His coming from GOD, His taking man-form, His being subjected to the testings and temptings of this same sinister being...
His going to the Cross, and crying in His last agony another question~“My God, why …”, was all to answer this question, and He has answered it.
The deepest meaning of Christ in every way is the answer to this challenge of Satan~“Has God said?”
Yes, the answer is in Him. What is His Name, His title?
His final and all-inclusive title is the Amen, and, as you know, that simply means the great...yes, the great Verily, Verily, the Amen.
What is His categorical language?~“Verily, verily, I say unto you”, and those who know, know that the word Amen and the word Verily are the same word in the original.
He was only saying, “Amen, amen, I say unto you”. This is final, there is no question about this, no place for doubt in this, there is no room whatever for uncertainty here. “Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you”.
His Person...if you follow the LORD Jesus in His life here in His Person there is one thing that you have to conclude about Him...
He is a man without any questions. He is not a man with a question.
If ever there was a man assured, confident and certain, He was that one. There never has been another with such absolute certainty.
In His very Person He is a man Who is not divided at all. He is integrated, He is whole, He is one, and the integrating factor is His absolute certainty.
He knows, or, in other words again, He is a man without a question.
Therefore He is a man without any weakness, because it is questions that mean weakness.
Where there is a question, there is weakness. Where a thing is still open and unsettled, there is weakness.
There is nothing weak about Him.
He spoke as one having authority (Matt. 7:29), and I am quite certain that if we knew why people said that about Him, we should arrive at this...
This man knows what He is talking about, He is sure of His ground, He is not quoting others, thought they may be the authorities.
This man knows in Himself. He spoke as a man having authority.
And this certainty, this assurance, this confidence, this integration of His being was His power, His power with men, His power over the devil.
The devil had no foothold here in this way of a question. He could not get in at all.
He tried to get in,,,“If you are the Son” (Matt. 4:3 etc.). That is only another form of saying, “Has GOD said?” because only just prior to that GOD had said, “This is My beloved Son.”
It is only just assailing in another way. “Has God said?”...
He did not get in there, and therefore the one who sought to get
that foothold on a question at the beginning was himself cast out in the end by this power of an integrated life.
Here is the answer to the question, and the answer is in
Himself.
But then you say, that may be very true theoretically, actually, but what is the value of that to us?
Oh, everything, everything! Dear friends, you know, those who know the LORD, know quite well that one of the very first features of the Christian life when we really do receive the LORD Jesus into our life is the consciousness that the great big
question has been answered.
We put that in many ways. Now we have come to rest, now
we know, we have assurance.
You ask us how we know; we cannot tell you, but we know.
There is a sense of our questions having been answered, our doubts having been dealt with.
Something has happened that has brought to us the rest of a conscious assurance, certainty, confidence.
It is just a mighty sense, but there it is, and that is the
secret of Christian joy.
~T. Austin Sparks~
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