There Is No Substitute for Memorizing Scripture — John Piper

The Biblical Case for Memorizing Scripture

Nothing in the Bible says you have to memorize the Bible. There's not a verse in the Bible that says you have to memorize the Bible. First, a broad biblical answer, and then I'll close with a personal answer from our marriage.

The Holy Spirit Awakens Life and Faith

The broad biblical answer is this. What does this have to do with Bible memory, this abiding of the word of Jesus in us, the way we've been talking? It goes like this, it's a sequence of thoughts. The Holy Spirit awakens life and faith and personal transformation.

That's his work. Got that now? The Holy Spirit, God the Spirit awakens life, quickens life, and begets faith. And through life and faith, he transforms people, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, faithfulness, self-control, are his fruit, his work.

We don't do that, God does that. That's step one in the sequence of thought. Step two, he does it through the word. The Holy Spirit awakens through the word, transforms through the word. First Peter 1 .23, born again by the Spirit through the living and abiding word.

Sanctification Through the Word of Truth

John 17 .17, sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. So new birth and sanctification are the work of God, not any other way than by the word. The word is you. So you need to ask, well, how then does it work?

Why Scripture Must Reach the Mind and Heart

This is the word. So, I'm gonna make a little harness, sort of like a pistol, the FBI. Gonna wear this all day, on my heart. And I'm gonna walk around. Will God sanctify this to me and transform me because I have, I'm carrying it here.

What's the answer? The answer is no. No. The answer is no. Sorry about that, we'll talk afterwards. You probably have a really good idea in your head what you meant. The answer is no because God created you with a brain.

He didn't have to. He created you with a consciousness. He created you with a will and emotions and thought. And the way he ordains for Christ to be magnified through his word is for there to be a connection created with these words and this brain.

And then this will and this heart. If you just try to do this and never read it, never read it, so there's no connection between the meaning of these words and your brain, it has zero effect in your life.

Meditation Establishes a Transforming Connection

Meditate on the law of the Lord day and night is because a connection is established. And by the connection of the meaning of God in his holy word and my construction of that meaning in my brain and its effect on my will and my heart, I'm changed by the Holy Spirit's using all that seemingly natural process for our change.

Memorization Makes the Word Constant and Transforming

So my answer to what's all this got to do with memorizing the scripture is this. When we memorize the scripture, we make that connection between this and this and this more constant, more deep, and more transforming.

I'll venture this. Realistically, nothing can replace it. Nothing can replace it, Bible memory, in doing what it was designed to do, in forging a connection between this and this.