What Jesus Says About His Words
By H. E. Phillips

If the Bible is truly the word of God, it is perfect, complete and indestructible. If it is not what it claims to be, it is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated upon the human race. The attitudes that men have toward the words of Christ do not change them, but most of these attitudes will cost millions their souls in eternity.
God has spoken. He has spoken to us in this age through Jesus Christ, His Son (Heb. 1:1,2). Jesus said his words came from the Father. “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). “For I have not spoken of myself: but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak” (John 12:49,50). Jesus said in his prayer to the Father: “For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me” (John 17:8).
Jesus said his words would never pass away, but would abide forever.
“ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:”...“But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Pet. 1:22,25).
Jesus said his words were Spirit and life, i.e., his words gave life. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). When many of the disciples of Jesus turned back and walked no more with him, he asked the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:66-68). The words of Jesus are the words of eternal life: they produce eternal life. The words of no other person will produce eternal life.
Jesus said that his word would judge men. “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, and He has given assurance in that He raised Christ from the dead (Acts 17:3 1). “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Rom. 2:16). The basis of judgment is the gospel, the word of God. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). Right and wrong, good and bad must be determined by the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), which is the word of God. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Rev. 20:12).
Jesus said that those who love him will keep his words. “...If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). To abide in Christ one must let the words of Christ abide in him. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Everyone who lets the words of Christ dwell in his heart and life, Christ abides in him and he in Christ. He is also loved by the Father and the Son.
The words of Christ are the words of God, because Christ is God (Heb. 1:8). These words of Christ were received from the Father (Heb. 1:1,2; John 12:49,50). Christ gave these words unto the apostles whom he had chosen through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:2). Christ told them to “...tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Lk.24:49). Just before he ascended into heaven, Jesus promised his apostles: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). They obeyed him. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place”. . .“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1,4).
Jesus had before promised the twelve that “the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:2 6). The Holy Spirit would make them remember every thing he had told them, and he would teach them all things. Since the Father, the Holy Spirit and Christ are all God, the words of Christ from the Father, through the Holy Spirit are the words of God.
Jesus also told his apostles, regarding his words to them after he ascended back to the Father, that the Holy Spirit would enable them to bear witness of him with the unity and completeness of his revelation. This is stated in John 16:12-15: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”
The words of Jesus are powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. They give life: eternal life; or they give death: eternal death. They are able to invoke the love and fellowship of both the Father and the Son. The words are a complete body of truth, which will allow no tampering by the hands and mind of any human being or body of men. No man can add one letter to the divine truth given by Christ, nor can one jot or one tittle be taken from his revelation. It stands complete, holy, invincible, immovable and indestructible. Man can do but one of two things with the words of Christ: disbelieve and reject them, or believe and obey them. There is no middle ground. The first will go away into eternal punishment; the second will enter into eternal life. “For who bath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).