Certainties About Christ

Certainties About Christ

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

Of what are we convinced with regard to Christ?  As Christ prays His High Priestly Prayer, He articulates the fact that His disciples had received the words which He had delivered to them.  They accepted His words as the words of God.  The message had led them to certain conclusions about Him.  In our text for today, He speaks of those conclusions.  He says, that they, ‘have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent me.’  This is instructive for us.  God has, through the Scripture record, enabled us to receive those same words.  We have read the words which Christ spoke.  We have followed the logic and arrived by faith at certain conclusions about Christ.  These are the same conclusions at which the disciples arrived.  We know surely that Christ came forth from God.  We believe that God sent Him.   These conclusions about Christ drive the rest of life for us.  Because we believe these things, we look to Him for eternal life.  Because we believe, we look to Him to conform us to His Image by the work of the Holy Spirit.  Because we believe, we seek to follow HIm and to exhibit behavior which is genuinely Christ-like.  These are all related to the conclusions which we have reached about Christ.  As the disciples did, so we do, because of what we know of Christ.

Our High and Holy God,
we rejoice at the Glories of Christ,
which You have revealed to us.
We praise You, that for all eternity,
You will continue to expand
and deepen our understanding of Him,
the Altogether Lovely One.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning