PREFACE: I've been really enjoying the New Living Translation recently. Check out the NLT version of the passage here.
The Hebrew writer makes a bold claim: the Word of God is alive. Why is that important to point out? I mean, obviously the Bible's important, but why do we need to know that it is alive?
We need to be reminded the Bible is alive and powerful to keep us from living lives that make God's Word look dead and impotent.
In verse 12, the writer describes how God's word exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. There's a slicing description of the Bible as being sharper than any sword, "cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow."
According to this passage, God's word has an ability to cut into our inmost thoughts and desires, an ability to convict and strip us bare as no other collection of words can. When we read the Bible, there is a strong chance we're going to have our souls sliced up, our sins exposed, because there is nothing we can hid efrom God.
But the passage doesn't end there.
In verses 14-15, the writer reminds us that Jesus died for our sins. He covers our innermost desires and thoughts, no matter how unclean they are. Beyond that, Jesus, our High Priest, understands our sin because He has walked where we've walked. He gets it. Life on earth is hard. But Jesus lived life here and did it without sinning.
Can we live a life that continually, boldly comes before God's throne in search of mercy? What would that life look like? I believe it would look like a life fed daily by a living, powerful Word.
We need to be reminded the Bible is alive and powerful to keep us from living lives that make God's Word and Christ's cross look dead and impotent.
- Taylor Walling
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