Saved By the Word
mmalanga | January 5, 2007The Traveler’s Advisory
Friday 5 January 2007
They say, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” If so, the following Associated Press headline is further evidence in support of that axiom – “Saved By the Word” (This Associated Press story appeared on page 17 of The Sentinel-Tribune (Bowling Green, Ohio), Monday, November 20, 2006.)
The headline refers to an incident that took place near Jacksonville, Florida in November 2006. An unnamed a 54-year-old man, was ambushed by two attackers as he carried bags of garbage to a trash bin. Frustrated by the man’s resistance one of his attackers shot him in the chest at point blank range.
To the amazement of all three men, the 54-year-old man did not die. Yes, the bullet hit him, but he did not go down. Take another look at the headline and you can guess why. That’s right. Two small Bibles in his shirt pocket kept the bullet from penetrating into his chest. He was saved by the Word.
According to the police (who took the Bibles as evidence), the man had put the two New Testament Bibles in his shirt pocket to give to friends. Little did he know they would (or, could ) stop a bullet. Other than a red mark where the bullet would have been and a pain in his chest the man was not injured. As the headline reveals, he was saved by the Word.
Skeptics may dismiss this is as the stuff of urban legend. Yet as incredible as the story sounds, there is enough evidence to suggest the story is true. Even so, no one is advocating the use of New Testament Bibles as bulletproof vests. What ought not be overlooked is the fact that the Word of God is meant to save us from a fate far worse than being shot with a bullet from a gun at point-blank range.
The Word of God is meant to save us from the wrath of God aimed at us because of our sin. Now, strictly speaking we are not saved by the Word. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It is through the preaching and the hearing of the Word that the Holy Spirit makes us aware of our sin thereby revealing our need for salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Without this work of the Spirit the Word is powerless to produce the faith we need to be saved. However, when the Spirit is at work He makes the Word effective for salvation.
In his letter to the Christians in Corinth, the apostle Paul wrote, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power,” (1 Corinthians 2.4-5, NIV). And again in his letter to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul wrote this about the Word of God, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…,” (Romans 1.16, NIV).
Had the bullet penetrated those two New Testament Bibles in that man’s shirt pocket the AP headline may have been written with different words. However, the original headline would still be true. To be “Saved By the Word” is to be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It is to know that no matter how our life ends here on earth, it continues in heaven with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And “to be in heaven is not to cease to be human but to become perfectly human…perfectly obedient to God himself in every circumstance as we join him in exercising dominion over his creation,” (Scott J. Hafemann, The God of Promise and the Life of Faith, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL © 2001, page 104).
So as this New Year begins may you know what it means to be saved by the Word. May you know the “demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
And, like the apostle Paul, may we be “not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”
You think about that.
MM
