The Power of Words

February 27, 2026/Daniel Rowlands/
Image Credit: Raphael (1483-1520), Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens (1515); image from Wikimedia Commons.

Image Credit: Raphael (1483-1520), St Paul Preaching in Athens (1515); image from Wikimedia Commons.

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Words make things happen. They not only describe and propose actions, but words also bring about action—they result in getting something done. What is known as speech act theory helps us understand how the language of words may be used to result in change and action, and in Scripture we read about how God uses his words to make things happen, to create and recreate.

It is through the words of the Gospel of Christ that a person is changed and is reborn a new creation.

For example, we learn that in the beginning God created by speaking his creation into existence. He spoke and creation came into existence. “And God said…” and light, and the heavens, and the earth, and plants, and animals, and humankind were created (Gen. 1-2). His word brought about all that has been created. Even we can begin to understand in our own rudimentary ways how God’s word results in actions. A parent asking a child to do something results in something happening—an action. A commander issuing an order results in the movement of people and equipment. A judge sentencing a person for a crime changes their status and freedoms. Likewise, God’s word declares and changes people and their state, actions, and nature, especially in terms of the gospel of Christ.

What for Christians is most important to understand about words bringing about a change of state is the gospel. It is through the words of the gospel of Christ that a person is changed and is reborn a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). We can see this happening from the very beginning as the church spread throughout the Mediterranean region after Christ ascended to heaven:

In him [Jesus Christ] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. (Eph 1:13)

It was the hearing of the true word, the gospel, that led to belief and the seal of the Holy Spirit. The apostle Peter writes,

…that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.” (Acts 15:7)

The apostle Paul writes in Romans about how the spoken word brings about faith in those who hear through the gift of preaching:

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Rom. 10:14)

The power of the Holy Spirit of God working through his word is what transforms a person.

And lest we struggle to understand, Paul makes it even clearer that words bring about faith, and through faith in Christ Jesus a person is saved:

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Rom. 10:17)

The power of the Holy Spirit of God working through his word (1 Thess. 1:5) is what transforms a person, uniting them to Christ Jesus and granting them the faith to believe. Peter could not be clearer when he writes,

You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. (1 Pet. 1:23)

The foolishness of preaching a crucified Christ is the power of God working through his word.

Finally, in our desire to spread the gospel of Christ and be an instrument to bring others to faith, we may be tempted to look to worldly ways, such as thinking we need flashy marketing, promises of a great life (versus our call to a life of suffering), sports programs and facilities, or edgy music to entertain. We may be tempted to forget that it is God’s word that changes people. In fact, anticipating this Paul writes,

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God….Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?…Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Cor 1:18-24)

We need to remember that it is God’s word that makes things happen. It is the gospel of Christ spoken and heard through which the Holy Spirit works to remove a person’s stony heart and makes them alive with a heart of flesh. It is the foolishness of preaching a crucified Christ that is the power of God working through his word. May all of us trust God at his word through faith in Christ and see how he makes those who are spiritually dead to be alive in Christ Jesus forever and ever.

This article was originally featured in Beautiful Christian Life’s February 2025 newsletter, “Words.”