.

One often hears questions such as these:

Is it right for Christian’s to dance? to smoke? to gamble? and so on. The answer to all such questions must be decided not by accepted social practice, nor by accepted church tradition, but by the application of God’s Word.

For instance, I remember that a group of women students once asked me, as an ordained minister, if there was any harm in their attending dances at the college where they were being trained as teachers. In reply, I did not offer them my own opinion or the regulations laid down by a mission board. Instead, I asked them to turn with me to two passages in the Bible.

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col. 3:17).

I pointed out that these two passages of Scripture contain two great principles which are to decide and direct all that we do as a professing Christian.

First, we must do all things to the glory of God.
Second, we must do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God by Him.

Therefore, anything that we can do to the glory of God and in the name of the Lord Jesus is good and acceptable; anything that we cannot do to the glory of God and in the name of the Lord Jesus is wrong and harmful.

It was my responsibility, as I saw it, to give those young women basic scriptural principles. Thereafter it was their responsibility, not mine, to apply those principles to their particular situation.

The Scriptures teach very plainly that the body of the Christian, having been redeemed from the dominion of Satan by the blood of Jesus, is the temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in and is, therefore, to be kept clean and holy.

For example, Paul says in 1 Cor. 3:16-17:

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are .

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

For this is the will of God, your sanctification . . . that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel [that is, the earthen vessel of his physical body] in sanctification and honour (1 Thess. 4:3-4).

Based on these and other similar passages, many professing Christian’s have refrained from using tobacco in any form. Until fairly recently it was often suggested by unbelievers that this refusal by Christian’s to indulge in tobacco was merely a kind of foolish, old-fashioned fad, akin to fanaticism. However, modern medical research has demonstrated, beyond all possibility of doubt, that smoking – particularly of cigarettes – is a direct contributory cause of lung cancer. The medical associations of both the United States have endorsed this conclusion. In the United States this year there will be an estimated 148,945 in 2016 deaths from lung cancer (American Cancer Society). Another undisputed fact, proved by experience and endorsed by medical science, is that death through lung cancer is usually lingering and painful.

In the face of facts such as these, the refusal of Christian’s to smoke can no longer be dismissed as foolishness or fanaticism. If foolishness can be charged to anyone today, it is certainly not to the Christian but to the person who regularly wastes substantial sums of money to gratify a lust which greatly increases the possibility of a painful death through lung cancer. And if foolishness can be charged to the victims of this lust, surely nothing short of wickedness can be charged to those who, by every means of persuasion and modern publicity, wilfully seek, for the sake of their financial profit, to bring their fellow human beings under the cruel bondage of this degrading and destroying habit.

Almost the same that has been said about tobacco smoking applies equally to excessive indulgence in alcohol.

Again, a majority of sincere professing Christian’s have through the years refrained from this kind of indulgence based on the Bible’s warnings against it. It is a well-established fact that excessive indulgence in alcohol is a major contributing factor in many kinds of mental and physical disease and also in the modern toll of traffic accidents.

Here again, as in the case of smoking, millions of Christian’s have been preserved from harm and disaster by their practical application of the Bible’s teaching.

A new, “modern” plague – AIDS – came upon the world in the 1980s. Christian’s who refrain from immorality protect themselves and their children from the devastation of that disease. On the other hand, homosexuality, so often touted as an “alternative life-style,” has proved to be an alternative death-style. Christian’s who have been protected from these evils can surely echo, with deep thankfulness, the words of David.

Concerning the works of men,

By the word of Your lips,

I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer (Ps. 17:4).

Victory Over Satan

Not merely does God’s Word, applied in this way, give victory over sin. It is also the divinely appointed weapon that gives victory over Satan himself. The apostle Paul commands:

And take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph. 6:17).

Thus, God’s Word is an indispensable weapon in Christian warfare. All the other items of the Christian armor listed in Ephesians 6 – the girdle, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, and the helmet – are intended for defense. Many spiritually put these on daily as a ritual against satan. But the truth of this verse is the fact that this pertains to a lifestyle. The only weapon of attack is the Spirit’s sword, the Word of God.

Without a thorough knowledge of God’s Word and how to apply it, a Christian has no weapon of attack, no weapon with which he can assault Satan and the powers of darkness and put them to flight. Given this, it is not surprising that Satan has throughout the history of the Christian church used every means and device within his power to keep Christian’s ignorant of the true nature, authority, and power of God’s Word.

In the use of God’s Word as a weapon, the Lord Jesus Jesus Himself is the Christian’s supreme example. Satan brought three main temptations against Jesus, and Jesus met and defeated each temptation of Satan with the same weapon – the sword of God’s written Word (see Luke 4:1-13). For in each case Jesus began His answer with the phrase “It is written” and then quoted directly from the Scriptures.

There is significance in the two different phrases which Luke uses in this account of Satan’s temptation of Jesus and its consequences. In Luke 4:1 he says:

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit . . . was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

But at the end of the temptations, in Luke 4:14, we read:

Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.

Before His encounter with Satan, Jesus was already “filled with the Holy Spirit.” But it was only after Jesus had encountered and defeated Satan with the sword of God’s Word that He was able to commence His God-appointed ministry “in the power of the Spirit.” There is a distinction therefore between being filled with the Spirit and being able to minister in the power of the Spirit. Jesus only entered into the power of the Spirit after He had first used the sword of God’s Word to defeat Satan’s attempt to turn Him aside from the exercise of His Spirit-empowered ministry.

This is a lesson that needs to be learned by Christian’s today. Many Christian’s who have experienced a perfectly scriptural infilling of the Holy Spirit never go on to serve God in the power of the Spirit. The reason is that they have failed to follow the example of Jesus. They have never learned to wield the sword of God’s Word in such a way as to defeat Satan and repulse his opposition to the exercise of the ministry for which God filled them with the Holy Spirit.

It may safely be said that no person has a greater and more urgent need to study the Word of God than the Christian’s who have newly been filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet, sad to say, such Christian’s often seem to imagine that being filled with the Spirit is somehow a substitute for the diligent study and application of God’s Word. In reality, the very opposite is true.

No other item of a soldier’s armour is any substitute for his sword, and no matter how thoroughly he may be armed at all other points, a soldier without his sword is in grave danger. So it is with the Christian’s. No other spiritual equipment or experience is any substitute for a thorough knowledge of God’s Word, and no matter how thoroughly he may be equipped in all other respects, a Christian’s without the sword of God’s Word is always in grave danger.

The early Christian’s of the apostolic age, though often simple and uneducated, certainly followed the example of their Lord in learning to know and use God’s Word as a weapon of offense in the intense spiritual conflict brought upon them by their profession of faith in Jesus. For example, the apostle John in his advanced years wrote to the young Christian men who had grown up under his instruction:

I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one (1 John 2:14).

