“In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:4).
Recently, I heard someone use a phrase I often hear: “I’ve always tried to be a good Christian man.” Hearing this statement got me thinking. What do most people mean when they claim to be a “good Christian” or even a “Christian”? Just because a phrase is used all the time doesn’t mean we are all meaning the same thing. In fact, when people don’t clearly explain what they mean by a certain term, that often means there are a lot of hidden assumptions.
For so many people today, they think that being a Christian is about doing all the good, Christian things we’re supposed to be doing. They think that as long as they are listening to Christian music, going to church, occasionally posting a Bible verse on Facebook or X, then they must be a Christian.
For many, “Jesus” is more of an idea than a person. He’s a flannel graph character with a beard and long hair who likes to cuddle lambs. Others consider Jesus their “homeboy” or “co-pilot,” according to their T-Shirt or bumper sticker. It’s as if Jesus is merely this invisible guy that exists for them.
Jefferson Bethke is an author and songwriter who grew up thinking he knew what being a Christian was all about. In his book Jesus is Greater Than Religion, he talks about when he first started attending a Christian university, he tried to fit in with everyone else.
Jefferson writes, “So I decided to copy what ‘being a Christian’ was all about by watching others. I took off my earrings, stopped wearing basketball jerseys, tried my hardest to memorize Hillsong United’s greatest hits, and listened to the Christian radio station. I thought that if I did enough Christian things, it would bring peace to my life. It didn’t work.”
Jefferson eventually realized that though he called himself a Christian, he wasn’t really following Jesus, but an Americanized religious subculture. He came to see that the real Jesus of the Bible is far more powerful and radical than the Sunday School version he’d been taught.
He finally recognized his religious works were nothing but foolish attempts to try to buy God off. He understood now that God is holy, just, and righteous. Furthermore, he was everything God was not. That’s why he needed the cross. On “Skull Rock,” Jesus lovingly gave up His life so that he could have life. Jesus bore the penalty that God’s justice demanded for his sins, and on the third day, He rose in triumph from the grave.
Jefferson came to the foot of the cross and surrendered to the real and living Jesus for the first time.
In view of cultural Christianity, he adds, “In our subculture Jesus would have never been crucified—he’s too nice… The Jesus of the Bible is a radical man with a radical message, changing people’s lives in a radical way. In the Scriptures, Jesus isn’t safe.”
That reminds me of the line from C. S. Lewis’s book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When Lucy asks if Aslan the lion (who represents Jesus) is safe, Mr. Beaver tells the Pevensie children: “‘Safe?… Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’”
The real Jesus is not tame and de-clawed. He’s more like a roaring lion in all His glory. He’s not just a “good feeling” to get you through the day. He’s not your “co-pilot.” In Him is life. We exist by Jesus and for Jesus. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end—not just the guy to help you get through the middle.
Listen to this description from Colossians 1:15-17:
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
In Jesus everything holds together. Every atom in the universe is bound together and ordered by Jesus! He is the Lord over all creation! He is the reason for your existence. Your very life exists by His continuing power. Jesus is not just a religious figure from long ago. He’s not just the most influential person in history. He is the God-man! And you were created for His glory.
So what about you? Have you encountered the real Jesus? Spend some time in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and carefully consider what you find.
Do you know Him as the sovereign King that He is? Have you bowed the knee and entrusted your eternity to Him? Have you taken up your cross, and are you now following Him?
Are you a cultural Christian? Or, are you a committed Christ-follower?
Have thoughts on this post? I’d love to hear from you!
From Christianity’s inception, critics have wondered why believers put so much focus on the cross. It’s easy to see why this might seem strange. When you read a biography of one of your favorite heroes, you expect it to focus on the life of that person, not their death.
The Gospels are ancient biographies about Jesus. But what makes the Gospels so unusual is that they spend between a quarter and half of their pages focusing on the events leading up to Jesus’s death and then the crucifixion itself. That’s strange. People don’t usually write with such a focus on the deaths of their heroes.
Why in the world would Christians celebrate the death of their leader? Sing songs about His blood? And regularly partake in a meal that highlights His death more than His life?
The Gospel story is written in such a way that none of us could have imagined on our own. It completely goes against our natural way of thinking. The Bible says that the message of the cross confounds even the wisest among us (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). Why? Because none of us could have imagined a crucified God, a God who saves by coming to die.
