We’ve all seen the commercials or reels on our social media feeds. Someone has a product that is sure to unlock your body’s hidden potential and unleash its full strength. Their proof? The product has changed their life. It’s the classic before-and-after photo demonstrating visual evidence of transformation.
We know that most of this is a gimmick. Add to the mix the latest digital tricks, and you can make pictures tell whatever story you want. But the truth remains. If someone purports to have a secret for transformation in any area of life, you would expect that they would reap the personal benefit. You’d be foolish to take anyone’s word for anything that they didn’t also use.
My aim here is to make that case for God’s Word.
There are many reasons to believe that the Bible is true, and some of those have been shared by other authors here. There are biblical, historical, and philosophical reasons for affirming the truthfulness of the Bible. But let’s not miss another important reason to trust the Bible: Scripture transforms lives.
IT PROMISES TRANSFORMATION
You’ve likely heard or memorized verses like: “[T]he word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
The author of Hebrews speaks of the overwhelming power of God’s Word to change the human heart. Intellectually, we know this to be true — God’s Word is powerful. Experientially, we also know this to be true because we’ve seen firsthand the power of God’s Word to transform lives. As a pastor of the same church the last 17 years, I’ve had a front-row seat to watching God’s Word do just that, and it’s one of the reasons I believe the Bible is true. Let me show you five ways I’ve seen God’s Word transform lives.
1. PREACHING
Part of what a pastor does is preach sermons. A few of those sermons are outstanding, some feel like a total miss, and most are mediocre, especially for younger preachers just getting going. It’s hard work to preach quality expositional sermons week in and week out.
At first this thought crippled me — surely, I’d need to be a great preacher to see fruit in ministry. Over time, however, I’ve found freedom in the fact that life change through preaching isn’t the result of my orator skill or exegetical insight. God works through the preached Word to shape the lives of church members, and He does so in unexpected ways and average sermons.
One of preaching’s great joys is hearing people testify to the extraordinary work of God’s Word through ordinary means of grace like sermons.
2. READING
People don’t change through sermons alone. I’m struck by how often God’s Word brings change as people simply sit down on a random Tuesday morning with a cup of coffee and read it for themselves. There in homes, apartments, or dorm rooms, God meets with His people in personal ways through His Word. It’s astounding to hear testimony of how God brings His Word to bear on people at just the right time and way.
Sometimes it’s a word of encouragement at a challenging time. Others find a word of exhortation and a call to obedience. Still others find a call to repentance for a specific sin. The living power of the Word is seen vividly in the specificity with which God ministers to His people through intentional, daily Bible reading.
3. COUNSELING
I’ve walked into some tough rooms. Inside sat people who were addicted, broken, hopeless. Married couples who hated each other. Family members no longer speaking. The pastor’s counseling room can be a terrifying place. But it’s also one of the most unique arenas where God transforms people with His Word.
Honestly, more times than I’d like to admit, I felt like I had little to offer in those spaces. I had no clue what to say or how to help. Many times I felt as helpless as the person to whom I was talking. So I just shared God’s Word. I anchored my counsel in the truth of Scripture and tried to point their attention to a place where God addressed the issue they were facing. Here the sword-like, heart-penetrating Word did its work. Sometimes it was immediate. Other times, people walked away unchanged, only to reflect on the Word later and act. In some cases, it took years for that Word to produce fruit. But time and again, it transformed.
4. CONVERTING
God’s Word breaks hard hearts. Praise God the conversion of the lost isn’t up to our creativity or rhetoric. God’s Spirit works through the foolishness of the Word proclaimed (1 Cor. 1:21). The way God will use His Word is unpredictable — both in terms of the passage of Scripture that will minister to a person, and the person God will save.
Even after years of ministry, I’m still struck and surprised by the way God’s living and active Word gets to the heart of those who are seemingly too far gone. And then God puts His Word in the mouth of these new Christians, and they become ambassadors for the gospel they once rejected (2 Cor. 5:16–21).
5. CHANGING
Finally, and perhaps most compellingly, I believe the Bible is true because I’ve experienced its power to transform my life. The change is rarely immediate — but the steady intake of the Word of God has changed my life, my sense of calling, and my habits and priorities.
I’m not the man I was when I came to faith 25 years ago, and that is attributable to the work of God’s Spirit through His Word. It’s much like exercise. Change doesn’t happen by showing up at the gym one day. But day after day, workout after workout, little by little you start to see the change. God has changed me through His Word, and He’s given me a role that allows me to see Him continually change others through the power of His Word. Changed lives, then, become a powerful apologetic for the truthfulness of God’s Word and a reason to continue to preach and read and counsel and share it with others.
— Matt Rogers (M.Div., Ph.D., SEBTS) serves as lead pastor of Christ Fellowship Church Cherrydale, in Greenville, S.C.. He is also assistant professor of church planting at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Matt and his wife, Sarah, have five children.