John makes three statements about these young men:

1) they are strong,

2) they have God’s Word abiding in them,

3) they have overcome the wicked one (Satan).

The second of these two statements are related to the first and the third, as the cause is related to the effect. The reason why these young Christian men were strong and able to overcome Satan was that they had God’s Word abiding in them. It was God’s Word within them that gave them their spiritual strength.

We need to ask ourselves this question: How many of the young Christian people in our churches today are strong and have overcome the devil? If we do not see many young Christian people today who manifest this kind of spiritual strength and victory, the reason is not in doubt. It is simply this: The cause which produces these effects is not there.

The only source of such strength and victory is a thorough, abiding knowledge of God’s Word. Christian young people who are not thoroughly instructed in God’s Word can never be strong and overcoming in their experience.

We are today in grave danger of underrating the spiritual capacity of young people and treating them in a manner that is altogether too childish. There is even a tendency to create in young people today the impression that God has provided for them some special kind of Christianity with lesser demands and lower standards than those which God imposes upon adults.

In this connection, Solomon made a very relevant and penetrating remark.

For childhood and youth are vanity (Eccl. 11:10).

In other words, childhood and youth are merely fleeting, external appearances which in no way alter the abiding spiritual realities that concern all souls alike.

William Booth’s daughter, Catherine Booth-Clibborn, expressed a similar thought when she said, “There is no sex in the soul.” The deep, abiding spiritual realities upon which Christian’sity is based are in no way affected by differences of age or sex. Christian’sity is based upon such qualities as repentance, faith, obedience, self-sacrifice, devotion. These qualities are the same for men and women, boys and girls, alike.

It is sometimes suggested that the way to meet this need of thorough scriptural teaching for Christian young people is to send them to Bible colleges. However, this proposed remedy can be accepted only with two qualifications.

The first qualification, must be stated that there is an increasing tendency at present, even among evangelical or full-gospel Bible colleges, to devote less and less time to the actual study of the Bible and more and more time to other secular studies.

Paul warned the Colossians:

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men (Col. 2:8).

Paul also warned Timothy:

O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust [that is, the truth of God’s Word], avoiding the profane and vain babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge – by professing it, some have strayed concerning the faith (1 Tim. 6:20-21).

These warnings need to be repeated today. In many cases, a young person can complete a course at a modern Bible college and come away with inadequate knowledge of the Bible’s teachings and how to apply them practically.

The second qualification we must make is that no Bible college course, however, sound and thorough it may be, can ever exonerate the pastors of local churches from their duty to provide all the members of their congregations with regular, systematic training in God’s Word.

The local church is the central point in the whole New Testament plan for scriptural instruction, and no other institution can ever usurp the local church’s function. The apostles and Christian’s of the New Testament had no other institution for giving scriptural instruction except for the local church. Yet they were more successful in their task than we are today.

Other institutions, such as Bible colleges, may provide special instruction to supplement the teaching done in the local churches, but they can never take their place. The most desperate need of the great majority of local churches today is not more organization or better programs or more activities. It is simply this: thorough, practical, regular instruction in the basic truths of God’s Word and how to apply them in every aspect of the Christian life.

Only by this means can the church of Jesus, as a whole, rise in strength, administer in Jesus’s name the victory of Calvary and accomplish the task committed to her by her Lord and Master.

This accords with the picture in Revelation of a victorious church at the close of this age.

And they [the professing Christian’s] overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (Rev. 12:11).

Here are revealed the three elements of victory:

- the blood,
- the Word,
- our testimony.

The blood is the token and seal of Jesus’s finished work upon the cross and of all that this makes available to us of blessing and power and victory. Through the Word, we come to know and understand all that Jesus’s blood has purchased for us. Finally, through testifying to that which the Word reveals concerning the blood, we make Jesus’s victory over Satan real and effectual in our personal experience.

As we study this divine program of victory over Satan, we see once again that the Word occupies a central position. Without proper knowledge of the Word, we cannot understand the true merits and power of Jesus’s blood, and thus our testimony as Christian’s lacks real conviction and authority. The whole of God’s program for His people centers around the knowledge of His Word and the ability to apply it. Without this knowledge, the church finds herself today in the same condition as Israel in Hosea’s day, concerning whom the Lord declared:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you (Hos. 4:6).

A church that rejects the knowledge of God’s Word faces the certainty of rejection by God Himself and destruction at the hands of her great adversary, the devil.

Physical and Mental Effects of God’s Word

In the previous session we discovered the following three effects of God’s Word:

1. God’s Word produces faith, and faith, in turn, is directly related to God’s Word because faith is believing and acting upon what God has said in His Word.

1. God’s Word, received as an incorruptible seed into a believer’s heart, produces the new birth – a new spiritual nature created within the believer and called in the Scriptures “the new man.”

1. God’s Word is the divinely appointed spiritual nourishment with which the believer must regularly feed the new nature within him if he is to grow into a healthy, strong, mature Christian’s.

Physical Healing

God’s Word is so varied and wonderful in its working that it provides not only spiritual health and strength for the soul but also physical health and strength for the body. Let us turn first to Psalms 107:17-20.

Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted.

Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.

He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

The psalmist gives us a picture of men so desperately sick that they have lost all appetite for food and are lying right at death’s door. In their extremity, they cry out to the Lord, and He sends them that which they cry for – healing and deliverance. By what means does He send these? By His Word.

For the psalmist says:

He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions (Ps. 107:20).

Side by side with this passage in Psalm 107 we may set the passage in Isaiah 55:11 where God says:

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

You are that word, you shall accomplish and prosper in the thing which He has sent you to do.

In Psalm 107:20 we read that God sent His Word to heal and deliver; in Isaiah 55:11 God says that His Word will accomplish the thing for which He sent it. Thus God guarantees that He will provide healing through His Word.

This truth of physical healing through God’s Word is even more fully stated in Proverbs 4:20-22, where God says:

My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes:

Keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh

What promise of physical healing could be more all-inclusive than that? “Health to all their flesh.” Every part of our physical frame is included in this phrase. Nothing is omitted. Furthermore, in the margin of the 1611 edition of the King James Version, the alternative reading for “health” is “medicine.” The same Hebrew word includes both shades of meaning. Thus God has committed Himself to provide complete physical healing and health.

Remember, what it says in 3 John 1:2,

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

He wants you to be in good health and prosper as your soul prospers.

Notice the introductory phrase at the beginning of verse 20: “My son.” This indicates that God is speaking to His believing children. When a Syro-Phoenician woman came to Jesus to plead for the healing of her daughter, Jesus replied to her request by saying:

It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs (Matt. 15:26).

By these words Jesus indicated that healing is the children’s bread; in other words, it is part of God’s appointed daily portion for all His children. It is not a luxury for which they have to make special pleas and which may or may not be granted them.