Don Carson offers this warning:
“I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.”[1]
The Cry
While Jesus hung there on the cross 2,000 years ago, the Bible records Him crying out to God, His Father.
I remember once being asked by someone, “Did Jesus really make a sacrifice on the cross when He died? After all, He was only dead for three days and then He got raised from the dead. Now, His followers worship Him.” The statement took me aback, because I’d never heard someone raise this objection. But it’s impossible to read the Gospels’ account of Jesus’s death without concluding that He indeed made a tremendous sacrifice.
A strange thing happened when Jesus was on the cross. God actually gave meteorological evidence that He was pouring out His judgment on His beloved Son.
Matthew 27:45 says: “From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” Going all the way back to the Plagues of Egypt in the Book of Exodus, we see that darkness frequently accompanies God’s judgment of sin. It’s a sign of cursing, not blessing. A sign of wrath, not joy.
On Labor Day in 2020, many of us in Oregon remember how eerily dark the Willamette Valley was when the Oregon wildfires were raging. The fires killed at least 11 people and more than one million acres were burned. Whitney and I were driving home from a friend’s house, and in the early evening – when one would expect clear and sunny skies – the sky was a dark and hazy brown with a strange orange glow on the horizon. There was something apocalyptic about it all.
Jesus was crucified in the middle of the afternoon, the brightest time of day. Yet, the entire land as far as you could see was shrouded in thick darkness. How bizarre must that have looked to everyone present.
God is a very visual God. He uses pictures to show us what He is doing. And while Jesus hung on the cross, He was showing everyone two things: this was no ordinary Man and this was no ordinary death. He didn’t want anyone to miss this!
About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,lemasabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). (Matthew 27:46, ESV)
Jesus’s cry is pretty startling. And it is meant to be. Earlier that week, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of praise and acclamation. A handful of days later, this same Jesus is spread out on a cross, with the crowds now jeering and mocking Him. And He’s shouting to the heavens, “Why have You forsaken Me? Why have You abandoned Me?”
The Curse
We are meant to stare in wonder as Jesus cries out in despair. Throughout His life recorded in the Gospels, Jesus makes 21 prayers to God, and in every case but one He addresses God intimately as “Abba” (“Father” in Aramaic). Yet here, for the first time in His life, Jesus feels His Father withdraw His loving presence and calls Him simply “my God.”
Every Jew knew that, according to their Hebrew Scriptures, anyone hanging from a tree was cursed by God.[2]
Now, imagine what a Jew is thinking as this spectacle unfolds. The land is covered in darkness. You see a man pinned to a tree, and He is crying out, asking why God has forsaken Him. Everything would tell you that this Man hanging there is under the wrath of holy God. And the truth is that He was under the wrath of God.
Paul even says:
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” (Galatians 3:13, ESV)
Jesus became a curse for us. If you have ever wondered what the horror of hell must be like, here you have it in stark clarity. Although Jesus had never done anything wrong, He is bearing the weight of our sin and guilt. So He cries out in agony.
Psalm 22
Let me say something very paradoxical. And I’ll warn you, it may not sound right, but I absolutely believe it to be true. Jesus’s cry of agony from the cross was also a shout of victory.
Again, that may sound strange. But let me explain. This cry of dereliction actually comes from the first line of Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” It was somewhat common for an ancient Jew to quote the first line of a psalm with the whole psalm actually in mind.
If you have ever wondered if Scripture really transforms our perspective on what we are going through, here is proof that it does. Scripture even gave the Son of God perspective on what He was facing as He hung there from the cross.
And when David wrote Psalm 22 roughly 1,000 years before the Cross, he was actually writing a prophecy about what the Messiah would face at the end of His life. And it is astounding when you see the precision in which Psalm 22 describes the suffering of the Messiah.
The psalm is written as if Jesus Himself was giving His first person perspective from the cross.
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” (Psalm 22:6-8, NIV)
v. 14 says:
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.”
v. 18:
They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
v. 16:
“Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.”
