“Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light’” (Ephesians 5:14).
Two important and vital truths about the Scriptures are inherent in the Greek verb translated “He says”.
First, “He says” followed by a reference to the writing of an inspired writer is an example of the fact that the Bible is God’s word. Whenever we read what is written in Scripture, we are literally receiving divine communication. The mind of God is being revealed to the mind of humanity in concrete, imperishable terms, not with ephemeral hunches, feelings, or intuitions. The Bible is the word of God because it contains all the essential words God has communicated to humanity.
Second, “He says” affirms the perpetual relevance of God’s word. The pen of the inspired prophet Isaiah had written these words at least 700 years prior to Paul’s inspired epistle to the Ephesians, yet what the Holy Spirit moved Isaiah to write was still speaking and relevant in the first century A. D. This is not an exception. This is the immutable rule. Though revealed in the past, God’s word is ever relevant and applicable to those alive today and every today hereafter.
