The Mystery of God

When we think of the word “mystery” we may think of a type of story,book or movie. Typically, we refer to a mystery as something that is unknown or difficult to understand, even beyond understanding. However, when the word “mystery” appears in the New Testament, particularly in Paul’s letters something very different is meant.

In the New Testament, Paul tied the concept of mystery to revelation and to the Gospel Paul preached (Romans 16:25-26). Paul explained that previously this mystery had not been revealed and was hidden, but in the Gospel it had been revealed. Paul used the term, mystery, to indicate something that had been previously unknown, even unimaginable, that now has become known.

What was the mystery that had been revealed? Paul explained that it was the salvation message in the Gospel. To the Greeks and the Jews, Jesus who had been crucified as a criminal could in no way be understood as Savior. The Savior/Messiah could not ever have been humiliated in such a manner. The Jews, even Jesus’ disciples, were expecting him to come as a conquering king and overcome their enemies, the Romans. To the Romans it was absurd to think that a criminal that they had crucified could ever be a savior. After all, if he could not save himself from the power of Rome, how could he save or help anyone else? However, this is the mystery that Paul declared had been revealed. God had orchestrated the salvation of mankind through the death and humiliation of his son. A concept that was utter foolishness to the “might makes right” of the ancient world. It is why the Gospel was foolishness to the Greeks and blasphemy to the Jews. Nevertheless, Paul wrote that through Jesus God has brought forth a new man from believing Gentiles and Jews. This mystery, that had never been revealed before was now being proclaimed through Paul and the other apostles’ message. The proof that what Paul and the other apostles said was true was the resurrection and the empty tomb, which neither the Jews nor the Romans could explain.

So when Paul referred to a mystery in his writings, he was not referring to something that was currently unknown, but something that had been made known. Previously it had been unknown, but through the Gospel it was now known and revealed.

From time to time, it’s helpful to reflect on the unusual ways God works in the world. Two thousand years ago no one could have imagined that God would bring victory and salvation through the humiliating death of Jesus. It was so unusual, that even the disciples had trouble accepting that Jesus was truly alive after his resurrection. Matthew commented in the final words of his Gospel, that prior to Jesus giving the Great Commission the eleven disciples gathered and worshiped Jesus, but some still doubted (Matthew 28:17). This was forty days after Jesus’ resurrection and after numerous physical appearances of Jesus. The ways of God are so utterly unbelievable that we cannot even imagine them before God acts, but after the fact we ask ourselves why we didn’t see it before. To many now Jesus’ death on the cross does not seem to be that big of a problem to overcome, but for the early Christians it was of utmost importance to explain. It doesn’t seem so mysterious because we have gotten used to what God did. However, keeping in mind what God has done in the past, we should not be surprised when we discover the unusual solutions God has for overcoming the obstacles in our life.

Jesus’ Ascension

Jesus’ ascension as recorded in the Gospels and Acts 1, is often an overlooked event of Jesus’ life. His death and resurrection are celebrated on Good Friday and Easter. The coming of the Holy Spirit is remembered at Pentecost, but what happened ten days before Pentecost is often overlooked and therefore its significance is neglected as well. What is the significance of Jesus’ ascension?

The simple answer is that Jesus’ ascension explains where Jesus is now and why he is not physically present upon earth. While that is true there is more to it, which Peter alluded to in his sermon ten days after Jesus’ ascension after the Holy Spirit’s arrival at Pentecost. Peter connected Jesus’ current exalted state at the right hand of God to David’s prophecy found in Psalm 110. “The LORD said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Peter saw Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of God the Father as a fulfillment of what David had prophesied one thousand years earlier. From this Peter declared that God had made the crucified Jesus both Lord and Christ (Messiah). While Jesus had been the Messiah while on earth, his role was that of the suffering servant in fulfillment of Isaiah 53. Now Peter declares that Jesus is currently fulfilling the role of Messiah as the fulfillment of the promised Davidic King, the descendant of David who would reign in eternity. Peter declared at Pentecost that the Messianic Age had come, not in its fullest sense, but it had come with the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy of the Lord pouring out his Spirit upon all His people.