No, it is their “bread,” part of their daily provision from their heavenly Father. This agrees exactly with the passage we read in Proverbs 4, where God’s promise of perfect healing and health is addressed to every believing child of God. Both in Psalm 107 and Proverbs 4 how God provides healing is His Word. This is one further example of the vital truth which we stressed earlier in this series: that God Himself is in His Word and that it is through His Word that He comes into our lives.

As we consider the claim made in Proverbs 4:20-22 that God’s Word is medicine for all our flesh, we might call these three verses God’s great “medicine bottle.” They contain a medicine such as was never compounded on earth – one medicine guaranteed to cure all diseases.

However, when a doctor prescribes a medicine, he normally ensures that the directions for taking it are written clearly on the bottle. This implies that no cure can be expected unless the medicine is taken regularly, according to the directions. The same is true with God’s “medicine” in Proverbs. The directions are “on the bottle,” and no cure is guaranteed if the directions are not followed.

What are these directions? They are fourfold.

1. “Give attention to my words.”
2. “Incline your ear.”
3. “Do not let them depart from your eyes.”
4. “Keep them in the midst of your heart.”

The first direction is to “give attention to my words.” As we read God’s Word, we need to give it close and careful attention. We need to focus our understanding on it. We need to give it free, unhindered access to our whole inward being. So often we read God’s Word with divided attention. Half our mind is occupied with what we read; the other half is occupied with those things which Jesus called “the cares of this life.” We read some verses, or perhaps even a chapter or two, but in the end, we have no clear impression of what we have read. Why our attention has wandered.

Taken in this context, God’s Word will not produce the effects God intended. When reading the Bible, it is well to do what Jesus recommended when He spoke of prayer; that is, to enter our closet and shut the door. We must shut ourselves in with God and shut out the things of the world.

The second direction on God’s medicine bottle is “incline your ear.” The inclined ear indicates humility. It is the opposite of being proud and stiff-necked. We must be teachable. We must be willing to let God teach us. In Psalm 78:41 the psalmist speaks of Israel’s conduct as they wandered through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan, and he brings this charge against them: They limited the Holy One of Israel.

By their stubbornness and unbelief, they set limits to what they would allow God to do for them. Many professing Christian’s do just the same today. They do not approach the Bible with an open mind or a teachable spirit. They are full of prejudices or preconceptions – very often instilled by the particular sect or denomination with which they are associated – and they are not willing to accept any revelation or teaching from the Scriptures which goes beyond, or contrary to, their own set thoughts. Jesus charged the religious leaders of His day with this fault.

Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition . . . And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men (Matt. 15:6,9).

The apostle Paul had been a prisoner of religious prejudices and traditions, but through the revelation of Jesus on the Damascus road he was set free from them. Thereafter we find him saying in Romans 3:4:

Let God be true but every man a liar.

If we wish to receive the full benefit of God’s Word, we must learn to take the same attitude.

The third direction on God’s medicine bottle is “do not let them depart from your eyes,” with the word them referring to God’s words and sayings. The late evangelist Smith Wigglesworth once said, “The trouble with many Christian’s is that they have a spiritual squint: with one eye they are looking at the promises of the Lord, and with the other eye they are looking in some other direction.”

In order to receive the benefits of physical healing promised in God’s Word, it is necessary to keep both eyes fixed unwaveringly on the Lord’s promises. One mistake many professing Christian’s make is to look away from God’s promises to the case of some other professing Christian’s who have failed to receive healing. As they do this, their faith wavers, and they, too, fail to receive healing.

Listen to James 1:6-8,

He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways

A helpful verse to remember in such a situation is Deuteronomy 29:29:

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law…..

The reason why some professing Christian’s fail to receive healing remains a secret, known only to God and not revealed to man. We do not need to be concerned with such secrets as this. Rather we need to concern ourselves with those things which are revealed: the clear statements and promises of God given to us in His Word. The things thus revealed in God’s Word belong to us and our children forever; they are our heritage as believers; they are our inalienable right. And they belong to us “that we may do them”; that is, that we may act upon them in faith. When we do, we prove them true in our experience.

The first direction spoke of “attending”; the second spoke of the “inclined ear”; the third spoke of the “focused eyes.” The fourth direction on God’s medicine bottle concerns the heart, the inward center of the human personality, for it says “keep them in the midst of your heart.” Proverbs 4:23, emphasize the decisive influence of the heart in the human experience.

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

In other words, what is in our hearts controls the whole course of our lives and all that we experience.

If we receive God’s words with careful attention – if we admit them regularly through both the ear and the eye so that they occupy and control our hearts – then we find them to be exactly what God has promised: both life to our souls and health to our flesh.

The words of Psalm 107:20 are still being fulfilled today.

He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.

Christian’s who testify today of the healing power of God’s Word can say, as Jesus Himself said to Nicodemus in John 3:11:

Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have

For those who need healing and deliverance:

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! (Ps. 34:8).

Taste this medicine of God’s Word for yourself! See how it works! It is not like so many earthly medicines, bitter and unpalatable. Nor does it work, like so many modern drugs, bringing relief to one organ of the body but causing a reaction that impairs some other organ. No, God’s Word is altogether good, altogether beneficial. When received according to His direction, it brings life and health to our whole being.

Mental Illumination

In the area of the mind, also, the effect of God’s Word is unique.

The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple (Ps. 119:130).

The psalmist speaks of two effects produced in the mind by God’s Word: “light” and “understanding.”

In the world, today education is probably more highly prized and more universally sought after than at any previous period in man’s history. Nevertheless, secular education is not the same as “light” or “understanding.” Nor is it any substitute for them. Indeed, there is no substitute for light. Nothing in the whole universe can do what light does.

So it is with God’s Word in the human mind. Nothing else can do in the human mind what God’s Word does, and nothing else can take the place of God’s Word.

Secular education is a good thing, but it can be misused. A highly educated mind is a fine instrument – just like a sharp knife. But a knife can be misused. One man can take a sharp knife and use it to cut up food for his family. Another man may take a similar knife and use it to kill a fellow human being.

So it is with secular education. It is a wonderful thing, but it can be misused. Divorced from the illumination of God’s Word, it can become extremely dangerous. A nation or civilization which concentrates on secular education but gives no place to God’s Word is simply forging instruments for its destruction. The history of recent developments in the technique of nuclear fission is one among many historical examples of this fact.

On the other hand, God’s Word reveals to man those things which he can never discover by his intellect: the reality of God the Creator and Redeemer; the true purpose of existence; man’s inner nature; his origin and his destiny. In light of this revelation, life takes on an entirely new meaning. With a mind thus illuminated, a man sees himself as part of a single comprehensive plan that spans the universe. Finding his place in this divine plan, he achieves a sense of self-worth and personal fulfillment that satisfies his deepest longings.

It is appropriate to close this session by returning to Hebrews 4:12.

