Indeed, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12 (NRSVUE)
The devotions continue the summer theme of how Martin Luther understands the Holy Spirit. For the final three weeks of this devotion series, I want to consider ways that the Holy Spirit shows up in our daily experiences. The first of those ways is in our encounter with the Word of God. For Luther, the Word of God is primarily and most importantly Christ. Christ is the Word Incarnate. Christ is God’s self-communication to us, mediating God’s presence to us and revealing to us the Good News of God’s grace and love. In this sense, Christ as the Word of God reveals the loving and gracious nature of the Father and makes this transforming love an active reality in our lives. This occurs through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Most reliably the transforming reality of Christ is made known to us through the words of scripture. Yet the words of scripture are not themselves the true Word of God. Rather the words of scripture are valuable because they serve to inspire faith in Christ, who is the true Word of God. When faith is inspired, that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that creates in us faith that in the words of the bible we come to know the true nature and saving power of God; when we have that faith, the bible becomes the Word of God to us, and that is the Holy Spirit in action. Without the Holy Spirit, it is just words; with the Spirit, it is the Living Word.
Whenever faith is inspired, that is the work of the Holy Spirit. As faith in Christ can be inspired in a variety of ways, the Word of God is not limited to the words of Scripture. Luther sees the preacher’s sermon as an even more important form of the Word of God, because when people hear the sermon their faith is kindled and the Holy Spirit moves in their heart. Thus the words of the sermon become the Word of God. When the Living Word comes to us, we are able to receive it in faith because of the work of the Holy Spirit preparing our hearts to recognize God’s gracious love.