When we celebrate Easter, Pentecost, as well as communion, we often look back and remember what Jesus accomplished for us, as well we should. However the ascension of Jesus also reminds us of the present Jesus, who is a reigning King, Lord and Christ. It reminds us of what God is now accomplishing on earth, the second part of David’s prophecy in Psalm 110:1, “until I make your enemies your footstool.” Jesus is reigning now, the Kingdom of God is present on earth, but the fullness of Jesus’ reign has not yet been accomplished. The fact that God is making Jesus’ enemies a footstool during this present time reveals the reality that Jesus’ followers now experience as well as why there are tribulations on earth as Jesus said (John 16:33).

The Message of the Gospel

The disciples’ proclamation, Jesus is alive, shocked their listeners in Jerusalem. They backed that statement up with the fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty even though guards sent by the Jewish authorities secured it. Obviously, the empty tomb caused innumerable difficulties for those authorities, so much so that they spread the story that the disciples had stolen the body. Of course, they had to get the guards to say that they had fallen asleep. The guards’ story begs the question of how they knew it was the disciples who stole the body if they had been asleep. A question the authorities didn’t even try to answer. The disciples also backed up their claim of Jesus being alive with powerful works, similar to what Jesus had done. They healed a man of forty years, lame from birth, claiming the power of Jesus’ name. Again the Jewish authorities had no answer for what the disciples’ proclaimed; they could only resort to failed attempts of intimidation.

However, while the message of Jesus is alive was powerful, the disciples meant more by their declaration that Jesus had been raised to life. On that Sunday morning when an angel descended to remove the stone from the tomb, causing the guards to faint in fear, the tomb was already empty. He removed the stone and met the arriving women to invite them into the tomb to see that it was empty. Jesus, however, didn’t need the stone removed to emerge from the tomb, because when he took on new life, he didn’t take on the same type of life he had before. Jesus’ resurrection was unique in comparison to other resurrections that had taken place before. The official’s daughter, the widow’s son, Lazarus all aged and died at some later date. Their bodies’ were subject to the same physical laws as before, but not Jesus. While Jesus could consume food and had a physical body so that the disciples could touch and see his crucified hands and feet, as well as his pierced side, he could also appear and disappear at will. He did not need a door to enter a locked room. Such ability frightened the disciples at first, until Jesus demonstrated that he wasn’t a ghost. In other words, Jesus experienced a physical, bodily resurrection, not merely a spiritual one, but his body was not the same. He had experienced a metamorphosis. Like a caterpillar spins a chrysalis and emerges as a butterfly, Jesus was laid in the chrysalis of the tomb and emerge several day later transformed into a new physical life.

While we may not grasp the prophetic significance of this, the disciples did. They began declaring not only that Jesus was alive, but also the resurrection from the dead. The Jews understood their meaning, because their rabbis had taught them about the eventual resurrection from the dead. Martha outside her brother’s tomb had referred to it, as the resurrection on the last day, to which Jesus declared that he was the resurrection and the life (John 11:24-25). Of course, not all the Jews believed as Martha did, some known as the Sadducees denied this belief. They came to Jesus and asked about a woman who had been married to seven brothers, all of whom died. They asked to whom she would be married at the resurrection. Jesus pointed out their error. He declared to them that at the resurrection, their would be a new type of life, similar to the angels, in which there would be no marriage. He confirmed this by reminding that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Therefore He is the God of the living not the dead (Matthew 22:29-33). After Peter and John healed the lame man, we read that the Sadducees were greatly annoyed, because the disciples were declaring in Jesus the resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:1-3). They were so annoyed that they arrested Peter and John. Why were the Sadducees so annoyed? There is nothing more annoying to an educated person than to be proven incorrect by an uneducated one. In fact later, we read that the disciples Peter and John were uneducated, literally illiterate (Acts 4:13). The disciples were proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection, but also the initial fulfillment of the prophesied resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection was another demonstration of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Later Paul would explain to the Corinthians that Jesus was the first fruits of the prophesied resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20).

