THE REFUGE
After four years, the church at Corinth had begun to drift into serious error. Pride had taken root among them, and many had become arrogant—boasting in themselves and elevating human wisdom above the power of God. With their mouths, they honor God, yet their lives lacked the evidence of true spiritual transformation. They spoke much, but possessed little of the power that accompanies genuine faith.
This pride would soon manifest itself in deeper sins—division, immorality, disorder in worship, and the misuse of spiritual gifts. But at its root was a dangerous confidence in words without power. It is into this very context that the Apostle Paul the Apostle declares, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.”
The kingdom of God is not advanced by mere speech, nor is it evidenced by outward profession alone. It is revealed in the saving power of God—power that effectually calls sinners, takes hold of the heart, frees it from the bondage of sin, and makes it alive through faith in Christ Jesus. This is not the work of man, but the sovereign work of God.
This is the miracle of the new birth, which Jesus explains to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John when He declares, “You must be born again.” This work is entirely the result of God’s resurrecting power, breathing life into the spiritually dead heart.
The prophet Ezekiel, speaking by the Spirit, gives us this promise: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
Paul also brings these foundational truths to light in his letter to the church at Rome, saying, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
Likewise, the Apostle Paul the Apostle affirms this transforming reality when he writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.”
The Bible plainly teaches that Christianity is not a religion produced by man, but a miracle of God at work in the heart of the one being saved. This is precisely why the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power—the power of God to regenerate, to indwell, and to transform the sinner into a new creation in Christ.
With this new birth, the Spirit of God implants new affections and desires within the heart. The will itself is renewed, so that the believer now longs for holiness and is drawn to Christ. This is not mere outward reform, but inward transformation—casting the sinner at the foot of the cross to behold the salvation of God. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power— power to save sinners from the just wrath of God and to make them new.
It is true, as the Scriptures teach, that justification is by grace alone through faith alone. Yet those whom God justifies, He also sanctifies. The mortification of sin in the believer’s life is not optional—it is the necessary fruit of saving faith. As the Scriptures exhort: “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts… but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead… For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
The law of God does not justify, but it exposes sin and directs the believer in holiness. As the refiner’s fire reveals and removes impurities from gold, so the law reveals the corruption of the heart and leads God’s people into repentance and obedience. The Apostle John writes: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”
Sadly, the love of God’s law— which is an evidence of the new birth—has diminished in our day. Many, I fear, have become hearers of the Word, but not doers, as James writes in his epistle to a persecuted church. They attend church as a matter of routine, participate in the ordinances— such as communion and baptism— and assume that all is well, while continuing to live according to a worldly standard that has redefined biblical truth. They are caught in the outward forms of religion, yet lack the inward power of regeneration.
Come now, you who profess Christ—this must not be so. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power: power to conquer the sinful passions of the flesh and to pursue holiness, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” May God grant us the grace and power to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called.