June 27, 2013 (Thursday)
“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” — (Simon Peter to Jesus)
The Apostle Paul wrote, “I know whom I have believed.” Several times in the New Testament his experience on the road to Damascus is related. At that time he was known as “Saul of Tarsus.” He was fond of telling the story of that experience whenever he had opportunity. It was this miraculous encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ that gave Paul the assurance of faith that Christ lives and is the one and only Savior of mankind.
Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee, given the authority by the Jewish Sanhedrin to take action against the growing belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. The religious establishment considered followers of this “Way” to be heretics and a growing threat to Judaism. Wherever Saul went, he harassed, persecuted and arrested followers of Jesus Christ as heretics. It was on one of these trips to arrest believers in Damascus that Paul was stricken by a blinding light and heard Jesus speaking to him, “Why are you persecuting me?” In an instant, Saul was converted, and in a few days was baptised as a believer in Jesus.
He knew what had happened and no one could ever convince him otherwise. A song written by Fern Jones (1923-1996) echoes Paul’s experience when it says, “I was there when it happened and I ought to know.” *
Every Christian should be able to say with Paul, “I know whom I have believed.” Assurance of faith is absolutely necessary in our present age, when so many people gladly proclaim that they have no faith in any kind of supreme being. More than ever before, you and I need to be able to say, “I KNOW!”
* Recorded by Jimmie Rodgers and later by Johnny Cash (Heard in the movie “I Walk the Line”)