This line is especially remarkable. Keep in mind this was written around 1,000 BC, which is 500 years before crucifixion was even invented by the Persians. And yet… who can deny that this sounds strangely like someone being pinned to a cross, with nails piercing both hands and feet? The Bible is God-breathed and when you have a God-breathed text, you have things that just don’t make sense apart from a God who perfectly knows the future.
And as Jesus is looking around and seeing His clothes being divided up, in one sense He’s facing enormous shame as He’s hoisted up for all the crowds to mock Him. But on the other hand, Jesus knew the Scriptures. And He knew that everything taking place perfectly fulfilled Scripture. Those very mocking words intended to tear Him down ended up being the source of His strength. Why? Because He saw that His Father’s plan was being perfectly carried out. And this same principle holds true for us.
Only the God-breathed Scriptures can give us the perspective we need when we’re facing a crisis or tremendous loss.
I was talking to someone who recently lost a family member, and he told me that nothing has given him the sense of peace and calm he needs like poring over the Bible and just letting God’s Word wash over him and settle his heart. When you have roots going deep into Scripture, death no longer terrifies you. You can face your trials with a view to eternity. And you can know that God is with you.
The Choir of Heaven
From all appearances, Jesus looked like a man totally stripped of power – stripped of everything! And yet in reality, no one there was more fully in control of that event. Jesus, as a man, drew strength from Scripture. It gave Him the perspective He needed to see His death as the grand event of redemption history.
But let’s be clear about something. Jesus really was experiencing Godforsakenness on the cross. Jesus wasn’t merely quoting Psalm 22 to draw attention to it. He really was being cut off from fellowship with the Father. So the cry of being abandoned is authentic; it’s not for show.
Hours before this, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had pleaded with the Father, “If it is possible, take this cup from Me” (Matthew 26:39).
What was the cup that Jesus referred to? Throughout the Old Testament, there are frequent mentions of the cup of God’s wrath being poured out on sin.[3]The cup was a cup of judgment. So Jesus was asking, “Is there any other way for sinners to be reconciled to You, Father?”
But the silence in the darkness was the response. There was no other way. God is holy. So sin must be punished. There’s no Exceptions Clause here. Sin must be punished. So the only way for you and me to be spared from the judgment of a holy God is if there is a Substitute who would step in and bear our sin and punishment for us. All who trust in this Substitute will never have to drink the cup of judgment.
Why do Christians love to sing about the cross? Why is it that in the Book of Revelation, the choir of Heaven is pictured singing over and over, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain” (Revelation 5:12, NIV). The song of redemption will never grow old, because the sacrifice of Jesus is our everything. The children of God will never forget that apart from the cross, they are lost and condemned. Through the cross, our every need is met, the love of God abounds, and our eternity secured. Because Jesus cried out in Godforsakenness in our place, we can cry out to God knowing we are never forsaken in Jesus.
[1] D. A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry (2004)
[2] Deuteronomy 21:23 saysthat a man hanged on a tree is cursed by God.
During the Christmas season, our schedule is often crammed with all the festivities to attend, gifts to deliver, and shopping to complete. The race against the clock and the stress of getting things “just right” can be a bit overwhelming. That is why we all could use a reminder to pause, step back, and take it all in. Consider with me what Christmas is really all about.
Selah
The Bible has a wonderful word for this: selah. Selah means stop. Consider. Absorb. Don’t hurry on to the next task to accomplish. Instead, take a deep breath and reflect on the wonder of what God has done out of His unspeakable love for you.
One reason we need to pause is that we often think we have already “figured out” Christmas. We imagine that since we have heard the Christmas story so many times before that we already have a good grasp on it. But, in truth, Christmas is about an event we could never fully wrap our minds around.
“The Word became flesh.” (John 1:14)
We are talking about the infinite becoming finite; the omnipotent One becoming small and weak; the eternal Son of God who created time entering into time itself as the Son of Mary. The Creator entered His creation. The Author wrote Himself into His play.
There is great mystery here. In the words of the Lutheran theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the incarnation is a holy mystery. It’s a mind-bending mystery to consider how divinity and humanity could be so closely intertwined in a single person. And yet, that is precisely what we have with Jesus. He is not merely the greatest man who ever lived. He is the one and only God-man.
His hands were the hands that placed the stars in the sky. His voice was the one that spoke light into existence at the very beginning. His were the eyes that have peered into the soul of every man, woman, and child. Yet, here He was on Mary’s lap, the glory of Heaven was there as a little baby, nursing from His mother’s breast.