For the word of God is living and powerful [or energetic], and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

This confirms and sums up the conclusions we have reached concerning God’s Word. There is no area of the human personality that God’s Word does not penetrate. It reaches right down into the spirit and soul, the heart and the mind, and even into the innermost core of our physical body, the joints, and the marrow.

In perfect accord with this, we have seen in this and in the previous chapter that God’s Word, implanted as a seed in the heart, brings forth eternal life. Thereafter it provides spiritual nourishment for the new life thus brought forth. Received into our bodies it produces perfect health, and received into our minds it produces mental illumination and understanding.

Authority of God’s Word

In our study of this subject, let us turn first to the words of Jesus Himself. He is here speaking to the Jews and is justifying the claim which He has made, and which the Jews had contested, that He is the Son of God. In support of His claim, Jesus quotes from the Psalms in the Old Testament, which He designates by the phrase “your law.” Here is what He says:

Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods” ’? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” (John 10:34-36).

In this reply, Jesus makes use of the two titles which have ever since been used more than all others by His followers to designate the Bible. The first of these titles is “the Word of God”; the second is “the Scripture.” It will be profitable to consider what each of these two main titles has to tell us about the nature of the Bible.

When Jesus called the Bible “the Word of God,” He indicated that the truths revealed in it do not have their origin with men, but with God. Though many different men have been used in various ways to make the Bible available to the world, they are all merely instruments or channels. In no case did the message or the revelation of the Bible originate with men, but always and only with God Himself.

The Bible – God’s Written Word

On the other hand, when Jesus used the second title, “the Scripture,” He indicated a divinely appointed limitation of the Bible. The phrase “the Scripture” means literally “that which is written.” The Bible does not contain the entire knowledge or purpose of almighty God in every aspect or detail. It does not even contain all the divinely inspired messages that God has ever given through human instruments. This is proved by the fact that the Bible itself refers in many places to the utterances of prophets whose words are not recorded in the Bible.

We see, therefore, that the Bible, though completely true and authoritative, is also highly selective. Its message is intended primarily for the human race. It is expressed in words that human beings can understand. Its central theme and purpose are the spiritual welfare of man. It reveals primarily the nature and consequences of sin and the way of deliverance from sin and its consequences through faith in Jesus.

Let us now take one more brief look at the words of Jesus in John 10:35. Not merely does He set His personal seal of approval upon the Bible’s two main titles – “the Word of God” and “the Scripture” – He also sets His seal of approval quite clearly upon the Bible’s claim to complete authority, for He says, “ . . . and the Scripture cannot be broken.”

This short phrase, “cannot be broken,” contains within it every claim for supreme and divine authority that can ever be made on behalf of the Bible. Volumes of controversy may be written either for or against the Bible, but in the last resort Jesus has said all that is necessary in five simple words: “the Scripture cannot be broken.”

When we give proper weight to the Bible’s claim that the men associated with it were in every case merely instruments or channels and that every message and revelation in it has its origin with God Himself, there remains no logical or reasonable ground for rejecting the Bible’s claim to complete authority. We are living in days when men can launch satellites into space and then, by means of invisible forces such as radio, radar, or electronics, control the course of these satellites at distances of thousands or millions of miles, can maintain communication with them and can receive communication from them.

If men can achieve such results as these, then only blind prejudice – and that of a most unscientific character – would deny the possibility that God could create human beings with mental and spiritual faculties such that He could control or direct them, maintain communication with them and receive communication from them. The Bible asserts that this is in fact what God has done and continues to do.

The discoveries and inventions of modern science, so far from discrediting the claims of the Bible, make it easier for honest and open-minded people to picture the kind of relationship between God and men which made the Bible possible.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit

The Bible indicates plainly that there is one supreme, invisible influence by which God did in fact control, direct and communicate with the spirits and minds of the men by whom the Bible was written. This invisible influence is the Holy Spirit – God’s own Spirit. For example, the apostle Paul says:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16).

The word here translated “by inspiration” means literally “inbreathed of God” and is directly connected with the word Spirit. In other words, the Spirit of God – the Holy Spirit – was the invisible, but the inerrant, influence which controlled and directed all those who wrote the various books of the Bible.

This is stated perhaps more plainly still by the apostle Peter.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation (2 Pet. 1:20).

In other words, as we have already explained, in no case does the message or revelation of the Bible originate with man, but always with God.

Then Peter goes on to explain just how this took place.

For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21).

The Greek word translated “moved by” means more literally “borne along by,” or we might say, “directed in their course by.” In other words, just as men today control the course of their satellites in space by the interplay of radio and electronics, so God controlled the men who wrote the Bible by the interplay of His divine Spirit with the spiritual and mental faculties of man. In the face of contemporary scientific evidence, to deny the possibility of God’s doing this is merely to give expression to prejudice.

In the Old Testament, the same truth of divine inspiration is presented to us in another picture, taken from an activity that goes much further back into human history than the contemporary launching of satellites into space. The psalmist David says:

The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times

(Ps. 12:6).

The picture is taken from the process of purifying silver in a furnace or oven built of clay. (Such clay ovens are still used for various purposes among the Arabs today.) The clay furnace represents the human element; the silver represents the divine message which is to be conveyed through the human channel; the fire which ensures the absolute purity of the silver, that is, the absolute accuracy of the message, represents the Holy Spirit. The phrase “seven times” indicates – as the number seven does in many passages of the Bible – the absolute perfection of the Holy Spirit’s work.

Thus, the whole picture assures us that the complete accuracy of the divine message in the Scriptures is due to the perfect operation of the Holy Spirit, over-ruling all the frailty of human clay and purging all the dross of human error from the flawless silver of God’s message to man.

Eternal, Authoritative

Probably no character in the Old Testament had a clearer understanding than the psalmist David of the truth and authority of God’s Word. David writes:

Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven (Ps. 119:89).

Here David emphasizes that the Bible is not the product of time but of eternity. It contains the eternal mind and counsel of God, formed before the beginning of time or the foundation of the world. Out of eternity, it has been projected through human channels into this world of time, but when time and the world pass away, the mind and counsel of God revealed through Scripture will still stand unmoved and unchanged. The same thought is expressed by Jesus Himself.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away (Matt. 24:35).

Again, David says:

The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever (Ps. 119:160).

In the last century or two persistent criticism and attack have been directed against the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. However, by far the greatest part of this attack has always been focused on the book of Genesis and the next four books which follow it. These first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch or Torah, are attributed to the authorship of Moses.

It is rather remarkable, that nearly three thousand years before these attacks against the Pentateuch were conceived in the minds of men, David had already given the Holy Spirit’s testimony to the faith of God’s believing people throughout all ages.

The entirety of Your word is truth (Ps. 119:160).