What is the significance of this message? With his resurrection Jesus introduced the type of physical life that all believers will experience one day. It also revealed that the Kingdom power of God has invaded the present evil age and revealed another aspect of the Kingdom of God present on earth. That type of life can be experienced in part by Jesus’ followers now, which Jesus referred to several times. To Nicodemus, he called it being born again (John 3:3). Later to his disciples Jesus referred to the abundant life (John 10:10). This type of life is characterized by what Paul referred to as the fruit of the Spirit, in contrast to the fruit of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-22). This life Paul explained was live with the Holy Spirit and is referred to as eternal life. While there will be in the future a resurrection from the dead, the follower of Jesus can now live in communion with the Holy Spirit and begin to experience the life to which Jesus referred.

Jesus, Son of God

The number of books written about Jesus presenting him as a legend, an unknown historical figure or the divine Son of God, reveals that he is one of, if not the most fascinating individual in human history. However, you don’t need to go beyond the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to come to the same conclusion. The more you consider Jesus in light of the Greco-Roman-Judaeo culture in which Jesus lived in the first century, he becomes even more interesting. As we saw in one of my recent posts, Jesus used for himself the phrase “Son of Man” a relatively common expression God used when speaking about or to men. Prophetically it was also used in Daniel to refer to an apocalyptic figure whom Daniel saw in one of his visions. As we saw in that post, Jesus was primarily the only one who used that term for himself. After his death and resurrection, the church began referring to Jesus as “Son of God”.

The phrase “son of God” was used in a variety of ways in Scripture. Adam was a son of God, as Seth was a son of Adam. As a result of creation, men are referred to as sons of God. In Psalm 2 an individual is identified as God’s Son who will establish his kingdom upon the earth. The phrase is also used of Christians, who are sons by means of adoption. In the Gospels, the phrase is also used of Jesus. At Jesus’ baptism the voice from heaven identified him as God’s Son. At his temptation, Satan tempted Jesus to prove that he was God’s Son. In Matthew 11:25-27, Jesus spoke of how the Son knows and reveals the Father, calling his followers to himself so that they can find rest. While the term Son of God in the Gospels does not necessarily imply deity, John identifies Jesus as God’s Son as the pre-existent logos (1 John 1:1-4; John 1:1-14). In the first century culture, the term Son of God was also used of Roman Emperors and Egyptian Pharaohs. In that sense the term referred to those who were uniquely blessed to rule and in that way represented God. When the Roman Centurion saw how Jesus died, he recognized Jesus as the Son of God (Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39). However, this usage may not refer to deity, as much as Jesus’ innocence as mentioned in Luke’s gospel (Luke 23:47).

Contrary to Jesus himself, the early church dropped the use of Son of Man and referred to Jesus as the Son of God, implying as John did Jesus’ deity. One of the questions the writers of the New Testament and the early church had to address was how could a divine Son of God be put to death in such a humiliating way. Their response was that Jesus gave his life as a ransom (Mark 10:45). In the first century a ransom was paid to free servants, meaning that a ransom was paid to free those who had lost control of their lives. The church father Origin developed the idea that Jesus’ death was a ransom paid to the devil, an idea that became quite prevalent in the church during the first millennium. However, the New Testament does not reveal anything further about to whom the ransom was paid, just that Jesus’ life was a ransom. Others within the early church questioned the deity of Jesus and that the phrase Son of God implied deity. This question was debated in the early church for the first 300 years. Arius surmised that Jesus was not truly God, but a being like God and generated by God. His views were condemned at the Council of Nicea, which defined Jesus as having the same essence or substance of God the Father.

