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.

Jesus: My Savior From Sin

Words to treasure from H.W. Gockel:

Of all the things that Jesus means to me He is, above all else, my Savior. By His suffering and death in my place upon the Cross He has paid the penalty of all my sins. The Bible assures me that though my "sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." And why? Because "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin."

I know that to many people today the word "sin" does not mean very much. Sin, they say, is a mistake or a fault which can't be helped and which therefore is not so serious. Sin to many people is just a flaw which somehow or other will be forgotten when God begins to settle His accounts. There are man and women who shrug off the idea of sin as being — "just one of those things."

But God thinks otherwise. No matter how lightly men may speak of sin, no matter how cleverly they may seek to explain it or excuse it, God has placed His curse upon it. "The soul that sins, it shall die." The "wages of sin is death." "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them."

Sin, according to God, is a frightful thing, which if it remains unforgiven, will result in the eternal separation of a man from his Maker....

I, too, have felt the dreadful weight of sin. Again and again I have had to say with the Apostle Paul: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing." With David I have had to confess: "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." As I look back to my childhood days, I see the undeniable truth of God's verdict: "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." I must agree with Him when He says that by nature I was among "the children of wrath, even as others."

But why speak about my sin — when I began to speak about my Savior! Because no man can tell what Jesus means to him until he has first told what sin has meant to him. To tell the full story of a rescue at sea, one must first tell the story of the shipwreck which made that rescue necessary....  If Christ is to be our Savior, we must know from what we must be saved.

Right here is where Jesus stepped into my life and filled it with a joy and a peace which surpass all understanding. For in Him I have God's assurance of full and free forgiveness of the entire burden of my sin. Without Christ there would have been, there could have been, no forgiveness. Without Christ the course of my life would have led straight to a judgment which would have been too terrible to contemplate. For "none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceases forever." "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." No other name than the blessed name of Jesus!

Source: "What Jesus Means to Me," by H.W. Gockel, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1948, pp. 9-10, 12-13.  N.b. Language of Scripture citations lightly updated for language.