And we are meant to pause and wonder, to allow ourselves the time to ponder the incredible truth of it all. As we do that, the Spirit of God opens His glorious truth to us.
We are like the person with impaired vision who went into surgery to have his vision corrected, and when he comes out, he can see color for the first time. “I never dreamed that the sky could be so blue!” he says. “I never imagined grass to be so green.” Although he could see things before, he’s now seeing everything in a brand new way, as it was always meant to be seen.
That’s what we must do as we consider the coming and incarnation of the Son of God. As we stare into the face of the infant in the manger, we begin to see everything and everyone else in the light of God’s glory.
“He Was in the Form of God”
Writing about the incarnation, the Apostle Paul said:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:5-7, ESV)
To say that Jesus existed “in the form of God,” is to say that the Son has always had the nature of God. We typically think of “form” as the outward design, but in first-century Greek, the word morphe (“form”) meant something more like “inner substance” and “nature.” Paul is saying that at no point in time did Jesus ever become a god or graduate to godhood. He always has been and always will be the eternal God of all. The fact that He is the Son of God doesn’t make Him any less divine, because a son always shares the nature of his father.
Paul goes on to say that this Son who has always existed as God “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (v. 6) or clutched. The idea is that the Son didn’t cling to His divine rights so as to avoid coming to our rescue. In fact, He did the opposite. Rather than seeing His divine nature as a reason to overlook us, He saw it as the thing that qualified Him to save us.
“He Emptied Himself”
Now, when some scholars early in the 20th century looked at the text that says Christ “emptied Himself” (v. 7), they assumed this meant He emptied Himself of His divine nature. As if, in order to become a man, Jesus had to shed His deity. But there’s a fundamental misunderstanding here. It doesn’t say He emptied something out of Himself, but that He “emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant” (v. 7). This self-emptying is talking about Christ’s incredible humility – that He who was exalted above all would stoop to such a low and degrading level out of love.
It’s not that being human is degrading; it’s not. We alone are the prized creation made in God’s own image (Genesis 1:26-27). But the Son of God was willing to subject Himself to being servant of all.
Christ didn’t have His Godhood taken away. This might sound like a mathematical paradox, but what we have here is subtraction by addition. Christ emptied Himself – not by losing His deity, but by adding a human nature.
Remember Christ’s words to the disciples when they were bickering about who was the greatest?
“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man [speaking of Himself] came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45, ESV)
How much egg do you think was on their face after that? They had just been arguing back and forth. Peter says, “I’m taller, so I should lead.” James says, “No, I’m smarter, so I should be in charge.” Jesus says, “Guys, stop looking to be served. Even I came here to serve you all and even die for you.” You can bet their mouths were snapped shut after that!
“And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8, ESV)
Once again, “form” here means nature. So Jesus really did become fully human in every way. He wasn’t just wearing a human disguise. And He came as an obedient servant of His Father – all the way to the point of dying a criminal’s death on a cross.
“Even Death on a Cross”
This statement would have been shocking. To say that the cross was God’s idea would have sounded absurd to people at the time. They didn’t think of the cross as something you find on top of churches or worn around a neck. A cross — or stauros in the Greek — would have been viewed as the epitome of shame and agony. The word “cross” is something that even Romans wouldn’t say in polite company, because it conjured up the image of gore and shame.
Crucifixion – which originally was invented by the Persians – and then “perfected” by the Romans was designed to maximize both the pain and shame of the victim. In fact, the very word “excruciating” literally means “out of the cross.” This horrendous experience needed a whole category of its own to describe this level of torture.
Now consider that at Calvary, that was God on the cross. According to this verse, the cross was always the goal of Christ’s coming. This was not Plan B; God had always intended it to happen in this way. The reason for the manger of Christmas is the cross of Good Friday. The Son of God came to this earth as a man ultimately to pay for our sin and die the death we deserved.
Now ask yourself, “How much love is required to willingly undergo that kind of torture for those who are spitting in your face?” Jesus lived out the very humility Paul is calling us to embody. That’s why Paul brings up Christ’s incarnation and death. Earlier, he said, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3, ESV). Who but Christ embodied this perfectly?
