In Romans 10:17, we read that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” While the words are simple and convey a relatively simple spiritual truth, yet there is a depth of meaning in the verse that is important for us to understand. In a previous verse we read, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14), and this shows us the value of those who, knowing God’s Word, are willing to preach its truth to others. However, there is a right way and a wrong way (perhaps we should say, an imperfect way) to convey the truth from God’s Word.
When we preach from the Word of God, there is sometimes a place for what is often called “Christian apologetics,” which refers to the establishing to unbelievers the truth of Scripture as being rational and worthy of belief. It uses various arguments, some from within the text of Scripture, and sometimes external evidence from such entities as the fulfilment of prophecy, the historical records in this world, and other sources. Proverbs 26:5 says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” Sometimes it is helpful to point out how foolish some of the arguments against the Word of God really are, and how those lines of reasoning are in themselves contradictory.
The Word of God
However, while such apologetics may grab someone’s attention, set them thinking, and ultimately be used of the Lord, yet in itself an intellectual persuasion does not bring a soul to Christ. Rather, it is the Word of God, applied by the Spirit of God, that imparts new life. For example, we read in James 1:18, “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth.” Our blessed Lord Himself could tell Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water [the Word of God] and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). God gives new life of His own will, using His Word and His Spirit. We might ask why using the Word of God is so important, and there are two reasons for this. First of all, it is God’s Word, having come directly from Him by inspiration to those who were led to write it. It has been forever “settled in heaven” (Psa. 119:89), and it “liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). It is most important that our faith should rest directly on God’s Word, and not on man’s mere report of it, no matter how accurate the report might be.
The Spirit of God
Second, when the Word of God is used, it can be directly applied to the conscience and the heart by the Spirit of God. Then God gets the glory for the work done in the conscience and heart, for they are brought directly into the presence of God. God tells us in His Word, “I will not give My glory unto another” (Isa. 48:11). When the 70 disciples came back from their mission of preaching (Luke 11:17-20), the Lord Jesus could share in their joy that “even the devils” were subject unto them, through His name. Yet He gently warned them not to rejoice in this, but rather because their names were written in heaven. They were not to rejoice so much in what they had done, even though it was done expressly by His command and with His power. Rather, they were to rejoice in what He had done for them — something in which they had no input.
As believers, the Lord delights to use us in His service and to preach His Word. But it is His Word and His power by which souls are saved. We are never to forget this, for the glory must all be His. A hymn expresses it well:
O mind divine, so must it be,
That glory all belongs to God:
O love divine, that did decree
We should be part, through Jesus’ blood.
O keep us, love divine, near Thee,
That we our nothingness may know,
And ever to Thy glory be
Walking in faith while here below.
J. N. Darby
W. J. Prost