Transcript
Stephen:
One of the first truths we come across in the Bible, to use the words of Francis Schaeffer, is: "He is there and He is not silent." God speaks from the very beginning of the creation account. The first thing we read is that God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God speaks light into being.
For Christians, one of the most foundational things we believe is that God has spoken. I wanted to get your thoughts, Joel, on the importance of God’s word, even drawing from Genesis 1.
Joel:
Absolutely, Steve. This is something we can lift straight out of the text. The world is literally dependent upon God’s word—he created everything by his word. None of it would exist without that. And when you come to the New Testament, it says he continues to uphold all things by the word of his power.
That’s the first thing that grabs us: everything in creation, including us, is utterly dependent on God revealing himself.
There are different ways his word works. In Genesis 1, his word brings light into being, creates environments, brings life. I think everything God says in Genesis 1 can be grouped into those two things: light and life.
It’s not just that God has revealed himself, but how. He uses his word to do the creating, and then he uses words to speak to Adam. He’s not just a God of revelation, but a God of relationship.
Christians believe the Bible is God's word. It’s not the same as God’s spoken word in creation, but there’s a continuation. The same principles apply—both his spoken and written word bring light and life into our experience.
Stephen:
Practically speaking, if we want to know God personally, and if we want to know his mighty power—the same power that was at work in creation—we don’t have to wait for some big miraculous sign. God’s power continues to work through his word.
When we take a posture of listening and receiving his word, there will be a result in our life. You can't stop God's word from doing its work.
Joel:
Yeah, that brings us back to what we just said about light and life. The Bible says God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It shows us how to live. It exposes things in our lives that we might not even want to see.
The New Testament says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. If you’ve ever taken someone up into your attic and flicked on the light, it’s a bit embarrassing—it shows the mess you’ve ignored. That’s what God’s word does. It shines a light, and it also brings life.
Scripture says we don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We can’t be sustained by just the things of this world—we are sustained by his word and by relating to him as he has revealed himself.
And just on that—part of why we wanted to do this series is because we recognise that in our society there’s a growing awareness of that. People have tried to fill their lives with entertainment, sport, career, family—all sorts of things.
Some of those things are morally neutral, even good in and of themselves—but people have still found them empty.
C.S. Lewis said, If I find within myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. That’s the reality: it’s only the word of God that can truly satisfy us.
It’s only in appreciating the God who is transcendent—immaterial, eternal, far beyond us—yet has revealed himself to us in ordinary human words, that we can live as we were meant to live.
Stephen:
That’s great. Another thing I was thinking about—there’s such a focus in our culture on figuring everything out for yourself, using your own wisdom, your own know-how to decide what’s true and what direction to take.
But Paul, writing to the Christians in Corinth, said something really important. He said, I didn’t come to you with wise or persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that their faith wouldn’t rest on human wisdom, but on the power of God.
And I think there's something in that for us—if people want to know God and know God’s power, take him at his word. Listen to the word he’s given in scripture. Let God work powerfully in your life.
You don't always have to suss everything out before you can know who God is and figure out if he's powerful and mighty and real.
Stephen:
So God revealed through his mighty word—and when we receive it, there will be results.
Our faith actually depends on God's mighty power through his word—not through what's going on in my head and how I can suss out the whole thing.
Joel:
And it's interesting as well—when you come to the New Testament, we've spoken about God's spoken word in creation, we've thought about his written word in the Bible... but when we come to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus—the Son of God, God the Son—is described as the Word of God.
So he, in that sense, is the full and final revelation of God. This is how God has disclosed himself in a complete and total way to humanity.
And it is then through Jesus that we come into the good of all of these things. God's original intentions in creation—they will be realised. They're realised through Jesus. And we can live—obviously the world is far from that at the moment—but we can enjoy the present reality of those things through a relationship with God that's founded in the Lord Jesus Christ.
