Christ really present in his Word of promise

“Luther calls the gospel a verbum efficax, an efficacious word that does not simply promise freedom but, in promising, actually frees. Oswald Bayer explains: “That the signum itself is already the res, that the linguistic sign is already the matter itself – that was Luther’s great hermeneutical discovery, his reformational discovery in the strictest sense.” [citing Bayer, Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation (Eerdmans, 2008), 52] Christ is “really present” in his promise.

In sum, we might say that Luther, and the Reformers in general, experienced grace verbally, through the various ways in which the Bible presents Christ – the gift of God.” (p45)

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority After Babel: Retrieving the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant Christianity (Brazos, 2016)