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For the seeker of Christ, there was a divine balance between these two extremes. For every compelling sign pointing the way to the Christ, there were things to cause doubt: "When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?" .. but .. "when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils" . And for every promise of eternal happiness and joy at accepting the Christ, there was also the threat of pain and suffering: "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven" .. but .. "Then shall they deliver you up, to be afflicted, and shall kill you" (64:5) To believe in Christ was a question of faith, which one had to resolve for oneself. There was no simple formula that one could have followed. Each individual had their own tests of faith that they had to overcome in order to accept Him. For some, their test may have been His suffering and seeming helplessness, for others His call to self-sacrifice, and for still others, fear of persecution. You could not simply have opened up the Scriptures to see if Jesus were the Christ. The answers were there, of course, but were not understood
(64:6)
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