The power of God is in His word
This is adapted from a video that you can watch here.
What do you think of when you hear the word power?
A lot of Christians associate that word with miracles, signs and wonders, and healing. Others may think of political power — the power of the state. Or, the power of influence — celebrities, popularity, and ambition for everything to be big.
Whatever you think power is, many Christians want it, thinking we need these things to carry out what God wants us to do as the church.
But there’s one thing we don’t often think of as having real power: the Bible. Some Christians seem to seek God’s power anywhere except the Bible. That’s a tremendous loss because the Bible is more powerful than all of the above.
What the Bible says about the Bible
As you can guess, the name of this website comes from Hebrews 4:12:
For the word of God is living and powerful, 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.
Many Christians would affirm that but still otherwise talk as if the word of God is not living or powerful. The fact that they turn to all those things I mentioned shows that they don’t think Scripture can beat their power. I get the impression that those Christians see the Bible as boring, stuffy, religious, or “churchy.” They’re afraid that if they just preach the Bible, people won’t come to their church. Or we won’t take the nation back for God.
And so instead, those churches turn to entertainment and other manipulative tactics. They try to impress people and do whatever it takes to get them to come. They choose the power of pragmatism; you can add that to the list.
Related: Nothing on earth makes the Bible come alive
The great irony is that we downplay the Bible because we don’t think it will work, but the Bible says that the Bible works most of all. It says the word is the way that God has chosen to work. Let’s look at a few Scriptures that teach the power of the Scriptures:
‘The power of God’
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (Romans 1:16)
The word gospel means good news — it’s news. It’s a message. It’s words. That verse says the power of God is in those words, which are found in the Bible.
Here’s a verse that says almost the same thing:
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 Corinthians 1:18)
The message is the power of God. When the gospel is preached — which means you’re preaching the Scriptures — God’s power works through the message to change the hearts of people who are being saved.
‘Hearing by the word’
This is spelled out back in Romans, chapter 10:
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
You can’t get more explicit than that: Saving faith comes by hearing the preaching of the word. And that passage says that’s the only way it comes. How can they believe without that?
Some Christians adhere to the saying (erroneously attributed to Francis of Assisi) “Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.” But the Bible could not be more clear: Words are always necessary. Specifically, God’s words.
Other Scriptures that show us this include 1 Peter 1, starting at verse 23. It says we have been …
“born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because
“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
We are born again through the preaching of the living word of God. Thus says the Lord.
What the Word said about the word
Some Christians will try to deflect from the Bible by pointing out that Jesus is the Word, as John 1 says. That’s true, of course, but here’s a passage that’s explicitly about Scripture, in 2 Timothy 3:
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
That teaches the sufficiency of Scripture. The Bible makes us complete and thoroughly equipped; therefore, it’s all we need. It’s all we need for evangelism, and it’s all we need for sanctification. That’s not to say we should never buy books or listen to sermons, but all of that must faithfully and accurately teach the Bible.
If you want to talk about Jesus, no one was more into Scripture than He was. He quoted it constantly. Search the gospels for how many times He says “it is written” — it’s dozens. Consider these teachings of His:
One of the points of the parable about the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 is that the Scriptures are enough for people to believe, even when compared to a spectacular miracle like a resurrection. The rich man wanted Abraham to send back Lazarus from the dead so that the rich man’s relatives would believe. But Abraham said, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets (the Scriptures), neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.”
Related: A parable of Jesus blows up beliefs about healing, miracles
In John 6, most of Jesus’ followers left Him. Verse 66 says many of His disciples walked with Him no more, but the twelve stayed with Him. When Jesus asked them, “Do you also want to go away?” Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Remember, just hours before that, Peter walked on water, but that’s not why he stayed with Jesus. It was the power of Christ’s words that kept them. Not the miracles, but the words.
In Matthew 22:31, Jesus says, “have you not read what was spoken to you by God?” Them reading the Scriptures was God speaking to them. When you read your Bible or hear it read, that is the living God speaking His living word to you right there and then. Right now, reading this article, when I quote the text of Scripture, God is speaking to you.
On the day He rose from the dead, Jesus led two disciples through the greatest Bible study of all time. “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,” Luke 24:27 says. After He vanished from their sight, they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
But what about …?
