NT Promise 54: Word will Build you up

Acts 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up.

In Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesian elders he commends them to God to keep them faithful to the faith of Christ, and to the oversight of the church, and to the preaching of the gospel. He entrusts them especially to the word of his grace, for it will build you up. ”The word of His grace” is the Gospel of Christ. The promise is this: the Gospel will build you up.

”The gospel is the power of God.” ”Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ.” “We preach Christ crucified…the power of God and the wisdom of God.” We believe this promise so that we might trust the Gospel. The preacher’s temptation, and the hearers’ mistaken desire, is to use the Law to make practical, down-to-earth, how-to messages to make people better. The Law can only convict and condemn. Only the Gospel has the power to actually change lives. Trust the word of His grace to build you up. When the world, the flesh, and the devil beats us down, we turn to the Word of Grace to build us up again. We are always in need of fixing up and restoring to wholeness. Grace does it.