The Bible the Living Word
By W. A. S.
Synopsis of Present Truth—No. 1
The Bible the Living Word
“THE word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” 1 Peter 1: 23. Man may write a true book; but only God—the source of life—can write a living book. The Bible is the living word of God. We look at the volume; we hold it in our hands. It is like other books in form and printer’s art. But the voice of God speaks from these pages; and the word spoken is alive. It is able to do in the heart that receives it what can be done only by divine power. Far in the heart of Africa, a missionary read to the people in their own language from the translated Word of God. “See!” they cried; “see! the Book talks! The white man has a Book that talks!” With simplicity of speech, so common to children of nature, they had exactly described it. This is a Book that talks. What the wise man says of its counsels through parents to children is true of all the Book:— “When thou goest, it shall lead thee;
when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee;
and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.” Prov. 6: 22. Here is companionship, faithful and true, a blessed guide and guardian and friend:— “Holy Bible, book divine—
Precious treasure, thou art mine!” The sixty-six books of Holy Scripture were written by many penmen, over a space of fifteen centuries; yet it is one Book, and one voice speaks through all its pages. Spurgeon once said of his experience with this Book:— When I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, “I am the Book of God; study my page, for I was penned by God; love me, for he is my author.” This Book declares of itself:— “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” 2 Tim. 3: 16. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1: 21. It is the voice of the Almighty. Very different is it from the sacred scriptures of the non-Christian religions. In those writings it is man talking about God. In the Holy Scriptures it is God speaking to man. The difference is as great as heaven is higher than earth. Here it is not man groping in the darkness after God. In this Book of God’s revelation, we see the divine arm reaching down to save the lost, and hear the voice of the loving Father calling to his children—every one, and everywhere. “Incline your ear,” he calls; “hear, and your soul shall live.” Isa. 55: 3. As the rugged verse of the old hymn puts it,— “Let all the heathen writers join
To form one perfect book;
Great God, if once compared with thine,
How mean their writings look!
“Not the most perfect rules they gave
Could show one sin forgiven,
Nor lead one step beyond the grave;
But thine conducts to heaven.” We must have something more than instruction; we must have a word of power that is able to tell of sins forgiven, and conduct us beyond the grave to heaven. One of the greatest of China’s sages, Mencius, said, “Instruction can impart information, but not the power to execute.” That touches the crucial point. We must have instruction that can come with power divine to execute. We have it only in God’s words. Christ said:— “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6: 63. The words of God are living words. When God spoke in the beginning, “Let there be light,” lo, the light sprang out of the darkness. There was power in the word spoken to bring forth. “Let the earth bring forth grass,” was the word of the Lord; and the earth was carpeted with its first rich greensward. So through all the work of creation, the creative power was in the word spoken:— “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. . . . For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33: 6, 9. Even so, when this word speaks instruction to man, there is creative power in the word, if received, to work mightily in the soul that is dead in trespasses and sins. Man must be born again, be re-created. That we know; for Christ says:— “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again [“from above,” margin], he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3: 3. And the Word of God—the Bible from heaven—received by faith, is the agency by which this new birth “from above” is wrought. This is the declaration of our text:— “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” 1 Peter 1: 23. The Word That Works Within
Not only does it give the new birth, making the believer a new man,—the past forgiven and a new heart within,—but the word that recreates abides in the believing heart that studies it and clings to it, to work in the life with actual power that is not of the man himself. To the Thessalonians, who had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,” the apostle wrote:— “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” 1 Thess. 2: 13. The word itself works within, and works effectually. There is nothing mechanical about it. The mere letter profits nothing. The Bible on the center table, unstudied and unloved, has no magic power. But God promises to abide by his Spirit of power in the heart that listens to his voice and that trembles at his word. Jesus himself tells us the secret of this power of the word to work in the believing heart:— “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14: 23. No wonder, then, that believing and receiving the word brings divine power into the life, making it possible for transformations of character to be wrought and victories won and obedience rendered to every command of God. Simply believing God’s word touches the current of everlasting power, even as the trolley arm of the electric car reaches up and touches the current of power flowing through the wire overhead. The faith that takes the living word brings the power divine into the heart to move all the spiritual mechanism of life’s service.