MANTON MONDAYS – Insights & quotes from Puritan Thomas Manton

God has owned the Word by associating the operation of His grace and powerful Spirit with it… Things of a powerful operation do evidence themselves, as fire by heat, the wind by its noise and strength, salt by its savor, the sun by light and heat, and the like. …Let us see how the case stands with the scripture. It is called (Romans 1:16), “the power of God unto salvation,” and the “preaching of the cross is to them with are being saved the power of God,” (1 Cor. 1:18); and (1 Cor. 2:4) “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power;” and (1 Thess. 1:5), “Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” It gives a persuasion of itself by its being the power of God, and the rod of His strength.

[Works of Thomas Manton, Vol. X.446]

Elsewhere, Manton reminds us how even a single verse of the Word of God has brought about the conversion of men — as recorded in Scripture itself, and throughout church history. In Acts 8 we are told of the Ethiopian Official reading the scroll of Isaiah (53:7) and his conversion as Philip explains the text to him. The great theologian Augustine was converted from reading Romans 13:11.

Behold the amazing power of God’s Word!
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