[God] has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior. Titus 1:3 NKJV
Question 155 of the Larger Catechism asks, “How is the word made effectual to salvation?” It gives the answer, “The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them unto Christ; of conforming them to his image, and subduing them to his will; of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions; of building them up in grace, and establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.” Last week we looked at the ordinary means God uses to save and sanctify His elect people. Today we focus in on that means of grace which is called the Word of God.
When was the last time you considered how wonderful it is that God makes His Word a means of grace to sinful human beings? He certainly is not required to. His Word is inherently true, wise, holy, and always perfect, but that it should be a vessel through which we are saved and sanctified is entirely a gratuitous act on God’s part. God’s Word should simply condemn us and pronounce His righteous judgment upon us and that should be the end of it. But because God is gracious, because He has chosen to be merciful, His Word comes to us not in fearsome denunciations and judgments but with the good news of salvation and forgiveness. Yet even here if all God did was to invite and offer reconciliation it would not be enough. And so God, by His grace, sends forth His Spirit with His Word to regenerate us and give us sorrow for sin, faith in Christ, and desire for holiness.
The Catechism specifically lists what the Spirit does by the means of God’s Word in the hearts of sinners. The Spirit of God enlightens us in God’s truth. We learn and understand who God is, who we are, and how we must be saved. Then He convinces us that these things are true and good and that we would be better off if we would believe and obey God’s Word. And finally He humbles us to confess our sins, to flee from them to the gracious offer of salvation in Christ. Even as God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, and even as the Holy Spirit drove Christ into the wilderness, so He drives us out of our selfish, self-deluded sense of false comfort, security, and complacency in our sins, so that we wake up as it were, and see our sins and the just wrath that hangs over our heads and at the same time we see the refuge that we can have in Christ. Thus, God causes us to see the goodness and beauty of Christ so that we do not run to Him merely out of a fear of condemnation, but are drawn by a love of righteousness. We want to be like God again and so we joyfully receive Christ with His promise to conform us into that image.
Once God has drawn us to Christ by His Word and Spirit, He then begins the daily Christian life of subduing us to His will so that even in those areas where we were formerly resistant we now sweetly comply, knowing likewise that the things we struggle with today will be removed tomorrow. Furthermore, God strengthens us—the new creation in each one of us that was born again by His Spirit through His Word—and causes us to grow stronger in resisting temptation and corruption, and to be built up to the point where are hearts are established (enabled to stand) in holiness (obedience to God’s commands). God’s Spirit com-forts (strengthens) us through our faith in His Word, so that even as God’s Word, in the beginning, brought life from death so now He causes it to bring righteousness from sinful hearts!
Finally we notice how God does this, through the reading yes “but especially the preaching” of God’s Word. There is nothing special about the sermonic form of communication where one exhorts a crowd. In a sense it is even the most foolish of all ways to try to truly influence people. Yet this is what Jesus said was one of His purposes in coming (Mar. 1:38; Luk. 4:43), what He appointed others to do after Him (Mar 3:14; 1 Tim. 2:7), and others after them (2 Tim 4:1; Rom. 10:15): to preach God’s Word! And so our Reformed fathers rightly lifted up the preaching of God’s Word as the most powerful and prevalent means used by the Spirit to save and sanctify sinners. Take some time today to thank God for making His Word a means of grace to you.
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