Truth is that which corresponds to its referent, as discussed in the previous post. A system is true if it both coheres with reality and coheres within itself. In this essay, I want briefly to apply the truth test to the life of Jesus Christ. I want to answer the following question: does it matter whether the Jesus Christ of the Bible was an actual historical figure? Is that a deal-breaking question, or can Christianity continue regardless of whether Jesus is real or symbolic?
The reason I pose this question is because I have spoken to people over the years about the historicity of Jesus, and some people, even Christians, do not find the topic nearly as interesting as I do. Imagine that. Learning that there is substantial evidence that Jesus lived and died exactly as the Gospel writers say that He did had a tremendous effect on my life. When I was young, I vacillated between Christianity and agnosticism precisely because I did not think the stories of the Bible were compatible with the historical account. I actually wanted to believe the Bible and to believe in God because I had been conditioned to do so by my culture in the Bible Belt, USA, but I could not believe something in my heart that I understood in my brain to be false. As a result of my (embarrassingly limited and insubstantial) studies at the time, I thought that the Bible was a book of mostly fictional stories that taught some valuable and some not-so-valuable lessons about life.
When I learned that the Bible is actually a better account of the history it records than my high school and undergraduate textbooks, I began to give its teachings the respect they deserved. My thoughts on the Bible changed from, “It has some interesting philosophical and moral ideas that I can incorporate into my life if I feel like it,” to “It is true, and I need to do what it says.” Since then, as I read and reread the Bible every day, I have fallen in love with it. In my life, the Bible has become the litmus test by which I judge all other theories and ideas. I give it the same credit I would give to an acclaimed historian’s book and actually more so because the historian’s book, however well researched and documented, could be wrong; the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. I did not give the Bible its credit on face value (as some people do whose faith is stronger than mine). I needed convincing. I learned that the evidence is quite convincing.
I needed to know that the Bible was true before I could believe its message. That comes from my personality I guess because upon discussing what I learned about the Bible with others, I have found, to my surprise, that not all people have that nature. Some people accept the teachings of the Bible whether they understand that they are anchored in fact or not. These people have that humble faith, which Jesus praised in the Gospels, and which I lacked. That is good in the sense that those people possess that kind of faith; however, I think some of them are living in a bubble that could burst if they listened to the wrong kind of teaching. Fortunately, that problem has a simple solution.
Jesus said that we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we never consider why we believe what we believe, we are violating that command. Furthermore, He commanded us to make disciples of the nations. If we do not know why we believe the Bible, how can we evangelize? If I do not know that the Bible is true, how can I answer the man’s question who asks me why he should believe it? I could explain to the man how he should believe it because it works for me, but then he might respond that I should come with him to the bar and get drunk because getting drunk works for him. If I cannot tell my friend that he should believe the Bible because it is objectively true, then I am merely a salesman trying to convince him to buy an iPhone instead of a Samsung. For now, I want to take this broad concept of the importance of the truth of the Bible and narrow it to the life of Jesus. I want to discuss six reasons why it is important to know that the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life are true.
First, Jesus’ life represents the distinction between Christianity and Judaism; in fact, it defines the words. Before Jesus, Christianity and Judaism were one and the same. Actually, there was no Christianity, and there was no Judaism. There were Hebrews who believed in the one true God and were expectantly awaiting the Messiah. When Jesus came onto the scene, those Hebrews who understood that He was the Messiah became Christians, along with Samaritans and Gentiles across the world who reached the same conclusion. Those who believed in God, but did not understand that Jesus is the Messiah, we now call believers in Judaism. Before Christ, Jew was an ethnicity; after Christ, the term attained the potential to denote a religion as well. If Jesus was not, Christianity and Judaism are not.
Secondly, the majority of the Christian Bible focuses on Jesus. The Old Testament predicted His coming and the New Testament discusses the ramifications of His coming. All these depictions described a real man who lived, died, resurrected, and will return again one day. The prophecies were incredibly specific and numerous, but consider this mathematical exercise as it pertains to forty-eight of the major, obvious prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ; the odds of one man fulfilling all forty-eight of the prophecies is one in 1 in 10^157. That means that the fulfillment of the prophecies in Jesus proves that God inspired the prophecies to a definiteness, which lacks only one chance in 10^157 of being absolute. Put another way, say one hundred billion people have lived on Earth throughout all of history. Obviously the actual number is much smaller, but bear with me. Then, the odds of any random man who lived being the man of prophecy is 100,000,000,000 to 10^157 or 1:10^146, which any gambler can tell you are pretty long odds. If Jesus did not actually exist, then no man has fulfilled the prophecy. The New Testament writers merely invented this elaborate story, which they did not recant even to death.
