"We owe to Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God."
John Calvin
The above quote starts the section called "The Word of God" in Charles Colson's classic "Loving God". In Chapter Four, Colson tells the story of the conversion of one of the greatest Christian writers.....Aurelius Augustinus or better know as Augustine.
The story is fascinating. Augustine was the top scholar of his time in pretty much in topic or field. People would travel miles just to listen to him speak and for the majority of his life he had little to do with Christ or with Christianity.
Oh he would list to others as they tried to convince him of the true nature of the gospel. His mother Monica would plea to him to give his life to Christ, almost to the point of him tuning her out when she spoke about God. Augustine was in love with wisdom but even as a lost person he rightly understood the demands of the Gospel.
"to follow Plato, one merely thinks like Plato. To follow Christ is something much more. You must put your whole life into it and leave behind whatever hinders you from following him. I don't know what it is exactly that enables a man to give himself to God---to commit himself to a life of sacrifice and faith. That's more than adopting a particular point of view, isn't it."
BINGO!!!!!!
God used Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, to break down the intellectual walls that Augustine put up. Then one day, Augustine heard an inner voice speaking to him. "Take up and read. Take up and read" was what he heard over and over again. The Bible was laying near him and it was opened to Romans 13: 13-14, "13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."
Colson writes, "Instantly, as if before a peaceful light streaming into his heart, dark shadows of doubt fled. The man of unconquerable will was conquered by words from a book he had once dismiised as mere fable lacking in clarity and grace of expression. Those words suddenly revealed that which he had so long vainly sought. Now he knew with assurance he had confronted truth. The very words, 'clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ,' had settled it; whatever it cost, he would give his life to Christ."
Hebrews 4:12 states, "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." and Isaiah 55:11 says, "so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
If you are a follower of Christ, your life has been affected by the conversion of Augustine. For the next 44 years, Augustine published some of the most famous writings like his autobiographical Confessions and his masterpiece tome The City of God.
We have Augustine to thank for the classic defense of the authority of Scripture that has lasted the test of time.
While God used others to plant and water the seeds of the Gospel, it was the very Word of God found in the 13th Chapter of Romans that the Holy Spirit used to dramatically change his life and in turn influence us today.
So it begs the questions, if God's Word is so powerful, why don't we as followers of Christ, spend more time reading and memorizing it?
Good question. What say you?
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