It was Christ who looked not merely “to His own interests, but… to the interests of others” (v. 4). At the cross, we see the ultimate act of selflessness – God Himself pouring out His love, enduring the penalty for our sins, so that we could be forgiven in full.
“God Has Highly Exalted Him”
Charles Wesley, who is known for his many hymns, including “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” also wrote the famous hymn, “And Can It be that I Should Gain.”
The first stanza goes like this:
“And can it be that I should gain An int’rest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”
When we consider Christmas, we should see a Savior God who was willing to lay aside every privilege and right in order to secure the freedom of those who deserved death. Jesus looked at you and considered your need, and because of His great love, He willingly made that vast journey from heaven to earth. And because He did that, words like “Bethlehem,” “manger,” and “wise men” mean something to us today.
Let’s join Paul in letting the truths of Christmas and Calvary turn out hearts to worship.
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11, ESV)
Have thoughts on this post? Share in the comments below!
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, KJV)
It is impossible to fathom the depths of the humble, self-giving love required for the God of the galaxies to limit Himself to the workbench of a Jewish carpenter. At the same time, knowing that Jesus, the God-man, stooped to such a level out of love for us should get our attention. Too often, because we are such fickle creatures, we are in awe of things that are destined to pass away — inspiring films, beautiful buildings, a sports victory — while at the same time hardly affected by the most sublime truth in all reality. You have an enemy who would love to steal your attention away, with countless daily concerns and distractions, from that which matters most.
Can I encourage you to do something right now in the midst of all of life’s pressures? Reflect on the passion of Christ for a moment. Perhaps the story of the Crucifixion is something you have heard countless times. But the truth of God’s love for you is no less powerful after hearing of it one million times.
Even now, as I consider Christ hanging there like a common criminal of His day, I have to ask: How much must God love me if He was willing to go through the unspeakable torment of the cross in order to bring me to Himself? I encourage you to ask the same question. Peer back through the centuries to that lonely figure on the cross. Take some time to gaze at His nail-pierced hands. Consider His humiliation before ever getting to the cross. Trained torturers whip Him and beat Him and mock Him. One particularly brutal Roman guard grabs hold of His beard — a symbol of honor for a Jew — and rips it out by the roots (Isaiah 50:6). “So, you want to be known as the King of the Jews, do you?” one soldier sneers, as he firmly presses a crown of razor sharp thorns onto His sacred head. By the time they have finished with Him, He has been reduced to a mangled mess. Even His closest friends could hardly recognize Him when He stumbles pass them under the weight of the giant beam of timber they’ve forced Him to carry.
When they reach Golgotha (“Skull Hill”), the soldiers strip Jesus of His clothing, His only earthly possession. The idea was to maximize His experience of shame before all the jeering crowds. After driving the nails through His hands, they hoist Him up on the wooden cross so everyone can laugh at how pathetic this would-be Messiah looks now. He has never felt more alone. Even His own Father, too holy to look on the sin-bearing sacrifice, has turned His back on Him.
The eerie mid-afternoon darkness is environmental evidence that the judgment of God is being poured out. In a hoarse and cracking voice, the bleeding and battered man screams at the heavens, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). I cannot think of a more excruciating, painful, and humiliating experience than what Jesus went through that Friday afternoon.
Now think on this: Jesus freely submitted to all of this for you. He looked over His Father’s plans from beginning to end, then looked up and said, “I’m in.” Even if you were the only sinner in the whole world who needed saving, Jesus would have endured every bit of just for you.
At the same time, this was no easy decision for Jesus. Picture Him in the Garden of Gethsemane the evening before the crucifixion. Jesus is laying prostrate before the starry heavens, crying out to His Father in agony. Already, the darkness of night has enveloped Him. As He contemplates what He will endure in the next twenty-four hours, beads of bloody sweat begin to dot His face. A tear rolls down His cheeks.
Jesus prays, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” The cup Jesus spoke of was the cup of God’s wrath, and it could not be taken from Him. The only way for us to be spared from God’s righteous wrath was through a sin-bearing substitute taking our place. So Jesus prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39, NIV).
