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The Authority of the Word←⤒🔗

The authority of the preaching is none other than the Word of God, because and insofar as this resounds in the preaching. The foolishness of the preaching, which is also connected to the offense against the gospel, is God’s desired means to bring people under his dominion. God makes himself heard through his Word. He demands obedience solely to his speaking.

We can first of all regard this in a completely objective sense. Aside from all else, including also our recognition of that faith, and aside from our faith in the Word that is preached, this preaching has authority. We might call it the manner in which God makes his authority known in this world. God’s control over all things is proclaimed through his Word. It is through the preaching that this divine authority comes to us. No one who hears it can escape from it. Through the preaching, God claims our life. He requisitions it. He claims it for himself.

When the preaching comes to us in this way we can no longer excuse ourselves. In that sense we need to understand what Christ has said, that it would be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for us to whom the Word of the gospel has come.

Authority and Power←⤒🔗

The mystery of the preaching consists in the fact that God himself uses this means to connect us to Christ. Christ spoke as having authority and not as one of the scribes. He exercised his power by means of the Word. In this way there was not only an objective power, a divine dominion or prerogative with which God laid claim on our life. But this is also how there came to be a recognition of authority.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” It is this supreme authority of Christ that he acquired on the cross, and through which he establishes the authority of his Father in people’s lives. He rules supreme. He himself ministers the Word to us as the Word of forgiveness. “Who on earth has the power to forgive sins?” Christ converts this authorization into effective power and activity to bind people to himself through his Word. When we are speaking of the authority of the preaching, which rests on the authority of the Word of God, then we need to also make this distinction. The Word carries authority, it demands it, and it asks of us that we will subject ourselves to it. No one has the right to ignore it. It is according to this Word that we will be judged. Our catechism directs us to this objective validity of God’s Word as it deals with the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Heidelberg Catechism, LD 31). There it establishes that according to this testimony of the gospel God will judge both in this life and in the life to come.

God himself, in this way, grants his divine authority to the preaching of the Word. He abides by it, just as he expects that we too will abide to it. The objective validity of the proclaimed Word will one day become apparent, in the judgment that will come over the entire world.

The Judgment Already Here and Now←⤒🔗

This judgment is already taking place in the preaching here and now. It comes close to us. And where our heart subjects itself to the Word being preached, there is the unfolding of the mystery that the authority of the Word becomes reality, already here and now. The authority of the preached Word is realized in the life of man, such that the power of the Word becomes evident. The authority of the preached Word unfolds itself in the hearts of people who surrender themselves to it in the obedience of faith. Then there is not only an objectively valid authority of the Word, but it is about the power of the Word to bind people to Christ. Then it becomes apparent anew that Christ teaches us with authority, unlike the scribes.

The authority and power of Christ are revealed in the Word being proclaimed. The gravity of this has been determined. It is according to this Word that God will judge, both here already and also later on in the final judgment. Preaching takes place in this time and culture. It needs to happen in this time and society, giving directives and pronouncements. This cannot be carried out “outside of time.” On the contrary, it needs to happen in confrontation with our own times.

At the same time, however, the preaching is also influenced by the seriousness of eternity associated with the last judgment. What will be spoken there, once the books are opened, we may know already—for the books are open in the proclamation to us. It is proclaimed to us what the judgment will be. The authority of preaching is determined by this gravity, which would be unbearable if the gospel were not preached to us. The gospel is focused on salvation. Whoever rejects this, rejects him who was sent.

The Mystery of the Preaching←⤒🔗

One might say that the mystery of preaching consists in the miraculous transition of the authority to this power, the path of authority to power. Throughout the ages, the miracle of preaching has been that God himself works this transition through which the objective authority takes effect in the power over our heart and conscience. Then there is no question of an ethical power in itself, but it concerns a spiritual manifestation of authority that will bring all of life under the rule of God’s Word. The Canons of Dort make it clear that there is more at stake than the exercise of a moral persuasion that is put on our conscience (see CoD III/IV, Art. 12). Where God proclaims his authority and where he reveals his power, the heart will be touched. And it bends under the Word from which it experiences the power itself. Not only the conscience, but the entire human being comes under the dominion of the Word, which will not let go of him.

We can say that this has been the mystery of the Reformation. And in this light we understand the expression: that the preaching of the Word is nothing but the Word itself, which asserts itself in the heart of people.