In addition to taking Him in as our nourishment, there is another way by which God becomes our constituent. It is by His speaking. In His speaking He breathes out whatever He is. He said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (8:12). Christ is wrought into us as light when He speaks. In His speaking light is conveyed to us. When He said, “I am the life” (14:6), life was wrapped up with His word. When His word comes and is received, the healing life comes into the receiver. Whenever we receive God’s word, we receive God Himself as well.
The opening words of Hebrews remind us that God has spoken. “In many portions and in many ways, God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son” (1:1-2). In Old Testament times, God spoke to the fathers in various ways and at different times, but now in this New Testament age God has spoken in the Son. How we thank Him that He is a speaking God, and that His speaking is on this earth, among men!
Just as the apostles spoke in the Son, so our speaking today is the Son’s speaking because we are one with Him and members of His Body. We need to learn to differentiate between the ministry that speaks God into us and one that does not. Whenever we come to a meeting and listen to a proper speaking, God Himself is conveyed to us in that speaking. We may, on the other hand, listen to an eloquent sermon which stirs us up, but once it is over, we have the feeling that nothing remains with us and that we are still the same. A real ministry of God’s speaking results in something of God getting into us. We may disagree with what is said or even reject it, but nonetheless the living God has been spoken into us.
The gospel through which we were saved came from the Bible. It is by this same book that we are saved day by day. If we neglect this book, however wonderful our initial experience of salvation was, we shall find that we are not properly saved.
The saints of old have given abundant testimony of how they were saved by the Word. Psalm 119:147 reads, “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.” The psalmist is saying here that he arose before dawn and cried. All his future, all his living, was bound up with God’s word. Without it, he had no hope.
Consider how much better off we are than the Old Testament saints. Moses did not have even the first five books of the Bible. David’s Bible did not include the prophets. He had neither the sweet book of Isaiah, nor the mysterious Zechariah, nor the marvelous book of Daniel, nor the unveiling book of Ezekiel. We not only have all these; we have the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation as well.
Do you realize what a precious heritage this is? I remember when I was newly saved how much I treasured the Bible. For me, nothing in the world could compare with it.
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