God’s Word Changes People

The Bible is an amazing Book, a Book that claims to be from God himself, that God inspired to be written and that claims to have God's message for us. And so, if that is true, we should not be surprised that where the Bible has been received, and the message of the Bible has been believed, people have been changed. And indeed, that is the testimony of history - where people have come to God's Word, submitted themselves to it and believed the message that it reveals, they have been transformed. They have come to know God, and as a result not only their relationship to God is transformed, but their other relationships are also transformed. They see changes in their values, changes in their thinking, and changes in how they talk and think about people and their associations. Indeed, where the Bible has gone, whole cultures have been transformed. There are countless stories of people throughout history about this, many well-known people. For example, Augustine, a theologian of the church in the fifth century in Africa, lived many of his adult years as a profligate, just chasing after every type of sinful pleasure—Until the message of the Bible came to him. He received it, he believed it and he was transformed by it. He became one of the greatest leaders of the Christian church in all of history.

Another great example of the power of God’s Word is John Newton; many of you will know his name as the author of that wonderful hymn, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. He wrote that hymn autobiographically, because Newton lived many years of his adult life as a vile and violent slave trader. He kept slaves in ships, taking them from West Africa over to England in the eighteenth century, until the message of the Bible dawned heavily upon him. He turned away from this life and became a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. As he puts it in that hymn, ’twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.

The Bible has had great power in our prisons. Some of you will know the name Chuck Colson. Colson prided himself on being President Richard Nixon's hatchet man. He once said that he would run over his grandmother if it advanced the cause of the President. He was caught out in the Watergate scandal and cover up, and indeed found guilty for crimes and was sentenced to prison. And then the message of the Bible came to him. He received it, he believed it, he renounced his life as a political assassin and he gave the rest of his years to taking the Bible into prisons around the world, teaching its message to those who are incarcerated, and laboring for prison reform. Today, Prison Fellowship, the organization he founded, is the largest prison ministry in the world.

God’s word has power even over people working in our radical universities. Some of you may have read books recently by Rosaria Butterfield. She was a tenured senior faculty member in English and Women's Studies at Syracuse University in New York. She was the faculty sponsor for the LGBT student organization. She herself was a very open, out, proud, practicing lesbian. She began to read the Bible as literature, and through the process of studying the Bible and trying to understand its message, she came to see its message. And when she saw it and humbled herself to believe it, her life was transformed. Today she is an articulate writer, a compassionate evangelist, who helps people come to know God the way that she has.

As we look around our congregations, as we think about those whom God has brought together and united in so many churches, think about those who once were thieves, but through the grace of God revealed in the Bible, are now generous. Those who lived their lives as religious hypocrites, and who were humbled under the message of the Bible, have become sincere followers of the Lord Jesus. People who once were arrogant, selfish, and prideful, now pursue lives of humility and live generously toward others. People who once were sexually immoral now are pursuing lives of sexual purity. People who were bigoted racists now seek to live in love and harmony with all people. Those who were addicts, enslaved to alcohol and drugs, other activities and substances, today are living lives of freedom, depending upon the message of the Scripture.

Consider the impact of God's Word: what it does, where it takes you when it is received. It is, as the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And when you come to experience that salvation, you begin to live a different kind of life. You begin to live a life under the authority and in submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And you do that because the Bible is ultimately primarily about him.¹

Tom Ascol