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

Jesus 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 Jesus’s temptation by Satan in the wilderness, we read that Jesus answered each temptation of Satan by a 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 Jesus but also Satan accepted the absolute authority of this book.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18:

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 fulfill. 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.

The word jot is the English form of the name of the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, which 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.

What Jesus is saying 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 Jesus could have used any form of speech that would have more thoroughly endorsed the absolute accuracy and authority of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Consistently throughout His earthly teaching ministry, He maintained the same attitude toward the Old Testament Scriptures. For instance, we read that when the Pharisees raised a question about marriage and divorce, Jesus answered by referring them to the opening chapters of Genesis (see Matt. 19:3-9). He introduced His answer by the question:

“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning “made them male and female?” (v. 4).

The phrase “at the beginning” constituted a direct reference to the book of Genesis since this is its Hebrew title.

Again, when the Sadducees raised a question about the resurrection from the dead, Jesus answered them by referring to the account of Moses at the burning bush in the book of Exodus (see Matt. 22:31-32). As with the Pharisees, He replied in the form of a question:

Have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” (Matt. 22:32).

Jesus here quotes from Exodus 3:6. But in quoting these words recorded by Moses nearly fifteen centuries earlier, Jesus said to the Sadducees of His day, “Have you not read what was spoken to you by God?” Note that phrase “spoken to you by God.” Jesus did not regard these writings of Moses as merely a historical document of the past, but rather as a living, up-to-date, authoritative message direct from God to the people of His day. The passage of fifteen centuries had not deprived the record of Moses of its vitality, its accuracy, or its authority.

Not merely did Jesu accept the absolute accuracy of the Old Testament Scriptures in all His teaching, He also acknowledged their absolute authority and control over the whole course of His own earthly life. From His birth to His death and resurrection there was one supreme, controlling principle which was expressed in the phrase “that it might be fulfilled.” That which was to be fulfilled was in every case some relevant Scripture passage of the Old Testament. For example, the Bible specifically records that each of the following incidents in the earthly life of Jesus took place in fulfillment of Old Testament Scriptures:

His birth of a virgin; His birth at Bethlehem; His flight into Egypt; His dwelling at Nazareth; His anointing by the Holy Spirit; His ministry in Galilee; His healing of the sick; the rejection of His teaching and His miracles by the Jews; His use of parables; His betrayal by a friend; His being forsaken by His disciples; His being hated without a cause; His being condemned with criminals; His garments being parted and divided by lot; His being offered vinegar for His thirst; His body being pierced without His bones being broken; His burial in a rich man’s tomb; His rising from the dead on the third day.

The entire earthly life of Jesus was directed in every aspect by the absolute authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. When we set this fact side by side with His unquestioning acceptance of the Old Testament Scriptures in all His teaching, we are left with only one logical conclusion: If the Old Testament Scriptures are not an accurate and authoritative revelation from God, then Jesus Himself was either deceived or He was a deceiver.

Coherent, Complete, All-sufficient

Let us now consider the authority claimed for the New Testament. We must first observe the remarkable fact that, so far as we know, Jesus Himself never set down a single word in writing – except for one occasion when He wrote on the ground in the presence of a woman taken in adultery.

He explicitly commanded His disciples to transmit the record of His ministry and His teaching to all nations on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19-20).

Previously He had said:

Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes (Matt. 23:34).

The word scribes means “writers,” that is, those who set down religious teaching in written form. It is therefore clear that Jesus intended the record of His ministry and teaching to be set down by His disciples in permanent form. Jesus made all necessary provisions for the absolute accuracy of all that He intended His disciples to put down in writing, for He promised to send the Holy Spirit to them for this purpose.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (John 14:26).

A similar promise is presented in John 16:13-15. Notice that in these words Jesus made provision both for past and for future; that is, both for the accurate recording of those things which the disciples had already seen and heard and also for the accurate imparting of the new truths which the Holy Spirit would thereafter reveal to them. The past is provided for in the phrase “He will . . . bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26). The future is provided for in the phrase “He will teach you all things” (v. 26) and again, in John 16:13, “He will guide you into all truth.”

We see, therefore, that the accuracy and authority of the New Testament, like that of the Old Testament, depend not upon human observation, memory, or understanding, but upon the teaching, guidance, and control of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the apostle Paul says, “All scripture [Old Testament and New Testament alike] is given by inspiration of God”
(2 Tim. 3:16).

We find that the apostles themselves clearly understood this and laid claim to this authority in their writings. For example, Peter writes:

Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle . . . that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour (2 Pet. 3:1-2).

Here Peter sets the Scriptures of the Old Testament prophets and the written commandments of Jesus’s apostle’s side by side, as being of precisely equal authority. Peter also acknowledges the divine authority of the writings of Paul, for he says:

And consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation – as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures (2 Pet. 3:15-16).

The phrase “the rest of the Scriptures” indicates that even in the lifetime of Paul the other apostles acknowledged that his epistles possessed the full authority of Scripture. Yet Paul himself had never known Jesus in His earthly ministry. Therefore, the accuracy and authority of Paul’s teaching depended solely upon the supernatural inspiration and revelation of the Holy Spirit.

The same applies to Luke, who never received the title of apostle. Nevertheless, in the preamble to his Gospel, he states that he “had perfect understanding of all things from the very first” (Luke 1:3). The Greek word translated “from the very first” means literally “from above.”

In John 3:3, where Jesus speaks of being “born again,” it is the same Greek word which is translated “again” or “from above.” In each of these passages, the word indicates the direct, supernatural intervention and operation of the Holy Spirit.

On careful examination, that the claim to absolute accuracy and authority of both Old and New Testaments alike depends not on the variable and fallible faculties of human beings, but on the divine, supernatural guidance, revelation, and control of the Holy Spirit. Interpreted together in this way, the Old and New Testaments confirm and complement each other and constitute a coherent, complete, and all-sufficient revelation of God.

We have also seen that there is nothing in this total view of the Scriptures which is inconsistent with logic, science, or common sense. On the contrary, there is much in all three to confirm such a view and render it easy to believe.

Initial Effects of God’s Word

We shall now examine the practical effects which the Bible claims to produce in those who receive it. In Hebrews 4:12 we are told that “the word of God is living and powerful.”

The Greek word translated “powerful” is the one from which we obtain the English word energetic. The picture conveyed to us is one of intense, vibrant energy and activity.

Jesus Himself says, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

Again, the apostle Paul tells the Christian’s in 1 Thess. 2:13 says;

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

Here we see that God’s Word cannot be reduced merely to sounds in the air or marks on a sheet of paper. On the contrary, God’s Word is life; it is Spirit; it is alive; it is active; it is energetic; it works effectively in those who believe it.

