Our connection with God is through His words

Our connection with God is through His words

Statement on Social Media

This can be taken however y'all see fit, but I have not read the Bible through and through and don't feel it's necessary to reach God. I know that we are all connected to a higher being, and if we just shut up long enough to listen, we can speak directly to source. This doesn't take away from those who do read or need to read in order to find faith and examples to love by, just that it's not the only way. And I still don't understand why doing good things in the world have no bearing on one's spiritual growth.

My Reply

I understand that the person who wrote this is sincere in their reply but I'm responding to this statement, and in particular, the bolded part, because it retracts from the great value and importance of the word of God in the lives of believers. The word of God is our ONLY source of light and salvation. It is our ONLY source of truth, strength, hope, connection, and faith. There is no other source on the face of this earth to help us know and understand God, and everything else we do to connect with God should be based on the words and spirit that emanate from the bible (KJV), else it is in vain. The rest of this post validates this point I make.

Romans chapter 1 to 3 paints a picture of the natural man in relation to the righteousness of God. It's a bleak picture, as we have no righteousness of our own to measure up to what God requires. There is nothing we can do to earn favour with God, even though God loves us with a love far greater than we can comprehend.

So, in order to restore fellowship with us, the only thing that God could do was sacrifice His Son, imputing Christ’s righteousness to us and depositing our sins: our unrighteousness and ungodliness, upon Christ. This image alone should hint on how utterly destitute and grave our position is before God in our ‘natural’ state.

But what about justification through the cross of Christ? Well, yes. That does change things, but only in our positional state before God. When we receive the grace gospel by faith, we are utterly saved, and we are declared innocent of all charges before God. Thus, in God’s eyes, we are now pure, …BUT… justification has done nothing to fix our flesh. Paul speaks of this condition in detail in Romans 6 to 8, saying,

Romans 6:12-13  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.  [13]  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. … [16]  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?  [17]  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Justification is our spiritual position before God, but our fleshly condition is still as repulsive as ever. Somehow, we need to find a way to kill it off, to mortify it, to subdue it. If our flesh is not mortified, we remain unprofitable to God: we are functionally dead to Him, meaning we are without purpose and without gain to Him.

2 Timothy 2:20-21  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.  [21]  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.

How do we turn this around? Well, look at Romans 6:16-17 above. Paul gives us the answer to do this: by that “form of doctrine”. It is only our doctrine that can war against the law of sin and death. Our doctrine can bring about a renewal in our mind that can start to mortify the law of sin in our flesh. Without the word of God, we are done for, defeated, useless, and hopeless.

Romans 7:21-24  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  [22]  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  [23]  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  [24]  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Romans 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Notice that we mortify the deeds of the flesh by the ‘Spirit’. What is the Spirit of God? It’s his word doing its work of renewal within us, Jn.6:63. We mortify the deeds of the flesh by letting the word of God into us, by studying it, and spending time in it day and night as often as we can. We need to because we are in a perpetual mental battle. The natural mind veers to sin and results in our functional death. (Not eternal death! Remember, we have eternal life through justification. This death speaks of being unprofitable to God and being dead to His will, His ways, and His judgements because of ignorance to His written word.) But, if our mind is renewed by the word of God and it starts to influence us as we give over to obedience to its workings within us, (obedience unto righteousness, Rom.6:16), then we start to produce the fruits of righteousness and become profitable and functional for God, as in Gal.2:20 and Eph.2:10.

The bottom line is that the ONLY thing on this planet that can renew our minds and then maintain our minds towards righteousness is the written word of God. Prayer without the word will not help maintain righteousness because your prayers will become selfish. Worship without the word will not help maintain righteousness because your worship will not be in spirit and truth. Good works will not help maintain righteousness because your good works are filthy rags. It is the knowledge of our doctrine, the principles of life and righteousness that will keep us from veering back into our natural state. Put your bible down for a few days and see how that ‘old man’ starts to rear up towards sin again.

I end with another quote from our apostle Paul,

Colossians 3:16-17  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  [17]  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

See also: Rom.10:17; 1Tim.4:13; Phil.4:8; 2Tim.2:15

It is the word of God that dwells in us that produces the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and the prayers and the worship and the fellowship. God’s words are His Spirit and His life; they are the source of the other disciplines that keep our hearts and minds upon Him and ultimately producing God’s works of righteousness within us and out of us, Phil.2:13.