Shape Your Life with the Words of Life

The Christian life, from start to finish, is utterly dependent on the grace of God. Not only do we come into spiritual life by sheer grace (Act 18:27; Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2:5), but it is in divine grace that we continue on (Acts 13:43). It is by God's grace that our souls survive through many trials (2 Cor. 12:9; Heb. 4:16), are strengthened for everyday life (2 Tim. 2:1; Heb. 13:9), and grow into greater maturity and health (2 Pet. 3:18).

And it is God's grace that enables us to make choices and expend effort to seek more of God (1 Cor. 15:10). It is a gift that we would have the desire for and take action to avail ourselves of the means of God's grace — his voice (the word), his ear (prayer), and his people (fellowship) — with the most basic principle of grace being the immersing of our lives in his word.

The Word Original

Before we identify the presence of God's voice in our lives with the many good habits of taking in his word — whether Bible reading and study, hearing sermons, Scripture meditation and memorization, and more — first let's see his word as a general principle, rather than the specific practices.

Before printing it and binding it and covering it with leather, consider the concept of God's word. God speaks. He reveals himself to us. He communicates with us. His word, as John Frame says, is "his powerful, authoritative self-expression." Just as the words of a friend are central in revealing his person to us, so it is with God.

The one who created us — and sustains us moment by moment (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3) — has expressed himself to us in human words, and it is vital that we listen. The other principal means of his grace (prayer and fellowship), while equally essential, are not as fundamental as this one. Creation (Gen. 1:3) and new creation (2 Cor. 4:6) both begin with the voice of God. He initiates, and does so by speaking. This self-expression of God is so deep and rich and full that it is not just personal, but a person.

The Word Incarnate

The complete and climactic self-revelation of God to man is the God-man, his Son (Heb. 1:1–2). Jesus is "the Word" (John 1:1), and "the Word became flesh" (John 1:14). He is the one who most fully and finally "has made [the Father] known" (John 1:18). Jesus is God's culminating self-expression, and says without any sham or embellishment, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

Jesus is the Word of God embodied. He is the grace of God incarnate (Titus 2:11). So full and complete is his revealing of God that he is not a word-thing, but a Word-person. He fulfilled the destiny of humanity in his perfect life and sacrificial death (Heb. 2:9), and rose again in triumph over sin and death, and now sits at the Father's right hand, with all things being put in subjection to him (1 Cor. 15:25–28). He is the divine-human Word our souls need for survival and strength and growth. But how do we access this Word now that he sits in heaven?

The Word Evangelical

The most frequent use of word in the New Testament is in reference to the message of the gospel — the word evangelical we might call it, or the gospel word — the message about Jesus, "the word of Christ" (Col. 3:16). For Paul, the phrases "preach Christ" and "proclaim Christ" and "speak the word" are synonymous (Phil. 1:14–17). The mission of his life, Paul says, is "to testify to the gospel of the grace of God" (Act 20:24), which is "the word of his grace" (Acts 20:32).

It is "the word of truth, the gospel" that not only comes to us for conversion but also bears fruit and grows (Col. 1:5). It is "the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation" that changes everything for Christians (Eph. 1:13), and "the word of life" to which we hold fast in the midst of a crooked and perverse society (Phil. 2:15–16). And so, in the Christian fight for joy, John Piper writes, "The central strategy is to preach the gospel to yourself. ... Hearing the word of the cross, and preaching it to ourselves, is the central strategy for sinners in the fight for joy."

And as this gospel-word passes from mouth to mouth, from person to person, from people to people, from nation to nation, how will the message about Jesus stay on message? What will keep the spoken word faithful and true and life-changing? And how do we keep ourselves from falling into ruts and from defaulting to the same old canned ways of telling the message?

The Word Written

Having spied the pinnacle of God's Word in the person and work of Jesus, and the prevalence of God's word in his gospel, now we come to the essential place, this side of heaven, for God's word written. Just as crucial as it is for spiritual life that we have God in his Word Jesus, and that we have Jesus in his word the gospel, so we need the Scriptures as God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible revelation of himself.

Without the Bible, we will soon lose the genuine gospel and the real Jesus and the true God. For now, if we are to saturate our lives with the words of life, we must be people of the Book. Which is no necessary prescription to every Christian for the same particular habits. But it is a summons to the principle of soaking our lives in the voice of God and diversifying the portfolio of access points. Before pondering the many and wonderful habits of grace that might be best for you in your context and season of life, put this rock in place: Fashion rhythms of life that help you revolve around having God's incarnate Word, by God's gospel word, through God's written word.

The Word Pervasive

With such a perspective on God's word in place, countless creative routines may follow, whether it's reading through the Bible in a year, or memorizing passages or whole books, or meditating on single verses or paragraphs, or aggressively identifying and pursuing applications, or listening to sermon podcasts, or reading biblically rich content online, or taking Bible classes, or consuming Christian books, and on and on — and changing it up from time to time. The potential practices are limitless, but the...