The phrase used in the New Testament, Son of God, refers to not only deity but also connects with the covenant promises of God to his people. The concept of Son of God, implies that God is Father and links to the Kingdom springing from the old covenant relationship with Israel, when God called Israel as his first-born. When Israel became faithless, the father-son relationship continued with the faithful remnant of Israel, who turn to Jesus. While some liberal theologians teach of the universal fatherhood of God, Jesus only referred to God as His Father and the Father of His followers. You enter into a father-son relationship with God through a relationship with Jesus the messianic Son.

No matter what title you may attach to Jesus: Messiah, Son of Man, Son of David, Son of God, the one thing that Jesus made clear was that in order to enter into a father-child relationship with God you must enter through Jesus himself.

God Is Good

Many people misunderstand God. How we understand God, impacts how we both view Him and how we deal with life. Jesus revealed a forgotten aspect of who God is. In the Old Testament, the Jews understood God to be Lord who maintained a holy distance from them. They could not approach him. Even in the temple the Holy of Holies was off limits to them except for one person once a year, on the Day of Atonement. This holy distance tended to create a fear reaction in the people toward the Lord God. However, when Jesus arrived, he began to reveal a different aspect of God. Jesus spoke of God as Father, his Father and the disciples’ Father. Curiously Jesus never referred to God as “our Father”, indicating that his relationship with God the Father was different than the disciples’ relationship with Him. When he taught the disciples’ to pray “Our Father”, he did not include himself in “our”, but referred to the disciples praying to God as “Our Father”. (For more on God as Father, see my book, “Outrageous Prayer”, chapter 2. See the link below.)

Jesus went on to describe the kindness of God toward his followers. He would take care of them and give them what they needed. He would not give them a stone, if they asked for a loaf of bread or a snake if they asked for a fish. In this way, Jesus’ disciples were to respond to God the Father as children, God’s children. He was a Father who rejoiced when he reconnected with those children who had wandered away as portrayed in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, when the father ran to the son and embraced him when he returned. He accepted the son back into the family and celebrated his return, even though the son requested to be made a servant. This parable reveals the affection that God has for those who follow Jesus.

Although God was revealed in the Old Testament as Father; he told David that David’s son, Solomon, would be like a son to God himself. This prophecy was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. However, the predominant understanding of God was that he was Lord and Judge, creating a respectful fear in the Jewish people, that at times bordered on holy terror. So much so that they would not even pronounce God’s name, because it was too holy for them to say out loud. With this perspective of God it was difficult for them to perceive God as good, because their fear kept getting in the way. Even today, many people perceive God as being angry and focus on God’s wrath. This perspective came out in Jonathan Edward’s famous sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”. People came to God out of fear of the fiery pits of hell. However, this perspective loses much of what Jesus revealed about God as a merciful, kind and loving Father.

If you believe that God is angry with you then your view of life will be controlled by fear of that anger and a negative outlook on life. You expect God to punish you for any and every mistake you have made, your sins. You tend to view life from a pessimistic perspective. Life can become very much like children growing up in an abusive home. However, if we take Jesus’ at his word, yes God is displeased with sin, but he is overwhelmingly good. While he will correct his children, he does so for their good. God, as Father, desires to have relationship with his children, in the same way parents today delight in their own children and grandchildren. This was the mission of Jesus, to bring God’s children back into relationship with God the Father. It is why the curtain in the temple was torn in two when Jesus died so that the way back to God’s own presence was open again.

However, once you are convinced that God is good pessimism becomes optimism. While you may face difficulties, you deal with them from a position of hope, not fear of the future. Jesus told us we would face difficulties in his world, but we are to take courage, because Jesus has overcome the world. Why did Jesus overcome the world, because God is good.