Perhaps the most shocking thing of all is that we were in no way worthy of saving. We hadn’t sought God out. We had turned and run from Him. Each one of us – in no small way – have rebelled against God. We’ve heard His footsteps behind us. We’ve heard Him calling out to us. But we’ve run to hide in the bushes.
Like a loving Father earnestly seeking His missing children who have run away, knocking at every door in the neighborhood, God has passionately pursued us. But we stayed hidden in the shadows. The Bible says that even while we were running down the path of self-centered pursuits, God did the most selfless thing of all.
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8, NIV)
At the very point where all hope for us had faded and it would only be fair and just to leave us alone on our way to hell, God stepped in. He sent His own Son ahead of us to bear the punishment meant for us. As one grabbing the coattails of a blind man headed over a cliff, Jesus reached out to rescue us and give us sight. Because Jesus broke through the death barrier, we too can experience newness life.
One of my favorite hymns, “And Can It Be?” by Charles Wesley, captures this truth perfectly:
“And can it be that I should gain An int’rest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain— For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?“
Let this truth sink in anew: The God who made you loves you more than you ever dared imagine. His love is like a massive waterfall or ever-flowing fountain that never runs dry. No matter what you have done, His love for you has not diminished one bit. He’s offering you a fresh start. Full forgiveness for all past wrongs. He’s longing for you to let Him love you as a Father. He wants you to know that life can look beautiful again. Turn your life over to Christ today, perhaps for the first time. Surrender your everything to the God who loves you with all that He is.
Feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27, BSB)
The apostle Paul made the startling claim that “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Such a statement is astonishing when you consider the implications. Everything in Christianity, Paul says, everything in the faith depends on the truth that Jesus bodily rose from the dead. If Christ didn’t truly rise from the dead, then He did not conquer death — death conquered Him!
The dark and terrifying shadow still hangs over all mankind (Isaiah 25:7-8), and we have no guarantee that we will ever escape the cords of death. That is, unless Jesus’ resurrection is true. Eternal life with God. Hope beyond the grave. Forgiveness of sins. The deity and identity of Christ. It’s all based on the resurrection of Jesus being true. No resurrection, no Christianity.
The good news is that God has left us compelling evidence that the Easter event is a solid fact of history. Here are five pieces of evidence I encourage you to consider before giving a verdict on the truth of Christ’s resurrection.
Evidence #1: Jesus’ death is an undeniable fact of history
Despite the fact that some may doubt Jesus’ death (such as many Muslims) and some radical scholars will doubt that He even existed (such as Richard Carrier),[1] Jesus’ life and death really are historically undeniable. Both Christian and non-Christian sources from the ancient world confirm that Jesus died as a victim of crucifixion.[2] Roman soldiers were highly trained in executing criminals, and they were motivated to not let a self-proclaimed king survive.
In his Gospel, the apostle John tells us He is an eyewitness of Jesus’ death on the cross.[3] In describing the event, John records something fascinating:
“But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.” (John 19:33-35)
The fact that he reports seeing both blood and a watery fluid flowing out is powerful evidence that John really did watch Jesus die. Here’s why. Although John had no medical training to interpret what he saw, his eyewitness testimony is exactly what a medical doctor would have expected due to something called pericardial effusion, in which the membrane surrounding the heart fills with fluid as a result of heart failure.[4] John’s testimony stands as 2,000-year-old evidence that he really was an eyewitness of Christ’s death.
Even very liberal scholars, such as John Dominic Crossan, accept Jesus’ death as indisputable fact. He writes, “That [Jesus] was crucified is as sure as anything historical ever can be, since both Josephus and Tacitus … agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact.”[5] Skeptical historian and biblical scholar James Tabor, who has studied the rise of early Christianity in depth, has written, “I think we need have no doubt that given Jesus’ execution by Roman crucifixion he was truly dead.”[6]
Evidence #2: On the Sunday following Jesus’ crucifixion, His tomb was empty.
All four Gospels record that Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple, was the one with the courage to bury Jesus. Since Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin (Luke 23:50-51), the very council that condemned Jesus to death, it’s very unlikely that Christ’s earliest followers would make this up. We are also told that while the men were hiding from the Jewish authorities, the women followers of Jesus were the faithful ones who wanted to anoint His body in the tomb (Luke 23:55-56). Not only that, but the women are the ones who first discover the tomb is empty.