The Response Determines The Effect

The Bible also makes it plain that the manner and the degree in which it works in any given instance are decided by the response of those who hear it. For this reason James 1:21 says:

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness [naughtiness], and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Before the Word of God can be received into the soul with a saving effect, certain things must be laid aside. The two things James specifies are “filthiness” and “wickedness,” or naughtiness. Filthiness denotes a perverse delight in that which is licentious and impure. This attitude closes the mind and heart against the saving influence of God’s Word.

On the other hand, naughtiness particularly suggests the bad behavior of a child. We call a child “naughty” when he refuses to accept instruction or correction from his senior but argues and answers back. This attitude is often found in the unregenerate soul toward God. Several passages of Scripture refer to this attitude.

But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? (Rom. 9:20).

Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it (Job 40:2).

This attitude, like that of filthiness, closes the heart and mind to the beneficial effects of God’s Word.

The opposite of filthiness and naughtiness is described by James as meekness. Meekness carries with it the ideas of quietness, humility, sincerity, patience, the openness of heart and mind. These characteristics are often associated with what the Bible calls “the fear of the Lord”; that is, an attitude of reverence and respect toward God. Thus we read the following description in Psalms of the man who can receive benefit and blessing from the instruction of God through His Word.

Listen to Psalms 25:8-9, 12-14

Good and upright is the Lord;

Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.

The humble He guides injustice,

And the humble He teaches His way . . .

Who is the man that fears the Lord?

Him shall He teach in the way He chooses . . .

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,

And He will show them His covenant (Ps. 25:8-9,12,14).

We see here that meekness and the fear of the Lord are the two attitudes necessary in those who desire to receive instruction and blessing from God through His Word. These two attitudes are the opposites of those which James describes as “filthiness” and “naughtiness.”

Thus we find that God’s Word can produce quite different effects in different people and that these effects are decided by the reactions of those who hear it. For this reason, we read in Hebrews 4:12 not merely that God’s Word is “alive” and “active,” but also that it “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” In other words, God’s Word brings out into the open the inward nature and character of those who hear it and distinguishes sharply between the different types of hearers.

In like manner, Paul describes the dividing and revealing the character of the gospel.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18).

There is no difference in the message preached; the message is the same for all men. The difference lies in the reaction of those who hear. For those who react in one way, the message appears to be mere foolishness; for those who react in the opposite way, the message becomes the saving power of God experienced in their lives.

This leads us to yet another fact about the Word of God which is stated in that key verse found in Hebrews 4:12. Not only is the Word of God alive and active; not only is it a discerner or revealer of the thoughts and intents of the heart; it is also “sharper than any two-edged sword.” That is, it divides the soul and spirit of those who hear into two classes – those who reject it and call it foolishness, and those who receive it and find in it the saving power of God.

It was in this sense that Jesus said in Matthew 10:34-35:

Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to “set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law”.

The sword which Jesus came to send upon earth is that which John saw proceeding out of Jesus’s mouth – the sharp, two-edged sword of God’s Word (see Rev. 1:16). This sword, as it goes forth through the earth, divides even between members of the same household, severing the closest of earthly bonds, its effect determined by the response of each individual.

Faith

Turning now to those who receive God’s Word with meekness and sincerity, with the openness of heart and mind, so let us examine in order the various effects it produces.

The first of these effects is faith.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17).

There are three successive stages in the spiritual process here described:

1) God’s Word,

2) hearing,

3) faith. God’s Word does not immediately produce faith but only hearing.

Hearing may be described as an attitude of aroused interest and attention, a sincere desire to receive and to understand the message presented. Then out of hearing there develops faith.

It is important to see that the hearing of God’s Word initiates a process in the soul out of which faith develops and that this process requires a minimum period of time. This explains why there is so little faith to be found among so many professing Christian’s today. They never devote enough time to the hearing of God’s Word to allow it to produce in them any substantial proportion of faith. If they ever devote any time at all to private meditation and the study of God’s Word, the whole thing is conducted in such a hurried and haphazard way that it is all over before faith has had time to develop.

As we study how faith is produced, we also come to understand much more clearly how scriptural faith should be defined. In general conversation, we use the word faith very freely. We speak of having faith in a doctor or faith in medicine or faith in a newspaper or faith in a politician or political party.

In scriptural terms, however, the word faith must be much more strictly defined. Since faith comes only from hearing God’s Word, faith is always directly related to God’s Word. Scriptural faith does not consist of believing anything that we may wish or please to have. Scriptural faith may be defined as believing that God means what He has said in His Word – that God will do what He has promised in His Word to do.

For example, David exercised this scriptural kind of faith when he said to the Lord:

And now, O Lord, the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, let it be established forever and do as You have said (1 Chron. 17:23).

Scriptural faith is expressed in those five short words: “do as You have said.”

Likewise, the virgin Mary exercised the same kind of scriptural faith when the angel Gabriel brought her a message of promise from God, and she replied:

Let it be to me according to your word (Luke 1:38).

That is the secret of scriptural faith – according to Your word. Scriptural faith is produced within the soul by the hearing of God’s Word and is expressed by the active response of claiming the fulfillment of that which God has said.

We have emphasized that faith is the first effect produced in the soul by God’s Word because faith of this kind is basic to any positive transaction between God and any human soul.

But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6).

We see that faith is the first and indispensable response of the human soul in its approach to God.

He who comes to God must believe (Heb. 11:6).

The New Birth

After faith, the next great effect produced by God’s Word within the soul is that spiritual experience which is called in Scripture “the new birth” or “being born again.” Thus James says concerning God:

Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:18).

The born-again Christian’s possesses a new kind of spiritual life brought forth within him by the Word of God received by faith in his soul.

The apostle Peter describes Christian’s as being “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Pet. 1:23).

It is a principle, both in nature and in Scripture, that the type of seed determines the type of life which is produced from the seed. A corn seed produces corn; a barley seed produces barley; an orange seed produces an orange.

So it is also in the new birth. The seed is the divine, incorruptible, eternal Word of God. The life which this produces, when received by faith into the heart of the believer, is like the seed – divine, incorruptible, eternal.

It is the very life of God Himself coming into a human soul through His Word. John writes:

Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God (1 John 3:9).

John directly relates the victorious life of the overcoming Christian’s to the nature of the seed which produced that life within him – that is, God’s seed – the incorruptible seed of God’s Word. Because the seed is incorruptible, the life it produces is also incorruptible; that is, absolutely pure and holy.

However, this Scripture does not assert that a born-again Christian’s can never sin. Within every born-again Christian’s, a completely new nature has come into being. Paul calls this new nature “the new man” and contrasts it with “the old man” – the old, corrupt, depraved, fallen nature which dominates every person who has never been born again (see Eph. 4:22-24).

There is a complete contrast between these two: The “new man” is righteous and holy; the “old man” is depraved and corrupt. The “new man,” being born of God, cannot sin; the “old man,” being the product of man’s rebellion and fall, cannot help committing sin.