Citizenship

While we were living in Italy two of our sons were born there. Growing up some would tell one or the other that they could not be president because they were not born in the United States. That statement reflected a misunderstanding of our Constitution, because our Constitution requires the President to be a naturally born citizen, as opposed to a naturalized citizen. My grandmother was a naturalized citizen, because she was born in Canada to Canadian parents and moved here when she was 13, then she went through the naturalization process to become a US citizen. Constitutionally my grandmother could never have been elected to the presidency, because she was not a naturally born citizen. However, our two sons were born in Italy to American citizens. They have an Italian birth certificate and a document from the State Department declaring them to be naturally born US citizens, born Overseas. Likewise, they are not Italian citizens, because Italy requires Italian parentage for citizenship, while Donelle and I are American citizens.

When I think of what Paul wrote to the Philippians that we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20), I am reminded of our two sons when we lived in Italy. Neither of them had ever physically set foot in the United States, but yet they were citizens with all the rights and privileges of a US citizen. Likewise, those of us who love and follow Jesus are citizens of heaven even though we have never physically been there. However, according to Paul, we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6), speaking of our identity and connection with Jesus and therefore our spiritual presence in Jesus in the heavenly places. We are citizens of heaven not because we were born there, but because we were born again in Christ Jesus, so that our family identity was transferred from Adam to Jesus according to Paul in Romans 5:12-15. Likewise, our sons, are citizens of the US not because they were born in this country, but because they are our sons. We are citizens of heaven because we belong to Jesus, therefore his citizenship is transferred to us who love and follow him.

That is why our connection to heaven is dependent upon Jesus, not on our behavior. You don’t become a naturally born US citizen by behavior, but by a connection to your parents. Likewise, you don’t obtain heaven by your behavior, but by your connection to Jesus. Having said that, loving and following Jesus will result in transformed behavior, just like our love for our parents will influence our behavior as well. This being the case, for those of us who love Jesus, we are actually foreigners living on earth, because our citizenship is elsewhere, just like when we lived in Italy, where we were categorized as foreigners (stranieri). I find it significant for me to remember that truth as I go about my daily affairs and activities living as a Kingdom citizen while dwelling in the United States.

Jesus, Son of Man

Jesus’ title for himself was not Son of God, nor was it Messiah, but he used a rather common phrase from the Old Testament, “Son of Man” found 193 times in the Old Testament. Virtually all of the usages translate literally the phrase from Hebrew “Son of Adam”. Psalm 144:3 is different and translates the Hebrew for “Son of mortal man”. Over 80 times the phrase “Son of man” is used; God’s title for the prophet Ezekiel. In Daniel 7:13 occurs another outlier, where “Son of man” translates the Hebrew “son of a human”. In Daniel’s vision he saw one like a son of man to refer to a human, heavenly being who went to the ancient of days and would come and rule upon the earth. The Old Testament understanding of “son of man”, was that it referred to a man, a human person. Only Daniel 7:13 added an apocalyptic understanding of the term. At the time of Jesus it was not a term in common usage. It is also interesting that the early church did not continue to use the title Son of Man for Jesus as Jesus did but preferred to refer to him as the Son of God. Jesus was the only one to use that title to refer to himself and he used it frequently with several different connotations.

So the question arises why did Jesus use this phrase to refer to himself, when he could have used other titles such as Son of David, Son of God or Messiah? Concerning those alternate titles, Jesus didn’t refer to himself as Messiah or the similar title Son of David, because those terms were so closely tied in the people’s minds with a Davidic warrior king. Although those titles were accurate for Jesus, their connotations would mislead the people into thinking Jesus had come to be a political king like David or a Roman Caesar. During the triumphal entry, the people referred to Jesus as the Son of David, thinking he had come to overthrow the Romans, like the Maccabees had defeated the Greek rulers several hundred years before. The Jewish leaders succeeded in portraying Jesus in this political light before Pilate leading to his execution. Jesus also avoided using the title Son of God, which the early church picked up, probably because it emphasized his divinity. It would also have confused him with the Roman Emperors and other ancient rulers who portrayed themselves as a Son of God. Jesus used the Old Testament term Son of Man as a human man, and Daniel as a human heavenly being and infused new meaning to them. He was a human man who brought the heavenly authority to earth to forgive sins. When he healed the paralytic, he told him that his sins were forgiven. When the religious leaders objected to Jesus declaring sins forgiven, he told them that they would know the Son of Man had authority to forgiven sins, then he commanded the paralytic to take up his mat and walk. The man’s doing so underscored Jesus’ authority, as Son of Man to forgive sins, something that only God could do. Although he had heavenly origins, on earth the Son of Man had no place to lay his head. The Son of Man had come to give his life as a ransom for mankind’s sins, but one day he would come as a heavenly judge. To his disciples he revealed that, yes, he the Son of Man was the Messiah, but a Messiah not as they and their contemporaries expected. By use of the Son of Man, Jesus redefined the disciples understanding of the Messiah.

