Regarding the power of the Word to convert, Donald Grey Barnhouse assessed, "The interrelationship of faith and the hearing of the Word of God is at the heart of the whole process of transforming an individual from a child of wrath into a child of God. It is by the transforming power of the Word, faith laying hold on the Word, that a man ceases to be a child of disobedience and becomes a child of obedient faith."15 If more preachers would preach Scripture-saturated messages, the spurious conversions so prevalent in churches today would be drastically reduced. If Scripture is so sufficient to convert the lost, why preach anything else?

Power to Conform

Scripture's sufficiency is also seen in its power to conform, or sanctify, a believer into the image of Christ. It is through the living Word of God that we grow into Christlikeness. In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed to the Father, "Sanctify them in the truth, Your Word is truth" (John. 17:17). "Sanctify" means to separate, to make holy, to set apart from the power of sin and the lure of the world unto God. As Christ interceded for His disciples, He knew that spiritual growth into godliness is achieved only by the Word.

Underscoring the central place of God's Word in sanctification, Leon Morris writes poignantly, "Sanctification is not effected apart from the divine revelation."16 Only a holy instrument, the Bible, can produce a holy life. A.T. Pierson notes, "While other books inform, and some reform, this one book transforms."17 All this is to say, the Word of God is the means of life-changing transformation into the image of Christ from the inside out.

Peter emphasized this Word-centered pattern for sanctification by making it analogous to a baby craving the necessary nourishment of milk. The apostle admonished all believers, "like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation" (1 Peter 2:2). Just as milk is critical to the growth of every baby, so God's Word is crucial to the growth of every Christian. When rightly served, the Scripture feeds and nourishes the soul, nurturing spiritual growth into Christian maturity. Furthermore, every believer needs more than merely the milk of the Word, picturing its most elementary truths, but they must learn to digest "solid food" (1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12,14), or the deeper truths of the Word.

To preach anything other than the Word is to serve spiritual junk food to people, stunting their growth and confining them in a state of malnutrition. Scripture is the only nourishment which can cause believers to "grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

Therefore, it is incumbent upon pastors to be always serving a rich diet of the Word from the pulpit. In a day when so many believers are biblically underfed and spiritually dwarfed, every preacher must renew his commitment to serve a full, balanced meal in the Scripture. Preaching the full counsel of God leads to the full development of believers (Acts 20:27). If true nourishment for the soul comes from God's Word, the one ingredient needed in order to grow spiritually, why preach anything else?