This, too, demonstrates the Gospels give an authentic record of what happened. In the first century, the testimony of women was not even admitted into court. The Jewish Talmud even says that a woman’s testimony was as valid as a criminal’s![7] To be sure, this low view of a woman’s testimony is not only politically incorrect today, it’s also not found in Scripture. Nevertheless, it was the prevailing view of the ancient world. Here’s the point: if you were making up this whole resurrection story in the first century, you wouldn’t pick women as the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb. The apostles’ willingness to share this somewhat embarrassing fact demonstrates they were committed to faithfully sharing the truth, despite the awkward position it put them in at the time.
Additionally, history tells us that the counter claim from Christianity’s opponents was always that the disciples must have stolen the body.[8] This was an indirect admission that they knew the tomb was empty. It’s also very telling that we have no contradictory burial account whatsoever from either Christian or non-Christian sources. The fact that the tomb was well-known, as Josephs’ tomb, rules out the possibility that the women or other disciples went to the wrong tomb. If we are not told whose tomb or any details about where Jesus was buried, we might have reason to wonder if they went to the right tomb on that first Easter morning, but there are no competing accounts of another tomb being the real tomb.
Evidence #3: Jesus’ disciples believed they saw Him alive from the dead.
We have every reason to believe that the resurrection appearances that are recorded in the Gospels are based on eyewitness testimony, not legendary accretion over time. The gospel creed that Paul passes on in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 can be dated to within a few years of the cross, which does not allow time for legendary development. From the earliest records of Christianity, we have people claiming that they truly saw the risen Jesus. The fact that Jesus is recorded as appearing to groups as large as 500 rules out the hallucination theory, because hallucinations are individual experiences that take place in the mind.
We also see the risen Jesus eating with His disciples, cooking them a meal, and telling them to touch the scars on His hands and His side to know He is real.[9] Jesus tells them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:38-39). This was an undeniably real and physical Jesus. It’s also very difficult for the historian to make sense of the conversion of Jesus’ brother James, the former skeptic (John 7:5), or Paul the one-time enemy of Christianity (Acts 26:10; 1 Corinthians 15:9). Biases are very powerful and both of them formerly thought of Jesus as a false messiah. Only an appearance of the risen Jesus could have turned their world upside down and convinced them that He really was their Lord and Messiah.
Evidence #4: The apostles were willing to suffer and die for their belief in the resurrection.
We can also safely rule out any conspiracy theory that claims the apostles stole Jesus’ body, because we have numerous historical records proving that these men were willing to suffer and die for the truth of the resurrection. While people of other faiths have been willing to die for their faith, the apostles were in the unique position of knowing for sure whether or not they’d seen the risen Jesus. As Michael Licona says, “Liars make poor martyrs.”[10] Origen (c. 185-c. 254), a church father, wrote that Jesus “so thoroughly persuaded” the apostles that He’d risen that they were willing to endure countless sufferings for His name, knowing that eternal life had been guaranteed them through Christ’s resurrection.[11]
In fact, we have numerous accounts of early Christians writing about Peter, Paul, and other apostles willingly going to their death and refusing to deny that they had seen the risen Jesus in the flesh. Under Nero’s rule, Paul was beheaded and Peter was crucified upside down – his final request was that he not be killed in the same manner as his Lord.[12]
I truly want to be sympathetic to the doubting skeptic. I acknowledge that many people feel they have good reason to doubt the resurrection accounts — at least initially. After all, haven’t we been lied to by numerous public figures? And haven’t we been trained to only accept claims that are rational and scientifically supported? Therefore, we have good reason to not blindly accept what we’re told simply because it’s been believed for a long time by many people.
At the same time, we should consider what it would mean if the disciples did lie and the resurrection was just a big hoax. Ask yourself, what would they gain from lying? People generally tell lies when it benefits them in some way. Either they get something out of it, or it makes them look better. Yet, as we’ve seen, the only things assured for the disciples were persecution and martyrdom.
The evidence is so powerful that the disciples were radically transformed by some kind of experience of seeing the risen Jesus that even agnostic historians will concede that something life-changing must have occurred. Atheist and historian Gerd Lüdemann provides this astonishing admission, “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’ death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.”[13]
Evidence #5: The resurrection led the disciples to radically alter their religion.
