As promised in my last post, here is another snippet from a conference that the seminary students attended this semester [1]. While this post cannot capture the captivating Welsh accent of the speaker, Derek Thomas, it can pose the same heart-probing question: God has spoken; what are you doing with his speech?
This is an important question because we are culpable for every word God has spoken. In other words, we are liable for what we do with God’s Word to us.
Indeed, God has spoken. He has done so in various ways. First, God speaks to us in creation. Romans 1:18-20 indicates that God manifests himself to all men in creation. Secondly, God speaks through his Son. For Jesus Christ is both truly God and truly man. Therefore, every time he spoke, God spoke. Finally, God speaks in Scripture. All of Scripture is the product of God “breathing out.” While God used human writers to record his word, nevertheless, God himself speaks in Scripture.
This is remarkable! The great God of heaven and of earth has spoken to us in a language that we can understand. This is an act of supreme grace on his part. Since God has taken the initiative in speaking to us, we have friendship and communion with Him.
What are you doing with this speech from God? And please note the present tense: what are you currently doing with it?
We know from Romans 1:18 that sinful man suppresses the speech of God. When this verse says that sinful men “hold the truth in unrighteousness,” the word “hold” means to hold down or to suppress. Derek Thomas used a helpful analogy for this – It is as though sinful man is holding his thumb over an open Coke bottle. Each of us can hold our thumb tightly over the mouth of a bottle to prevent any liquid from coming out. Are we doing the same thing with God’s speech to us?
Importantly, Derek Thomas posed this question to an audience of professing Christians. This question comes especially to those who have ready access to the Word, who sit under the preaching, who have opportunity to attend Bible studies, etc. More so than others, we are culpable for what we do with God’s Word to us. Thus, the question remains: God has spoken; what are we doing with it?
Matt Kortus
[1] The speech I am drawing from was given by Derek Thomas, who is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, SC. The speech was entitled “God Spoke” and was given at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology hosted by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. This conference comes each year to First CRC of Byron Center. The theme for this year’s conference was, “How Firm a Foundation: The Bible’s Authority, Sufficiency, and Clarity.”
Young Calvinists 