Jesus’ choice of that title demonstrated his comprehension of his contemporaries as he sought to clarify his human and heavenly role, so that they would not confuse him with their own misunderstanding of the Messiah. The gospels reveal that even the disciples had difficulty understanding Jesus’ duel role as suffering servant and victorious conqueror of sin. Even today, we continue to ponder and debate this person, Jesus, who walked upon the earth, taught men and women such as ourselves, suffered and died so that we might receive forgiveness for our foibles and failures before God and live in fellowship with God and fellow man, rather than in fear and animosity. Even today, Jesus is often misunderstood when cultural definitions of him color and distort how Scripture presents him.

250 Years

Today is the 4th of July, celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 250 years ago. This weekend, many churches are celebrating, decking their facilities with flags, as well as red, white and blue bunting. While there is nothing wrong with celebrating the founding of our nation and praying that God would continue to bless America, as we pray for our national, state and local leaders, I have found myself having mixed feelings for this holiday. After living overseas for 13 years and growing to love another language, culture and people, I’m reminded that the Kingdom of God is global, more than national. Our first allegiance is to the Kingdom of God even more than to the American flag. Jesus instructed us to seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness even more than national prosperity and blessing. Jesus’ great commission to his followers instructs us to disciple all nations, not just our own.

Before we left for Italy, we were instructed not to export our American culture. Required reading included a book, entitled “The Ugly American” a 1958 bestselling political novel written by Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer . The phrase “Ugly American” has come to refer to the arrogant and loud behavior of some Americans living and traveling abroad. The warning of that book was for Americans living overseas not to have an attitude toward the local culture and avoid having an air of superiority toward local people. I found the book eye-opening begin to see our own culture through the eyes of others as well as challenged to learn to respect the culture, language, history and people of Italy.

As we celebrate 250 years, let’s remember that there are more followers of Jesus living outside of the United States than in it, more who speak other languages than English. They too, are our brothers and sisters and fellow citizens of heaven.

Jesus Is King

Recent “No Kings” protests in the United States illustrate the anti-monarchical sentiment that historically exists in this country. This sentiment goes back to the rebellion against the authority of King George III of Great Britain, which established what is now known as the United States. However, for those of us who call ourselves Christians, meaning followers of Jesus as Lord and Savior, we recognize that we do have a King. He is known as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. As Christians, we are citizens of his Kingdom. Scripture reminds us that we are citizens of heaven from where we await our Savior (Philippians 3:20).

One of the titles attributed to Jesus during his lifetime was “Son of David”, as such Jesus fulfilled the promises God made to Israel’s king, David, that God would raise up for him a descendant who would reign over an eternal kingdom (2 Samuel 7:13-14). While David’s son Solomon partially fulfilled this promise; Solomon built the temple and was disciplined when he disobeyed, Jesus ultimately fulfilled God’s promise by being the perfectly obedient son, who has built an eternal temple and dwelling place for God’s Spirit in those of us who follow Jesus.

