Jesus: the Only Truth from Heaven

More words to treasure from H.W. Gockel:

One of the deepest cravings of the human heart is to know the truth. The anxious mother's heart would give anything to know the truth about her wayward boy. The lover is hungry for the truth of his beloved. The worried family tosses restlessly on sleepless pillows because it does not know the truth about a father, son, or brother who has been reported missing from the field of battle. —If only they knew the truth, there would be an end to this agony of uncertainty.

But a far deeper hunger for the truth is gnawing at the heart of every man and woman. Even the person who professes to have no religion at all will confess in his honest moments that he is troubled by a torturing uncertainty. In the presence of others he may boast that he can get along without a faith in God. He may even proudly assert that there is no God. In his secret heart of hearts, however, he cannot down the haunting question: But what if there is? What if there is a God?

If there is a God, what kind of God is He? What does He think of me? What does He intend to do with me? How do I fit into His plans for the universe, particularly His plans for the human family? What is my personal relationship to Him — and His to me?

Whether a man lives in Chicago, Cleveland, or New York, in Bombay, Calcutta, or Shanghai, he is distressingly conscious of a hunger for the truth about these questions....

I know that men have given answers to all these questions. Philosophers have crowded our libraries with learned books on just these subjects. They have spun impressive theories. But what I need as the polestar of my life — my guide, my chart, my compass — is not a theory that has been invented by a man who is just as subject to error as I am. No, I need the truth — God's truth.

I have found that truth — in Jesus!

I have placed my trust in the words of Christ, first of all, because God Himself has told me that the words of Christ are trustworthy.... And so I look to Jesus for the truth.

But more. God the Father placed His stamp of divine approval on His Son and on His teachings both at the occasion of the Savior's Baptism and again on the Mount of Transfiguration.... I accept the words of Christ as truth, then, because God Himself has vouched for the truthfulness of His own beloved  Son.

I place my trust in the words of Christ, furthermore, because Christ with His own lips has assured me that His Gospel is the truth. "If you continue in My Words," He says, then are you My disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the trtuth shall make you free." ....

I place my trust in the words of Christ, finally, because the whole Bible is nothing but one chorus of testimony to the heavenly wisdom of the Savior. To the holy writers, Jesus is God's truth come down from heaven. "In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," the Bible tells us. "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, opens His Gospel with the well-known words: "In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." ....

In a day such as ours, when "darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people," when men's hearts are failing them for fear, when the hope of ever coming to the knowledge of the truth in spiritual matters is gradually begin given up as vain and futile — Christ is still mankind's only hope. He is still the Light of the world. He is still the Way. He is still the Truth.

Source: H.W. Gockel, "What JESUS means to me," St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1948, pp. 73-79. N.b. language of Scripture citations lightly updated by blogger.