Lead:
When you love someone, isn’t it nice sometimes just to know they’re alive?
Intro:
When you love someone, isn’t it nice sometimes just to know they’re alive?
I was speaking with a business acquaintance whose son was hiking through Europe – and specifically Italy and Spain – as the whole COVID-19 thing hit. Needless to say her mother-hen instincts went into high gear. She was delighted when she was able to just make contact with him. And he’s okay.
I imagine you have stories like that, too. Some of you know my transparency about being estranged from some of my family…not my choice, but I find myself in that same category of just being delighted to hear that they’re still alive and healthy.
So here’s today’s little reflection question for you…do you ever think about Jesus that way?
You might remember a famous line from the book of Job 19:25 – I know that my redeemer lives. I’ve always loved that, so I was delighted when I found a little devotional of Charles Spurgeon’s on that passage.
Here’s Spurgeon, albeit I’ve updated the language a little from the Victorian English he used when he wrote it in the late 1800s.
“I know that my Redeemer lives.” ~ Job 19:25
The marrow of Job’s comfort lies in that little word “My”—“My Redeemer,” and in the fact that the Redeemer lives. Oh! to get hold of a living Christ. We must get a property in him before we can enjoy him.
What is gold in the mine to me? People are beggars in Peru, and people beg their bread in California. It is gold in my purse which will satisfy my necessities, by purchasing the bread I need. So a Redeemer who does not redeem me, an avenger who will never stand up for my blood, of what avail were such? Don’t rest contently until by faith you can say “Yes, I cast myself upon my living Lord; and he is mine.”
It may be you hold him with a feeble hand; you half think it presumption to say, “He lives as my Redeemer;” yet, remember if you have but faith as a grain of mustard seed, that little faith entitles you to say it.
But there is also another word here, expressive of Job’s strong confidence, “I know.” To say, “I hope so, I trust so” is comfortable; and there are thousands in the fold of Jesus who hardly ever get much further. But to reach the essence of consolation you must say, “I know.” Ifs, buts, and maybes, are sure murderers of peace and comfort. Doubts are dreary things in times of sorrow. Like wasps they sting the soul!
If I have any suspicion that Christ is not mine, then there is vinegar mingled with the gall of death; but if I know that Jesus lives for me, then darkness is not dark: even the night is light about me.
Surely if Job, in those ages before the coming and advent of Christ, could say, “I know,” we should not speak less positively. God forbid that our positiveness should be presumption!
Let us see that our evidences are right, lest we build upon an ungrounded hope; and then let us not be satisfied with the mere foundation, for it is from the upper rooms that we get the widest view of things. A living Redeemer, truly mine, is joy unspeakable![1]
Given that one of the things we do here is consider the truth claims of Christianity, let me put an exclamation point behind something that Spurgeon didn’t say directly – Christianity is not just about having a better philosophy or some set of aphorisms by some wise dude. Did you catch that?
It is very common for non-believers to think it’s just another set of sayings or way of living.
But Jesus says that He is Truth. Truth isn’t just statements or proverbs that are true…it is that, but that comes from a person who himself IS Truth, capital T.
And more than that, He is alive. Sitting at the right hand of the Father. Praying for us as he said in John 17. He’s truth, savior, king, and coming again to finalize setting everything right for those who trust him and what he’s already done for us.
I KNOW that my redeemer lives. I know that MY redeemer lives. I know that my REDEEMER lives. I know that my redeemer LIVES.
And this, my friends, is the best possible news ever.
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
[1] C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).