Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Oct/92

Contributor - Walter Opmeer

Title - The Word Alone Will Set Us Free

Topic - Bible

The dream is still very vivid in my mind and it is easy to remember some of the scenes and their meaning. A group of us, some friends and acquaintances, were being oriented by some new leaders at a seminar. Who they were I did not know, but they sounded good. Somehow something was not right and I was getting uncomfortable. Then it dawned on me if I would concentrate on the -Lord Jesus, I could see through the demonic deception that the audience was being lulled into accepting. As I began to whisper this insight to the other Christians, we were discovered, and the spiritual warfare began.... Just then the alarm went off, and I awoke.

The alarm was certainly ringing when Martin Luther and John Calvin woke the church up in the sixteenth century. The great insights of the Reformation: the Word alone, by grace alone, and by faith alone, rang out loud and clear. The echoes have been clearing, and cleansing the church of any deceptive doctrinal voices ever since. Only through the uncompromised authority of the Word of God has the church been able to be active in the spiritual battle of setting the captives free.

As children of the Reformation, we have a great heritage in emphasizing the authority of the Word of God. Our Book of Church Order states right at the outset that "the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice... " of the church (p. 1). The Belgic Confession puts it simply that "we believe that the Holy Scripture fully contains the will of God and that whatever man ought to believe for salvation is sufficiently taught therein" (Article 7).

Calvin was quite concerned, however, that we allow the authority of God's Word to have its full impact on us. For "the Scriptures obtain full authority among believers only when men regard them as having sprung from heaven, as if the living words of God were heard" (Institutes 1.7.1). If there was ever a time when we needed to recapture a firm conviction and practice in the authority of God's Word, it is certainly today.

The Battle For The Mind.

There have always been other authorities" competing for our attention in the world, but our society is becoming more blatantly non-Christian and even anti-Christian (2 Thes. 2:7). We need to be very alert (I Peter 5.8) to be living under the truth of God's Word.

Paul speaks of a battle that is going on between the mind of the Spirit-filled believer and the patterns of thinking in the world. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12.2). For King David, this process was life-transforming. "O, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long" (Ps. 119.97); "I will walk about in freedom" (v. 45) he says, "for I have chosen the way of truth" (v. 30).

Because there are so many different ideas and attitudes confronting us daily from the - world and the old sin nature, we need to continually discern and choose to think and live under the authority of God's Truth. The very fact that there is any ultimate authority, such as God, or His Word, is totally suspect today. We, however, "will know the truth, and the truth will set us free" (Jn. 8:32).

The Truth.

The Bible has authority simply because it is God's revelation to us - it is His Word. He breathed all Scripture into existence (2Tim. 3:16), whether through his prophets (2 Peter 1:21) or ultimately, through his Son (Hebrews 1:2). When the Word-made-flesh spoke to the crowds, his words resounded with the awe-inspiring authority of who he was, the Lord of the Universe (Matt. 7.29).

Have you ever read a book, and knowing the person who wrote it, heard the author's voice in your mind as you read the words on the page? Wouldn't it be something if we could read the Bible like that, and hear God speaking to us, with all the authority of his voice! As Calvin said, the Word has no authority over us "until the living words of God are heard!"

Peter says that when one speaks to believers, it should be "as one speaking the very words of God" (1 Peter 4:11). Paul told the Thessalonians that "when you received the word of God,... you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the Word of God, which is at work in you who believe" (1 Thes. 2:13).

The Bible is God's Word and therefore it has authority of the truth (Is. 55:11; Jer. 23:29). But it is especially through the confirming, convicting, and illuminating work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Word (John 16:8-11) that it becomes powerful and active in transforming our lives by its authority (Heb. 4:11, 12), as God's very words to us.

Know the Truth.

We need to be transformed and filled with God's Word so as to be able to live effectively under its truth and authority. Imagine that we never had any of the Word that God has revealed to us, and that we are living in a totally secular society.

We would be living our lives without realizing that there is the eternal perspective of a transcendent God; that there is no battlefield between good and evil in the human heart; that there is nothing that could be called the Truth, or even a Supreme Authority to whom we are accountable. Nor that each individual (born or unborn) is of inestimable value. Nor that the deep longing and dreams of the human heart, eventually all dashed by reality on this earth, are glimpses of our true meaning and destiny beyond this life. (cf. Harry Blamires, The Chlistian Mind, Servant books, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1963).

Think about these points for a moment. Each of these insights is totally biblical. Yet each one is being totally disregarded by our secular society. As this view of the world saturates our thinking and our talking and our living, there will be a very clear distinction between those who live under the authority of God's Word, and those who don't.

Many people these days do claim to have or long for spiritual reality. But what truth do they know, and whose authority do they submit to?

Some adhere to the authority of a religion or a cult which at the outset may seem to agree with the same general world view. Others gravitate to the influence of some New Age ideas or personality, and yield to the " truth" they have experienced (discovering past lives, or channelling into the spirit zone). Ultimately we need to realize that we are being challenged by "authorities" competing with the only true authority of God Himself, like Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

After all of our careful reasoning and apologetics there is left only the showdown in the human heart between God and the competition; His Word or theirs. We ourselves were not finally convinced by human reason, no matter how helpful it is in removing obstacles to faith. It was finally the Holy Spirit working through His Word that set us free. The presentation of scripture needs to be an integral part of our strategy, as Jesus himself did, when God's truth is challenged (Luke 4).

As we ourselves seek to know the truth, and to live under the authority of scripture, we are faced with the reality that right now we only "know in part" (I Cor. 13:12). The more we are transformed, of course, the more we will see. But the fact remains that there are difficult things to understand in the scriptures, and different views within the church on some issues. May we then with humility, as well as with conviction, hold on to our distinctive doctrines. The world will know us by our faith, hope and love, not for our divisiveness and disunity. It is God's aim that we all "reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God" (Eph. 4:13).

It Will Set Us Free.

Recently I listened to a popular Bible teacher on the subject of heaven. I could not accept everything in his interpretation, but I was very impressed with his grasp of scripture. He extensively quoted from memory almost two hundred verses as he sought to speak with the authority of the Word. His life is evidently being deeply transformed and set free by the truths he was teaching.

How else do we know about heaven, but from the Scriptures? How else do we lose the fear of death? (For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord - Phil. 1:21.) How else can we look forward to recognizing and enjoying one another in the presence of our King, as Jesus could in his resurrection body? (John 20, 21). Each of us right now is being continually guarded and ministered to by the angels (Heb. 1:14, Luke 16:22), and might even meet some of them unawares (Heb. 12:2).

This cannot help but change us and set us free. For the forgiven saint, death is not an end, but a door; we have nothing to fear, and everything to look forward to; we have great purpose to our life now, since God chose not to take us straight to heaven (Phil 1:6). One Christian singer has put it, "I want to live like heaven is a real place." That is transformed living! Set free by the Word of God!

Jesus' Prayer.

We have quite a challenge before us. Unless we fix our eyes on Jesus, and on his Word, we may have trouble seeing clearly what is true and what is not.

While the world around us is rapidly straying away from any rights and wrongs in morality and lifestyle, the Christian can be transformed by a call to holiness. While the world is demanding freedom through personal rights and no limitations, we can be set free from sin and selfishness to serve our Master. While the world is abusing authority and leadership, the church can learn to respect God-given leadership and its authority. As the world struggles with political and economic unity, the church may be one, as Jesus and the Father are one.

The only way for these things to really happen in this world, as Jesus prayed they might, is for us to submit our lives completely to the authority of God's Word. Only when we hear God's voice, and know His truth, will the truth set us, and others, free!

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