Unlocking the Power of Scripture: 10 Life-Changing Benefits
As we embark on this journey to explore the benefits of reading Scripture, let us ask God to grant us eyes to see the worth of His Word and to awaken in us an unyielding desire for it. This is a fight for joy, and the weapon is a fresh sight of how the worth of God’s Word surpasses all things on this earth.
The Holy Spirit’s Role in Faith
The Holy Spirit does not awaken and strengthen faith apart from the Word of God. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). The Spirit has been sent into the world to glorify Christ, and He does this by binding His faith-wakening ministry to the Christ-exalting Word.
Pathway to Joy
When we go to the Word of Christ, we put ourselves in the path of the Spirit’s willingness to reveal Christ to us and strengthen our faith. And in this faith is the taste and the seed of all our joy. Therefore, the Word that wakens our faith works for our joy.
The Power of the Word
The Word of God produces both a subconscious influence bringing us to faith and a conscious experience of power and personal fellowship that come through that very faith. This explains why the Bible can speak of the Spirit blowing where He wills and having merciful effects in our lives before we were able to choose them (John 3:6-8; 6:36, 44, 65).
New Life in Christ
We are born again into new life by the Word of God. “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God… And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:23-25). God makes the preaching of the gospel the occasion for creating new life in the soul of man.
Abundant Life
Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). The words of John’s Gospel—and all the Scriptures—lead to life. Oh, how easily we are deceived into thinking that better life, or more life, comes from things that lure us from the Word. But, in fact, it is the Word itself that gives us life abundantly.
Hope in the Word
In more ways than we can imagine, the Word of God gives and strengthens our hope. We get a glimpse of how many ways the Bible gives hope when we hear Paul’s astonishing assessment of the Old Testament alone: “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
Freedom in the Truth
Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The truth of God’s Word works freedom in many ways and brings joy in all of them. But Jesus signals His focus in verse 34: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” The freedom He has in mind here is freedom from the enslaving, destructive effect of sin.
Sanctification through the Word
The guilt of sin would bring down the wrath of God on us if the truth of the gospel did not set us free from condemnation through the blood and righteousness of Christ. Jesus turns this truth into a prayer in John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Sanctify means to make holy, or free from sin.
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