Third, it is important for Christians and prospective Christians to know how Jesus lived this life, if in fact He did live. Christians claim that Jesus was God’s physical manifestation on Earth, that the Jesus who lived in the early years AD was God in the flesh. That is an incredibly important doctrine of Christianity, one of the main points, which separates it from Islam and Judaism. We would expect that if God did walk the Earth in a fleshly body, He would live a certain kind of way. If I found some information that led me to believe that Jesus lived just like I live, that he succumbed to temptations and made mistakes, no one would be able to convince me that He is God. It is hard enough to believe that God was a carpenter; it is impossible that God was a sinner. Jesus’ sinless, purposeful, self-controlled, miraculous life substantiates his claim to godship, which is the substance of Christianity. For Him not to have lived would make this central idea nonsensical.
Similarly, if Jesus’ sinlessness confirms His godship, then His resurrection confirms His teachings. In Deuteronomy 18, God explained to the Hebrews about the end times Prophet who would come and also about God’s prophets in general. The ultimate Prophet Moses mentioned was Jesus, and after this discussion of Jesus, he offered a practical method for determining whether or not a man or woman who claimed to be a prophet was indeed a prophet. If what the person predicted came true, the Lord was speaking through that person, and he or she was a prophet; if not, the self-proclaimed prophet was speaking presumptuously and was a liar. The Gospel writers recorded several prophecies that Jesus made. Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred in AD 70, almost forty years after Jesus’ death. Jesus prophesied about the end of this world, which has not yet occurred as of this writing but which is surely bound to come! But the most important and most provocative of Jesus’ prophecies was about His death and subsequent resurrection. Matthew explained, “When they came together in Galilee, [Jesus] said to them, ‘the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life” (Matt. 17:22-23 NIV). All four Gospel writers recorded this prophecy multiple times in their Gospels, and its importance cannot be overstated. If this prophecy was false, then Jesus’ words can perish just as He did, but if it was true, if Jesus Christ actually rose from the grave, you have to believe everything else Jesus taught. How can you not?
Fifth, Jesus and his followers taught that Jesus’ death served as an atoning sacrifice for human sin. The Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi made one point if it made no others, and that point is as follows: man’s sin deserves God’s wrath. You hear people say from time to time, “I just want what’s coming to me,” or, “I just want to be treated fairly.” My friend, you do not want to be treated fairly by God. God is perfect, absolutely moral and righteous. In fact, God is righteousness, just as He is truth, love, knowledge, and many other things. With that said, He created us, and He is duty-bound to punish us for our sin. Otherwise, He would be condoning our sin, acting immorally, which is something God cannot do. However, because God loves us so much, He built in a loophole. He took upon himself the punishment our sins deserve though His sacrificial death on the Cross. Our sin earns for us eternal separation from God, the result of which is death. Even the very best human is guilty of sin and deserving of death, and if we merely look inwardly, we see this truth in ourselves. I want to do right, and I want to be good, but I still find myself cursing sometimes and lusting sometimes. I think ill of my neighbors more than I care to admit. I do not want to do these things. I want to be like Jesus, but I find that I just cannot always carry it out. But Jesus came.. On the Cross, Jesus took the punishment that our sins deserved. He became our scapegoat, and if we accept His sacrifice for us, God forgives our sin. Jesus’ death implies our forgiveness, the negation of which implies we are still deserving of God’s wrath. No real Jesus means no effective sacrifice, which means we still deserve God’s wrath.
Then, after Jesus died, He resurrected on the third day. Many Christians celebrate Easter as the day that Jesus rose, although historians cannot tell us with certainty on what day of the year Jesus actually rose. The Gospels do make clear the point that Jesus rose on the first day of the week, which is the reason you cannot purchase a Chick-Fil-A biscuit on Sundays. Some Christian thinkers still debate on these days of the week, but on one point regarding the resurrection, there is no debate because the Bible is crystal clear: Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning of a new trend. God raised Jesus, or you could say Jesus resurrected Himself, as a model and foreshadowing, the “first fruits” of what is in store for His followers. All who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior will be raised after their bodily death to live forever in Paradise with Jesus. If Jesus was not literally raised from the grave, then neither will His followers be. If you are one of His followers, you would be foolish not to know for certain that Jesus resurrected. Otherwise, you hope for Heaven in vain. But take heart, Jesus did rise.
Not only does the Bible explain the resurrection, but every bit of historical evidence points to the same conclusion. The Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and its teachings about Jesus are completely true. Jesus lives eternally, and so will you if you place your faith in Him. It falls outside the scope of this short essay to prove that fact, but I will submit some evidence in my next article. You can view other articles by clicking here.