The kind of life that any born-again Christian’s leads is the outcome of the interplay within him of these two natures. So long as the “old man” is kept in subjection and the “new man” exercises his proper control, there is unsullied righteousness, victory and peace. But whenever the “old man” is allowed to reassert himself and regain his control, the inevitable consequence is failure, defeat, and sin.

We may sum up the contrast in this way: The true Christian’s who has been born again of the incorruptible seed of God’s Word has within him the possibility of leading a life of complete victory over sin. The unregenerate man who has never been born again has no alternative but to sin. He is inevitably the slave of his own corrupt, fallen nature.

Spiritual Nourishment

We have said that the new birth through God’s Word produces within the soul a completely new nature – a new kind of life. This leads us to consider the next main effect which God’s Word produces.

In every realm of life, there is one unchanging law: As soon as a new life is born, the first and greatest need of that new life is nourishment to sustain it. For example, when a human baby is born, that baby may be sound and healthy in every respect; but unless it quickly receives nourishment, it will pine away and die.

The same is true in the spiritual realm. When a person is born again, the new spiritual nature produced within that person immediately requires spiritual nourishment, both to maintain life and to promote growth. The spiritual nourishment which God has provided for all His born-again children is found in His own Word. God’s Word is so rich and varied that it contains nourishment adapted to every stage of spiritual development.

God’s provision for the first stages of spiritual growth is described in the first epistle of Peter. Immediately after Peter has spoken in chapter 1 about being born again of the incorruptible seed of God’s Word, he goes on to say in 1 Peter 2:1-2:

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as new-born babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby (1 Pet. 2:1-2).

For new-born spiritual babes in Jesus, God’s appointed nourishment is the pure milk of His own Word. This milk is a necessary condition for continued life and growth.

However, there is a warning attached. In the natural order, no matter how pure and fresh milk maybe, it easily becomes contaminated and spoiled if it is brought into contact with anything sour or rancid. The same is true spiritually. For new-born Christian’s to receive proper nourishment from the pure milk of God’s Word, their hearts must first be thoroughly cleansed from all that is sour or rancid.

For this reason, Peter warns us that we must lay aside all malice, all guile, all hypocrisy, all envy, and all evil speaking. These are the sour and rancid elements of the old life which, if not purged from our hearts, will frustrate the beneficial effects of God’s Word within us and hinder our spiritual health and growth.

Remember, it is not the will of God that Christian’s should continue in spiritual infancy too long. As they begin to grow up, God’s Word offers them more substantial food. When Jesus was tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread, He replied:

It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

Jesus here indicates that God’s Word is the spiritual counterpart of bread in man’s natural diet. In other words, it is the main item of diet and source of strength for the spirit man.

It is significant that Jesus said with emphasis, “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” In other words, Christian’s who wish to mature spiritually must learn to study the whole Bible, not just a few of the more familiar portions.

It is said that the Word of God is the seed that bears fruit when watered with faith.

Beyond milk and bread, God’s Word also provides solid food. The writer of Hebrews rebuked the Hebrew believers of his day because they had been familiar for many years with the Scriptures but had never learned to make any proper study or application of their teaching. Consequently, they were still spiritually immature and unable to help others who required spiritual teaching.

This is what the writer says Hebrews 5:12-14:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles [or elements] of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil

What a picture of a great mass of professing Christian’s and church members today! They have owned a Bible and attended church for many years. Yet how little they know of what the Bible teaches! How weak and immature they are in their own spiritual experience; how little able to counsel a sinner or instruct a new convert! After so many years they are still spiritual babes, unable to digest any kind of teaching that goes beyond milk!

]But it is not their fault, I blame the pastor who provides entertainment and continues to feed them milk while building their kingdom.

However, it is not necessary to remain in this condition. The writer of Hebrews tells us the remedy. It is to have our senses exercised because of use. The regular, systematic study of the whole of God’s Word will develop and mature our spiritual faculties.

Building The Foundation

How to Build on the Foundation

Once we have laid in our own lives the foundation of a personal encounter with Jesus, how can we continue to build upon this foundation?

The answer to this question is found in the well-known parable about the wise man and the foolish man, each of whom built a house.

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall (Matt. 7:24-27).

Notice that the difference between these men did not lie in the tests to which their houses were subjected. Each man’s house had to endure the storm – the wind, the rain, the floods. Christian’sity has never offered anyone a storm-free passage to heaven. On the contrary, we are warned that “we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

Any road signposted “To Heaven” which bypasses tribulation is a deception. It will not lead to the promised destination.

What, then, was the real difference between the two men and their houses? The wise man built upon a foundation of rock, the foolish man upon a foundation of sand. The wise man built in such a way that his house survived the storm unmoved and secure; the foolish man built in such a way that his house could not weather the storm.

The Bible – Foundation of Faith

Just what are we to understand by this metaphor of building upon a rock? What does it mean for each of us as Christian’ss? Jesus, Himself makes this very clear.

Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock (Matt. 7:24).

Thus, building on the rock means hearing and doing the words of Jesus.

Once the foundation – the fact that Jesus the Rock – has been laid in our lives, we build on that foundation by hearing and doing the Word of God; diligently studying and applying in our lives the teaching of God’s Word. This is why Paul told the elders of the church at Ephesus:

And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up (Acts 20:32).

It is God’s Word, and God’s Word alone – as we hear it and do it, as we study it and apply it – that can build up within us a strong, secure edifice of faith, laid upon the foundation of Jesus Himself.

This brings us to a subject of supreme importance in the Christian’s faith: the relationship between Jesus and the Bible, and, hence, the relationship of each Christian’s to the Bible.

Throughout its pages, the Bible declares itself to be the “Word of God.” On the other hand, in several passages the same title – “the Word” or “the Word of God” – is given to Jesus Jesus Himself.

For example:

In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14).

He [Jesus] was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God (Rev. 19:13).

This identity of the name reveals the identity of nature. The Bible is the Word of God, and Jesus is the Word of God. Each alike is a divine, authoritative, perfect revelation of God. Each agrees perfectly with the other. The Bible perfectly reveals Jesus; Jesus perfectly fulfills the Bible. The Bible is the written Word of God; Jesus is the personal Word of God. Before His incarnation, Jesus was the eternal Word with the Father. In His incarnation, Jesus is the Word made flesh. The same Holy Spirit that reveals God through His written Word also reveals God in the Word made flesh, Jesus of Nazareth.

Proof of Discipleship

If Jesus is in this sense perfectly one with the Bible, then it follows that the relationship of the believer to the Bible must be the same as his relationship to Jesus. To this fact, the Scriptures bear testimony in many places.

Let us turn first to John 14. In this chapter, Jesus warns His disciples that He is about to be taken from them in the bodily presence and that thereafter there must be a new kind of relationship between Him and them. The disciples are unable and unwilling to accept this impending change. In particular, they are unable to understand how, if Jesus is about to go away from them, they will still be able to see Him or have communion with Him. Jesus tells them:

A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me (John 14:19).

