‘And They Have Received Them’

‘And They Have Received Them’

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

John 17:8

Words are important.  By words we convey ideas. By words we declare truth.  By words we communicate what is important for life and health.  Words may have a good or evil effect.  An evil person may use words to deceive, to destroy, and to damn.  God sets much store by His Word.  He says that He has magnified His Word above all His Name.  Christ is the Living Word of God.  He has come to deliver the Word of God to us.  The disciples of Christ, according to His Own testimony in our text for today, had received Christ’s words which God, His Father had given Him.  This caused them to know surely that Christ had come forth from God and to believe that God had sent Him.  The same is true for us.  Through the Scriptures, God has delivered His Word to us.  The Scriptures abound with revelations of the Character of God.  The Scriptures also abound with references to and revelations of Christ.  As we receive those words, they convince us that Christ has come forth from God and we believe that He has sent Him. ‘So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’  We are shut up entirely to the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of the Living God.  He has shown us Christ by that Word and caused us to receive and believe.  So we stake our life, our death, and all of our eternity upon the Word which we have received.

O, God of Truth and Wisdom,
we praise You that You have revealed Your Word unto us.
We rejoice that the entrance of Your Word
brings to us both light and life.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning