Allow me to share with you what struck me as a wonderful quote from one of William Barclay’s New Testament commentaries.
He writes, “It is the very essence of faith that we should believe that what Jesus says is true. So often we have a kind of vague, wistful longing that the promises of Jesus should be true. The only way really to enter into them is to believe in them with the clutching intensity of a drowning man. If Jesus says a thing, it is not a case of ‘it may be true’; it is a case of ‘it must be true.’”
No other spiritual leader in the history of mankind is recorded as having done the kinds of miracles Jesus did. And we can be equally certain that no other spiritual leader ever said the things Jesus said of himself nor made such fantastic promises to those who would follow them. Consider just this one: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
Who would ever say of himself, “I am the light of the world”? We have a place for caring for people who say such things while we try to restore them to sanity. And who would ever say, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”?
You see, either Jesus was completely out of his mind or simply lying or he was what he claimed to be.
How are we to know?
I suggest that one of the surest ways of finding out is to start with something he said and take him at his word. I have yet to meet anyone in my life who took Jesus at his word and yet failed to know if Jesus was telling the truth. However, earnestness means everything in this. It means that you hold on to what he said with “the clutching intensity of a drowning man.” Do that and you will know the truth.
