Sunday, 12 June 2016

Heeding God’s Word – Part V

Over the course of a series of blogs we are outlining two reasons why heeding the Bible is going to be at the foundation of our life together as a church.  From our previous blogs we saw that the first reason was that the Bible is at the foundation of our life together because it is God’s word.  In this blog we will continue to outline the second reason…because the Bible is trustworthy and true.

The God who tells us the Truth about himself…
Psalm 119.137 says God’s word reveals that that he is righteous, that although we are faithless, he is faithful.  His word reveals that at just the right time, when we were still powerless God has acted to rescue us.  His word is his promise of relationship spoken and delivered.

God’s word is his declaration of who we are and who he is.  Having watched us suppress the truth, God speaks the truth.  In the words of Psalm 104.1…he wraps himself in light and walks into our darkened world!  With a word, that psalm 119.130 calls the light of truth!

Here is the word that is at the foundation of our church…God’s word…a word that…in the past…he spoke through the prophets in many and various ways… but in these last days he has spoken his word of truth… his word of salvation… ultimately and perfectly in his Son Jesus …the word made flesh!  God’s spoken and delivered promise of relationship… God’s word of rescue…

And what a difference this word makes.  Here is the foundation of this new church, a word that brings this change:
John 5.24 – whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

As Christians we have the wonderful comfort of knowing that we have crossed over from death to life.  That having come to faith in Christ, having believed God’s word spoken through his Son we have received God’s promise of relationship and rescue, forever!  We know the power of God’s word…that it can move from death to life…

And Psalm 119 makes clear that this same word that can rescue us from death to life, then calls us on to live life to the full.  Here is a word that is sufficient, not just for salvation, but for life as God’s saved people.  (It is the sufficiency of this word for all of life that will be the subject of our next blog).