So we have seen from the Word that dead people can do nothing to help themselves and need to be brought back to life first. So what does God use to accomplish this task in a person? The Word!

The one essential everyone agrees on is faith. No one can be saved without it. But how does the Lord give that to someone?

Romans 10:17

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

What is is about the Word that can ignite a spiritual flame in someone? One principle in the physical world is the same in the spiritual world – life begets life!

Hebrews 4:12

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Peter says it even more plainly:

1 Peter 1:22-23

‘Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”

The Word, in particular the Gospel, has within itself the power to accomplish that for which God sent it. Just like the physical world was created by the Word of God (Hebrews 11:3), spiritual creation is generated by reception of the Word. That is why is is critical to preach the Word, rather than self help psychology or worldly philosophy. Only the Word of God has the power to transmit life like a seed does into dead soil (Luke 8:11). That’s why Paul admonished Timothy to preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:1-2). Without it, you will only produce intellectual assent, and not saving faith. For only the Word of God, once planted in a heart, can change someone;s nature and bring them to life in Christ!