The final phase of that verse might also be rendered, “but you will continue to see Me.” Because of this statement, Judas (not Iscariot, but the other Judas) asks:

Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world? (John 14:22).

In other words: “Lord, if You are going away, and if the world will see You no more, how can You still manifest Yourself to us, Your disciples, but not to those who are not Your disciples? What kind of communication will You maintain with us, which will not be open to the world?”

Jesus answers:

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23).

The key to understanding this answer is found in the phrase “he will keep My word.” The distinguishing mark between a true disciple and a person of the world is that a true disciple keeps Jesus’s word.

Revealed in Jesus’s answer are four facts of vital importance for every person who sincerely desires to be a Christian’s. For the sake of clarity, let me first repeat the answer of Jesus:

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23).

Here, then, are the four vital facts:

1. Keeping God’s Word is the supreme feature that distinguishes the disciple of Jesus from the rest of the world.

1. Keeping God’s Word is the supreme test of the disciple’s love for God and the supreme cause of God’s favor toward the disciple.

1. Jesus manifests Himself to the disciple through God’s Word, as it is kept and obeyed.

1. The Father and the Son come into the life of the disciple and establish their enduring home with him through God’s Word.

The Test of Love

Side by side with this answer of Jesus’s, let me set the words of the apostle John.

He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this, we know that we are in Him (1 John 2:4-5).

We see from these two passages that it is impossible to overemphasize the importance of God’s Word in the believer’s life.

To summarize, the keeping of God’s Word distinguishes you as a disciple of Jesus. It is the test of your love for God. It is the cause of God’s special favor toward you. It is the medium through which Jesus manifests Himself to you, and through which God the Father and the Son come into your life and make their home with you.

Let me put it to you in this way.

Your attitude toward God’s Word is your attitude toward God Himself. You do not love God more than You love His Word. You do not obey God more than you obey His Word. You do not honor God more than you honor His Word. You do not have more room in your heart and life for God than you have for His Word.

Do you want to know how much God means to you? Just ask yourself, How much does God’s Word mean to me? The answer to the second question is the answer also to the first. God means as much to you as His Word means to you – just that much, and no more.

Means of Revelation

There is today a general and ever-increasing awareness among the Christian’s church that we have entered into the season of time foretold in Acts 2:17.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

I am humbly grateful to God that in recent years I have been privileged to experience and observe firsthand outpourings of the Spirit in five different seasons of the Move of God. – in which every detail of this prophecy has been enacted and repeated many times over. As a consequence, I believe firmly in the scriptural manifestation in these days of all nine gifts of the Holy Spirit; I believe that God speaks to His believing people through prophecies, visions, dreams, and other forms of supernatural revelation.

Nevertheless, I hold most firmly that the Scriptures are the supreme, authoritative means by which God speaks to His people, reveals Himself to His people, guides, and directs His people. I hold that all other forms of revelation must be carefully proved by reference to the Scriptures and accepted only insofar as they accord with the doctrines, precepts, practices, and examples outlined in the Scriptures. We are told:

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good (1 Thess. 5:19-21).

It is wrong, therefore, to quench any genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It is wrong to despise any prophecy given through the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, it is vitally necessary to test any manifestation of the Spirit, or any prophecy, by reference to the standard of the Scriptures and thereafter to hold fast – to accept, to retain – only those manifestations or prophecies which are in full accord with this divine standard. Again, in Isaiah we are warned:

To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them (Is. 8:20).

Thus the Scripture – the Word of God – is the supreme standard by which all else must be judged and tested. No doctrine, no practice, no prophecy, no revelation is to be accepted if it is not in full accord with the Word of God. No person, no group, no organization, no church has authority to change, override, or depart from the Word of God. In whatever respect or whatever degree any person, group, organization or church departs from the Word of God, in that respect and in that degree they are in darkness.

There is no light in them.

We are living in a time when it is increasingly necessary to emphasize the supremacy of the Scripture over every other source of revelation or doctrine. We have already made reference to the great worldwide outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days and to the various supernatural manifestations which will accompany this outpouring.

However, the Scripture also warns us that, side by side with this increased activity and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, there will be a parallel increase in the activity of demonic forces, which always seek to oppose God’s people and God’s purposes in the earth.

Speaking about this same period of time, Jesus Himself warns us:

Then if anyone says to you, “Look, here is the Jesus!” or “There!” do not believe it.

For false Jesus’ and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand (Matt. 24:23-25).

In the same way, the apostle Paul warns us:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (1 Tim. 4:1-3).

Paul here warns us that in these days there will be a great increase in the propagation of false doctrines and cults and that the unseen cause behind this will be the activity of deceiving spirits and demons. As examples, he mentions religious doctrines and practices which impose unnatural and unscriptural forms of asceticism in regard to diet and to the normal marriage relationship. Paul indicates that the safeguard against being deceived by these forms of religious error is to believe and know the truth – that is, the truth of God’s Word.

By this divine standard of truth, we are enabled to detect and to reject all forms of satanic error and deception. But for the people who profess religion, without sound faith and knowledge of what the Scripture teaches, these are indeed perilous days.

We need to lay hold upon one great guiding principle which is established in the Scripture. It is this: God’s Word and God’s Spirit should always work together in perfect unity and harmony. We should never divorce the Word from the Spirit or the Spirit from the Word. It is not God’s plan that the Word should ever work apart from the Spirit or the Spirit apart from the Word.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6).

The word here translated “breath” is the normal Hebrew word for “spirit.” However, the use of the word “breath” suggests a beautiful picture of the working of God’s Spirit. As God’s Word goes out of His mouth, so His Spirit – which is His breath – goes with it.

On our human level, each time we open our mouths to speak a word, our breath necessarily goes out together with the word. So it is also with God. As God’s Word goes forth, His breath – that is, His Spirit – goes with it. In this way, God’s Word and God’s Spirit are always together, perfectly united in one single divine operation.

We see this fact illustrated, as the psalmist reminds us, in the account of creation. In Genesis we read:

The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2).

In the next verse Gen. 1:3 we read:

Then God said, “Let there be light.”

That is, God’s Word went forth; God pronounced the word light. And as the Word and the Spirit of God were thus united, creation took place, a light came into being, and God’s purpose was fulfilled.

What was true of that great act of creation is true also of the life of each individual. God’s Word and God’s Spirit united in our lives contain all the creative authority and power of God Himself. Through them, God will supply every need and will work out His perfect will and plan for us. But if we divorce these two from one another – seeking the Spirit without the Word, or studying the Word apart from the Spirit – we go astray and miss God’s plan.

To seek the manifestations of the Spirit apart from the Word will always end in foolishness, fanaticism, and error. To profess the Word without the quickening of the Spirit results only in dead, powerless orthodoxy and religious formalism.