God has revealed himself in creation, Scripture, and ultimately in the person of Jesus Christ. In previous posts about creation and the Bible, I argued the only plausible explanation for each is God. Jesus is the ultimate manifestation of God’s revelation of himself to his creatures. Regarding creation, Paul says that “God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” In Christ we see God’s more visible qualities. Creation only gives us limited knowledge of God. Read some history of philosophy to see how many speculative rat holes philosophers have gone down trying to figure that out. But we don’t have to speculate or guess what God is really like; we only need look to Jesus. There is a practical and the theological way to explain why God can be the only explanation for Jesus Chirst.
The Practical
Practically, the Jesus of the Bible would have been impossible to make up, a mere product of human imagination. Yet skeptics for centuries have declared that is exactly what he was, a made-up Savior. We have only two choices: either believe the skeptics or Scripture. Either accept him fully, or not at all. There is no third option, but every world religion and philosophy seems to want a piece of Jesus, so they pick and choose the bits they want, and ignore the rest. Why am I supposed to trust, and stake my life on, their arbitrary picking? Good question.
Our only real option is the Jesus we learn about in the Bible. He is either who it claimed to be, or he was an impostor and liar. If he wasn’t who he said he was, then those who followed and believed in him were deluded dreamers. The New Testament writers are very clear: Jesus was God and man, divine and human. A great moral teacher, a prophet or sage, doesn’t make such claims about himself, or allow his followers to do so. The old trilemma holds: He was either Lord, lunatic, or liar.
What’s most striking about the gospel narratives in light of first century Jewish expectations was that nobody, friend, family, or foe, expected a Messiah like Jesus of Nazareth. Nobody. He constantly confounds everyone! If what he does and says goes against every expectation of first century Jews, how could they make him up? Another good question. The contrast between what Jesus said and did and those expectations was just too great for him to be a figment of Jewish imagination.
Most offensive of all was Jesus dying the most shameful, horrible death imaginable as a criminal on a Roman cross. Ancient Jews don’t make that story up about their Messiah. For Jews, anyone hung on a tree was under God’s curse, and it would make zero sense for God to curse Israel’s Messiah. Only God could “make that up.” We learn why in Isaiah (52:13-53), written 700 years before Christ.
The Theological
Which leads to the theological reason. Every religion, except Christianity, is exactly alike. They come in different forms and names, but all have the same basic MO: human beings have to earn their salvation, however that might be defined. Human seeking is fundamental all religions, except Christianity. In the latter, God seeks man (male and female he created them), God saves man, God provides for man what God requires of him, and what is impossible for man to achieve himself. The gospel is as simple as it is radical.
In Christ God revealed two things that appear contradictory: his perfect love and justice. The God of Scripture is holy, and we learn there that sin must be judged. God told Adam in the garden that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that he would surely die. The Apostle Paul said that the wages of sin is death. This death is not only physical, but eternal spiritual separation from the source of life himself, God. He also says in our natural state we are God’s enemies. In our lost state we are completely unable to seek or please him. Since man could not save himself, God because of his great love for us became man in Christ to satisfy his justice; the penalty must be paid. So now because of Christ he is able to be just and the justifier of sinners who trust in Jesus.
Christianity has been around for 2,000 years, so this doesn’t shock us, but it should. God, the Creator of all things, becomes one of his creation to accomplish what they never could so he can live with them forever. When you know how sinful and broken and rotten you are, and yet he died for you anyway, you’ll realize God is real, and the only explanation for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
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