Next, let’s look at a few Scriptures that some Christians think give us license to downplay the Bible. Interestingly, they’re all written to the church at Corinth. We know from 1 Corinthians chapters 12 to 14 that they had issues with supernatural manifestations, so if anyone needed to be corrected and taught about God’s power, they did.
‘Demonstration of the Spirit and of power’
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. (1 Corinthians 2:4)
Some Christians assume that the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” was in signs and wonders, and take that to mean that miracles are the superior or more effective demonstration of God’s power than the preaching of the word. For example, Bill Johnson, the leader of the uber-popular, hypercharismatic Bethel Church, has claimed that the gospel is powerless without miracles.
But what does the first part of the verse say? “My speech and my preaching.” Paul’s speech and preaching were the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. They weren’t just accompanied by power, but spoken in power.
And for the context, look in the middle part: “not with persuasive words of human wisdom.” Paul has already talked about human wisdom several times in the letter. I’ve already quoted 1:18, about the message of the cross being the power of God, and the rest of chapter 1 contrasts the foolishness of the cross against the wisdom of the world. He’s talking about the content of the message; that’s what doesn’t have persuasive words of human wisdom. The contrast is not between words and signs, but between the words of God’s wisdom and the words of human wisdom.
Chapter 2 starts with, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.” Corinth was a major city in ancient Greece, where the culture was all about human wisdom, philosophy, and oratory. In his own human skill, Paul was not an orator. In verse 3, he says, “I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.” That tells us what verse 4 means; his speech and his preaching were not in his own wisdom or his own skill, but he spoke in the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s what it’s about.
‘Not in word but in power’
That sets the context for the next proof text. Chapter 4, verse 20 says, “for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” Some probably think that’s a slam dunk for miracles over Scripture. But again, context is everything.
Start at verse 18:
“Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.”
He’s not talking about just any words, but word of those who are puffed up. Paul’s not interested in the words of human arrogance, because those words don’t have power. The kingdom of God is not in those empty words of human wisdom. Paul’s saying that when he comes, he’ll know whether these puffed-up people have the power of the Holy Spirit.
‘The letter kills’
Nowhere does Paul pit Scripture against other manifestations of power. However, some might think he does that in 2 Corinthians 3:6, which includes the phrase “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Those eight words have been used to elevate signs and wonders over the Bible, thinking that’s the Holy Spirit’s preferred use of power. I’ve been in church services where they actually said, you won’t need your Bibles today. When you try to point out how the Bible disproves what they’re doing, they say, “the letter kills, the letter kills!”
Related: Biblical truths that led me out of the charismatic movement
This is a classic example of the dangers of isolating not even a verse, but a fragment of a verse, ripping it kicking and screaming out of context. That context is right in the same verse, starting from verse 5:
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
This passage — in fact, the entire chapter — is about the new covenant. It continues in verse 7:
“But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?”
The passage compares the law of Moses to the new covenant. Paul calls the Mosaic covenant — the law, engraved on stones — the ministry of death, because that’s all the law does; it condemns us. In verse 9, he calls it the ministry of condemnation. The letter is referring to the letter of the law, which kills us. But the new covenant is not about the law; it’s about faith in Christ. The minister of the new covenant is the Holy Spirit, who regenerates and indwells everyone who’s in the new covenant. He gives life by leading us to Christ.
In verse 15, Paul writes, “But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.” That’s the letter he’s talking about — the law of Moses. He continues, “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” When the Holy Spirit leads us to Christ, we are liberated from the condemnation of the law. That’s what “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” means.
The Spirit gives life through His book. He gives liberty through His book. That’s the purpose of this article, to liberate us from thinking we need anything else for God to work in us and through us. I’m not saying He never does miracles, but we don’t need them. Nor do we need our own wisdom, or politics, or entertainment, or size or popularity. We’re liberated from all of that. All we need is the living and powerful word of God.
You know what a mighty move of the Holy Spirit in church sounds like? The rustling of pages. You want to quench the Spirit? Close your Bible. It’s His book, and it’s the power He’s given all of us. If you have your Bible with you, it is always the most powerful thing in the room.
