“Paul’s Certainties” by J. D. Jones

Notes taken from Chapter 1 of Paul’s Certainties by J. D. Jones. The book takes its name from this sermon. I think I could summarize the message this way: “There many things we don’t know and some things we do know. The things we do know are so certain that they give us strength to bear those things we do know.»

“The ’I knows’ of Paul make up a glorious list, a list which it would profit us all with the help of a concordance to study.”

“There are experiences in life which we cannot understand; sorrows and trials that we cannot explain. Our Lord forewarned us it would be so. As He said to Peter long ago about the feet-washing, so He says to us today about many a hard and bitter experience, ’What I do thou knowest not now.’”

“If you ask me how sin came in at the first, if you ask me why sin is allowed to remain in a world which God rules, I shall have to confess, I cannot tell. But one thing I know, taking the facts as they are, with this terrible and all- pervasive plague of sin in our midst, I know that Jesus Christ is able to save men from it.”

“Once you have realized the meaning and the power of the Cross—there may still remain a hundred things which are dark and doubtful to you; you may be still unable to understand the precise object of any particular trial, but this one thing you will know, with a certainty that admits of no questioning or suggestion of doubt, you will know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”

“The Christian does not guess at a hereafter; he is certain of one. He does not speculate; he knows.”

“We do not know everything, and we never shall, till we know as we are known. But we knew enough to enable us to face with brave and quiet hearts all the manifold experiences of life.”