To TRULY know God’s word, we must know the power of that word, for it is through his word that God manifests his power. This is shown us in the one great illustration of God’s power which is ever before us, namely, the creation of the heavens and the earth. This creation was wrought, David tells us in the thirty-third psalm, through the word of God. “He spake, and it was.” “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”
The Being through whom the Godhead created the worlds, the word of whose power upholds them, is our Lord Jesus Christ. Says the apostle Paul, in speaking of Christ (Col. 1:16, 17): “For in him [Christ] were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and in him all things hold together” (Revised Version, margin). This gives us, so far as we can understand, the measure of the power of the word of God, the word of truth, in Christ Jesus. God presents this evidence before us to inspire our faith in his power, to help us as individuals. How great power has he?—Power to create from naught by his word the heavens and the earth. So has he power to create us anew in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:10), to make of us new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17), which hate sin and love righteousness.
Christ’s power to cleanse from sin is declared in John 15:3. The disciples of Christ were men even as others, carnal by nature, and hating God’s law, vile and corrupted by sin. But Jesus spoke the cleansing word, and, lo, they were cleansed. So he declares, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” The sin was driven out, the new heart was created within, guilt was all cleansed away.
Illustrations of this power in Christ’s words are given over and over in the record of his ministry. He makes plain by things which our senses can comprehend just what his power will do for us spiritually if we will yield to him. An instance of this kind is mentioned in Matt. 8:1–3: “When he [Jesus] was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched9him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
We can faintly imagine the scene,—the multitude thronging the Master, talking of his wonderful teachings, leaning on the words of his lips, while those who had been healed were leaping for joy and shouting his praises. To the poor leper tidings had doubtless before this come that a great prophet had risen. The earnest longing had awakened in his heart that even he might be free. He feels that the opportunity of his life had come. He presses forward toward Jesus. He forgets to cry, “Unclean, unclean;” he loses sight of the people; he forgets everything but his fearful malady and the One who can save him. The crowd quickly separate, so as not to even touch his garment. The disciples fall back in fear. Jesus alone is calm. The pleading, broken voice of the leper is heard, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” Jesus does not flee, does not shrink back. He reaches forth that hand which never shrank from woe or pain for the sake of humanity. The people wonder if he will dare touch the leper. Immediately his voice is heard, and no sweeter words ever fell on a sufferer’s ears than the calm tones of Jesus, the Prince of Life, “I will; be thou clean.”
It was on a later occasion, when teaching deeper spiritual truths, that Jesus declared, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life;” but here those truths were demonstrated. The word thrilled through the frame of the leper, drove out the disease, and created anew wasted muscle, shrunken sinew, and blasted nerve. The leprosy was cleansed, even as the leprosy of sin was cleansed from his disciples by his word. And it is even thus that Jesus the Christ will cleanse you, sinner, if you will but come to him. He loved you so that he gave his life; and his power can accomplish all his love.
Such is the word of the living God. Learned men may rear against it their greatest fortresses, may train against it their mightiest guns, but the fortresses are as chaff and the guns as the merest toys to the mighty granite compared with the mighty rock of the word of God. “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of men as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.” 1 Peter 1:24, 25. Blessed is the man whose trust is in such a word. M. C. W.
