It’s All in the Prepositions
For from him and through him and to him are all things. (Romans 11:36).
My mother was passionate about using proper English and always corrected me when I didn’t talk good. Bless her heart, she done her best, but I weren’t her best student. What I remember most is her insistence that a preposition must never, ever, under any circumstances, be used at the end of a sentence. I’ll be honest; that’s a problem I still struggle with (!). But I’m comforted that even Winston Churchill, a certified master of the English language, refused to comply with this silly rule by saying; “That’s the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.”
If all Scripture is inspired by God, that must include the prepositions. Right? It’s not just the nouns and the verbs that convey God’s revolutionary truth to the world, or even the adjectives and the adverbs. Those unnoticed little prepositions are important too. In fact, there are times when these tiny snippets of English grammar are the most important words in the sentence! As Dennis Kinlaw used to say with a chuckle, “It’s all in the prepositions!”
There are dozens of prepositions we use every day in English, such as in, by, to, for, from, upon, among, before, with, etc. These words show the relationship of place, time, direction, or connection between a noun (or pronoun) and other words in the sentence. Though small and unnoticed, these words are pregnant with power!
Consider, for example, the climactic closing words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. “… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” There’s a sense in which the entirety of the American Experiment is contained in those three powerful prepositions. Or consider how St. Patrick used prepositions in his famous prayer called The Breastplate: “… Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left…” Can I get an “Amen”?
The Bible is full of illustrations that show the power of prepositions. For example, think of the dozens of times Paul speaks about being “in Christ”. There is enough revolutionary potency in that little preposition “in” to provoke a reformation of the church! Or examine the prepositions in Colossians 1:16-17. “All things were created through him [Jesus] and for him… And in him all things hold together.” Wow! If you’re a pastor and don’t know what to preach next Sunday, just preach those prepositions and your congregation may vote to raise your salary!
And look at Ephesians 2:8-10. Many believers are able to quote these verses, but most fail to notice the prepositions. Yet these little words convey the mystery of how salvation comes to sinners like you and me. “For by grace you have been saved through faith…. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…” By grace, through faith, in Christ, for good works. That’ll preach!
I discovered the power of prepositions years ago when I was invited to speak to a large group of international university students for a Christmas dinner. There would be Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Communists in the audience. My assignment was to present the gospel – in ten minutes! As I struggled over what to say, I felt the Spirit nudging me to preach on prepositions. He seemed to say: “These students are all learning English and struggle with prepositions. So, tell the gospel story by teaching about prepositions.” As strange as it sounds, I knew these instructions were from the Lord, for the students, to me. That night, after the dinner and before exchanging gifts, I said something like this:
Welcome to an American Christmas. This celebration is not really about Frosty, Rudolph, or Santa. It’s about Jesus. It’s his birthday. This book, called the Bible, tells us about the first Christmas and also about the Christian faith. Tonight, I’d like to share that story by using four prepositions.
The first part of the Bible, we call it the Old Testament, tells us that God is for us. The Creator of the universe is not our enemy. He actually loves us and wants to fill our lives with blessings and significance. He’s on our side. We can summarize this truth with these words: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
But there’s more. The New Testament tells us that this God who is for us has come to live with us. This is what Christmas is all about. When Jesus was born, he was called Emmanuel, a Hebrew word meaning “God with us.” (Matt. 1:23). Yes, Jesus was fully God and, at the same time, he was fully human. He came to forgive our sins and give us eternal life.
But there’s more. It gets even better. This God who is for us and who came to live with us, wants to dwell in us. When Jesus returned to heaven after his resurrection, he gave us his Spirit to enable us to experience his love and power every day. “I will not leave you as orphans,” Jesus said to his disciples. He promised that he would dwell in them, just as he had been with them (see John 14:16-18).
But there’s more! This God who is for us, and with us, and in us, wants to work through us. Yes, he wants to accomplish his good purposes for this broken world through ordinary people like you and me. This is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
So, my Christmas message for you can be stated in four amazing prepositions.
God is for you. He is on your side and wants you to live a life that matters.
God is with you. In Jesus, God has come into our world to save us and show us how to live.
God wants to be in you. The Lord Jesus is a gentleman and never forces himself on anyone. He stands at the door and knocks. You must invite him in.
God wants to work through you. When Christ dwells within you through his Spirit, you become his ambassador, to take his love and power to a very broken world.
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