The Divine Power of the Bible

We have seen that the divine origin and authority of the Bible is conclusively proven. We now turn to consider its divine power with respect to the various ways it manifests itself.

1. Firstly, the Bible possesses and exerts divine power in convicting people of their sin.

Explain it as we may, it is certain that the Bible possesses a strange power, which no other book has, to open the eyes of men to the fact that they are great sinners in the presence of a Holy God. It proves itself in actual trial as “the sword of the Spirit,” pricking men to the heart as on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:37. How many thousands and tens of thousands of men who were careless or self-satisfied have been brought under deep conviction of sin while reading the Bible, or by a single verse of Scripture that someone has quoted to them? There is case after case on record of heathen who have never before seen a Bible or heard of one, into whose hands a portion of the Bible has fallen, who have been overwhelmed by conviction at reading that portion of Scripture. Their hearts have been laid bare, and they have seen themselves in all their vileness. Freethinkers who have sneered at the book have been struck down by its power. An utterly careless and ungodly man who had not been in a church for fifteen years strayed one night into a meeting where the writer was speaking. During the sermon, a verse of Scripture was quoted that pierced like an arrow to the man’s heart. He tried to pull it out and could not. It rankled him and he walked the streets cursing the message. At last, after weeks of vain resistance, he walked into the church again, arose, told his experience, and surrendered to Christ. Instances of that kind could be multiplied without number. The Bible possesses a divine power of laying bare the heart and revealing us to ourselves as God sees us. It is, as every faithful preacher of it knows, “like a fire and like a hammer that breaks rock into pieces.” It is the one instrument that can break a heart of adamant. The self-righteous moralist can be transformed into the penitent sinner by its power. Proud-hearted men are humbled when they are brought face to face with a Holy God and hear His voice, and as a matter of demonstrated experience, men hear the voice of God in the Bible, are convicted of sin and brought down upon their faces before the God whose voice they hear there. It is men who preach the Bible, and workers who use the Bible, who prove themselves mighty in bringing men under deep conviction of sin and to true repentance.