As citizens of heaven and the dwelling place for the Spirit of God there is the expectation that Christians walk according to the truth. Scripture again instructs us to walk in the light as He is in the light, which is the foundation for our fellowship with Jesus and one another (1 John 1:5-7). Walking in the light reveals why Jesus instructed his followers to teach others what he had commanded (Matthew 28:20). Some assume that walking in the truth is the foundation of their acceptance by Jesus, but Scripture teaches that it is the result of what Jesus has already accomplished in us, because it was through God’s grace that forgiveness is offered to all of us, even though we don’t deserve it (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Wherever we live in the world, we live under rulers, who, no matter what their title, may at times act like royalty. At times they may even abuse their legal powers, whether they are kings, presidents, prime ministers, governors or mayors. Nevertheless, our responsibility as citizens of heaven is to show them honor, whether they deserve it or not, just as God forgave us through Jesus, when we did not deserve it. We must combat the tendency to show honor to those leaders with whom we agree, while withholding honor from those with whom we disagree. When we follow the Scriptural mandate to show honor to all governmental leaders, we reveal ourselves to be citizens of heaven who walk in the light.

How Do We Know What Is True?

This is an important question, that we often don’t think to ask ourselves. Why? Because we assume that what we believe is already true. If we discovered that it was not true, we would change our belief or opinion, because no one intentionally believes a lie. There is something innate within us that rejects lies and seeks that which is true. What we believe is often built upon what we have heard and learned from trusted sources: parents, relatives, teachers, authors etc. Upon that information, believing it to be true, we make decisions and live our lives.

When it comes to what a person believes about Jesus, there are many different opinions based on the information an individual considers credible. Historic Christianity is built upon the belief that what the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John include is an accurate testimony of Jesus’ life. This was the belief of most people until the Enlightenment of the 1700’s applied rationalism to what Christians believed about Jesus. Since it was not rational to believe in the miracles that are described in the Gospels, especially the resurrection of Jesus, the miracles were believed to be added to the original story of Jesus. This explains why Thomas Jefferson edited his Bible removing all aspects of the miraculous. In the 1800’s this led to a study of the search for the historical Jesus, popularized by Albert Schweitzer’s landmark book “The Quest For the Historical Jesus”. This position advocated that while Jesus did live, what is found in the Gospels is mixed with myth, and is not actual history. Some scholars used the discipline of textual criticism, specifically the preference for a shorter reading of an ancient text, to conclude that Mark was the original of the four Gospels, because it was the shortest. Matthew and Luke used Mark’s Gospel as a source and expanded upon it. This of course assumed that the four Gospels were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, because Matthew and John being an eye-witnesses of Jesus’ life, would not have needed a source such as Mark for their Gospels. Along with what became known as the “Priority of Mark”, was the theory that an original document, now lost, known as “Q”, was the source of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Along with this view, was the belief that the four Gospels were written much later than the 1st century. However, in the 1900’s archaeological discoveries proved that the Gospels were written in the decades following Jesus’ death, which required a rethinking of the views proclaimed by those advocating that the Gospels contained myth.

Since the Gospels were written within decades of Jesus’ life they would not have been credible to the readers if they contained mythical information about Jesus’ life, because there would still be people alive who had known those events and could easily dispute them. For example the early church father, Irenaeus, writing in the 2nd century, recorded that he learned Christianity from Polycarp, who personally had known the apostle John. Such a reaction against “mythical” information in the Gospels would have prohibited the growth of Christianity in the late first century and early second century. Meaning if the Gospels contained myth, we likely would not even know who Jesus is today. To illustrate, this would be like if today biographers of Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Such a mythological portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr’s life would not be credible today and be ridiculed out of existence, because many of us were alive during his lifetime and remember him. The same would have happened in the first century, the fact that Christianity was not ridiculed out of existence, even though the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities attempted to eradicate it, points to the historical accuracy of all that was written in the Gospels.

So whatever one believes about Jesus, it is no longer reasonable to believe that the Gospels found in the New Testament included myth. Which leaves everyone of us to deal with Jesus’ claims to be Lord and King, along with his invitation to follow Him as such.