"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life"
John 6: 63
No man ever spake or speaks like this man.. His word is certain. It is confident. He knows the truth, and rings it forth with authority and conclusiveness. We would put in provisos and such. We safeguard our utterances, lest they should prove misleading or only partially trustworthy. We hesitate to commit ourselves.
Jesus is different the undertones of dubiety are absent from His teaching. It is all priceless, and it is all stable and unshakeable. John is the only gospel writer who lets us hear the Master preluding His sayings with the double Amen, the solemn Verily verily It is the guarantee to our troubled minds that the words of Jesus are not 'yes and no', but 'yes' beyond recall. The glory of certainty is in His word
And His word is as sufficient as it is certain. We rest on it, and it blesses us today and tomorrow and forever. You remember the seven "I AMs" of the Lord in John's gospel!
I am the Bread of Life. Jn 6: 48
I am the Light of the World. Jn 8: 12
I am the Door of the sheep. Jn 10: 9
I am the Good Shepherd. Jn 10: 11
I am the Resurrection and the Life, the true and living way Jn 11: 25
I am the True Vine. Jn 15: 1
I am the Way the Truth and the Life. Jn 14: 6
And having considered each separately, and looked long and deeply into the strength and wealth and amplitude of each, we are taught of the Holy Spirit to take them home to ourselves, and to discern in Jesus our Bread and our Light, the Doorway into all desirable things, the Shepherd Beautiful who leads into green pastures, and beside quiet waters, the Resurrection here and now for us from every bondage, the open Way to the Father, and the Vine whose sap and nutriment flow through us to render us fruitful.
What more can any wish or seek? We have all, and abound.
The glory of sufficiency is to be found in the words of Jesus
John 6: 63
No man ever spake or speaks like this man.. His word is certain. It is confident. He knows the truth, and rings it forth with authority and conclusiveness. We would put in provisos and such. We safeguard our utterances, lest they should prove misleading or only partially trustworthy. We hesitate to commit ourselves.
Jesus is different the undertones of dubiety are absent from His teaching. It is all priceless, and it is all stable and unshakeable. John is the only gospel writer who lets us hear the Master preluding His sayings with the double Amen, the solemn Verily verily It is the guarantee to our troubled minds that the words of Jesus are not 'yes and no', but 'yes' beyond recall. The glory of certainty is in His word
And His word is as sufficient as it is certain. We rest on it, and it blesses us today and tomorrow and forever. You remember the seven "I AMs" of the Lord in John's gospel!
I am the Bread of Life. Jn 6: 48
I am the Light of the World. Jn 8: 12
I am the Door of the sheep. Jn 10: 9
I am the Good Shepherd. Jn 10: 11
I am the Resurrection and the Life, the true and living way Jn 11: 25
I am the True Vine. Jn 15: 1
I am the Way the Truth and the Life. Jn 14: 6
And having considered each separately, and looked long and deeply into the strength and wealth and amplitude of each, we are taught of the Holy Spirit to take them home to ourselves, and to discern in Jesus our Bread and our Light, the Doorway into all desirable things, the Shepherd Beautiful who leads into green pastures, and beside quiet waters, the Resurrection here and now for us from every bondage, the open Way to the Father, and the Vine whose sap and nutriment flow through us to render us fruitful.
What more can any wish or seek? We have all, and abound.
The glory of sufficiency is to be found in the words of Jesus