HIS WORD WAS WITH POWER
“And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.” Luke 4:31, 32
Those who heard our Lord teach were amazed that His words were so powerful. He spoke with an authority unlike that of any other religious teachers of their day. We, too, can testify to the miraculous effect God’s Word has on its hearers. We have heard His words of truth in our hearts. God’s Word can do what none other can do. The Word of God has the power to break up the most stubborn and hardened hearts. Jeremiah said it is “like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces” (Jeremiah 23:29). It can convict the lost sinner of his hopeless condition and convince him of his need of salvation.
Like a sword, the Bible is able to divide the soul and the spirit and is a “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). God knows our hearts when we ourselves are not able to know them. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, but God’s Word can make our motives known to us. The Scripture has the power to convert the sinner and break the bondage of sin. We are born again by that incorruptible seed. His Word is “able to build you up” (Acts 20:32). The Word of God cleanses us, like the “washing of water” (Ephesians 5:26). It is able to equip God’s servants, making them “throughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:17).
What a great privilege we have to possess a copy of this supernatural Book. We enjoy a gift that multiplied millions of people have never known. However, the great power of this Book is not realized because we possess it, but more so because we believe it and apply it. We ought to love this old Book that we call the Bible. It reveals the greatest truths known to man. It shows the way of salvation and the consequences of sin. It points the wayward soul to Calvary’s hill and to the sacrifice for transgressors. It tells of a home beyond the stars that awaits those who have claimed the gift of eternal life as their own. It instructs us in the matters of godly living, the family as God intended it, and the church that Jesus loved and died for. We owe it to ourselves, to our neighbors, and to our God to discover this powerful treasure, live in the pages of this glorious Book, and let its words be forever written on the tables of our hearts.