Bowling Green Covenant Church

The Traveler’s Advisory

Friday 14 July 2006

“When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” —1 Corinthians 2.13 [NLT]

There is a hidden danger in becoming too familiar with what the Bible says about the words we use to communicate truth. The comfort with which we read these words from the apostle Paul can detract from the awe with which we should regard them as well as the power woven into them. Let us remember that the Gospel is not a human invention. We did not create it. The Gospel is God’s work. The Gospel is God’s Word. It is, in fact, the Word. Those who hearken to its message and believe what it says confess faith in Jesus Christ.

Now think for a moment of the great condescension of God in all this. How are we saved? How is faith created within us? It is not by force. God does not inflict salvation upon us. He does not “twist our arm” to believe in His Son. Faith does not originate in the human heart, neither is it conceived by our own decision. To the contrary, “Faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News (i.e., the Gospel) about Christ,” (Romans 10.17). Faith—saving faith—is an act of God. It is conceived by the Holy Spirit as we hear the Word—the Good News. We are saved by grace through faith—faith that comes by hearing the words of Jesus recorded in the word of God.

By misusing words, the serpentine Satan tempted Adam and Eve and convinced them to disobey God. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the Devil did not make them do it. It was Adam and Eve who sinned. They sinned because they believed words that appealed to human wisdom. Satan does not force us to disobey. He simply presents us with the option. He dresses sin in the tempting garment of what is natural and reasonable. He appeals to common sense and personal convenience. But there is a razor in that apple. There is poison in that logic. There is death in the act.

Life, specifically, eternal life comes from hearing (and believing) the Word of God. The Gospel of John tells us Jesus Christ is the Word made Flesh. His death paid the penalty for our sin. His resurrection is the assurance God accepted His death as the satisfactory sacrifice for our sin. This is what Paul and the apostles, as well as the early Church preached as the Good News. It is still the Good News.

To preach the Good News is to use of words correctly. It is to use “words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths,” to communicate the Truth. And the Truth once known cannot be un-known. The Truth is sin is the most natural thing we do. In contrast, faith in Jesus is unnatural because in order to come to faith we must experience spiritual rebirth; hence the need to use the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.

The power of our words lies less in the presentation, than in the Person of Whom we speak and in the Spirit who gives (inspires) them. To preach the Good News is to tell the truth about who Jesus is and what Jesus did. It is not that we invite people to receive Christ as much as we challenge them to believe in Him. How the Spirit gives us the words to say, as well as the words we use are part and parcel of the mystery connected with how He works. You will find it easier to harness the wind than to harness, diagram, chart and program how the Spirit works.

One thing is certain—the Holy Spirit is more likely to be at work when we eschew words of human wisdom and choose instead to speak with “words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” That is the only way to insure that our words are relevant, powerful and real.

You think about that.

MM