We need to remember that the first Christians were Jews, and as faithful Jews, they had been taught to never worship a mere man[14] as if he was the transcendent God or call anyone “Creator,” “Savior,” and “Redeemer” other than Yahweh, the one true God of Israel.[15] Thus, by worshiping Jesus as God, they were also risking eternal divine condemnation for promoting blatant idolatry — that is, if they were wrong about Jesus’ resurrection.
N. T. Wright has made the case that no faithful Jew anticipated a dying, let alone rising, Messiah. In fact, the resurrection was never viewed as something that would happen to one individual in the middle of history, but rather as something that happened to everyone at the end of history.[16] The fact that Jesus’ messianic claims got Him crucified should have been the divine signal that Jesus was certainly not the Messiah, because, according to the Jewish law, a man hanged on a tree is “cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21:23).[17] But the interesting thing is that the disciples didn’t try to muffle this passage from their law. Instead, they shouted it from the rooftops! Peter said of Jesus, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 10:39, italics added). Paul explains that after Jesus died to fulfill Jewish prophecy, “they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb” (Acts 13:29, italics added).
Jesus’ death, the apostles proclaimed, fulfilled God’s promise to put away man’s sin through His substitutionary death. Jesus died in our place, they explained. We must remember, however, that the disciples didn’t come to this conclusion until after they saw the resurrected Christ. In a very real sense, the resurrection gave the disciples permission to worship the man Jesus as God.
In addition to worshiping Jesus as God, the first Christians came to understand that the one true God existed as three distinct persons. They also moved their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, the day the resurrection took place. They stopped sacrificing animals because they saw Jesus as the final and ultimate Lamb of God. In lieu of the Jewish Passover, they began observing the Lord’s Supper, which remembers not Jesus’ life but His death. For the faithful Jew to suddenly trade in all these long held and treasured religious practices in exchange for new ones has to be explained by the historian. My argument is that it can only be explained by the resurrection of Jesus.
I have been discussing the most important, unique, and defining event in all of history. In a remarkable display of grace and self-sacrifice, Jesus allowed Himself to be swallowed by death for us. But having done so, Jesus then broke the jaws of death from the inside and came forth. As a result, sin and Satan have no claim on the believer, and we no longer need to fear death. We have seen that there are indeed good reasons and evidence for taking the resurrection seriously. If true, we not only have hope for life after death, but for bodily life after death, because Jesus Himself rose bodily from the grave and promises to raise us in like manner.[18] Therefore, you can have a real and solid hope — something you can confidently stake your life on. Jesus’ tomb is empty, and He is alive! Now, what will your response be?
[1] Richard Carrier, On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014). Even the skeptical historian Bart Ehrman writes, “Jesus existed, and those vocal persons who deny it do so not because they have considered the evidence with the dispassionate eye of the historian, but because they have some other agenda that this denial serves.” Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012).
[2] Josephus, Antiquities 18.64. Josephus in Ten Volumes, vol. 9, Jewish Antiquities, Loeb Classical Library, Louis H. Feldman, trans. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981); Tacitus, Annals 15.44 (c. AD 115).
[3] John repeatedly emphasizes the importance of his personally witnessing the events of Jesus’ life in his writings: John 19:35; 20:30-31; 21:24-25; 1 John 1:1-5.
[5] John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994), 163.
[6] James D. Tabor, The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 230.
[7] “Any evidence which a woman [gives] is not valid (to offer), also they are not valid to offer. This is equivalent to saying that one who is Rabbinically accounted a robber is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman” (Talmud, Rosh Hashannah 1.8). The first century Jewish historian Josephus similarly writes, “But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex, nor let servants be admitted to give testimony on account of the ignobility of their soul; since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, or fear of punishment.” (Josephus, Antiquities 4.8.15)
[8] Not only is this the story being spread by the guards and high priests according to Matthew 28:11-15, Justin Martyr writes in his Dialogue with Trypho, written in AD 150-155, that this was still the story being propagated by opponents of Christianity.
[10] Michael Licona, quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007) Location 2203 on Kindle edition.
[11] Origen, Contra Celsum, 2.56 in Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe, eds. and trans., The Ante-Nicene Fathers.
[12] 1 Clement 5:2-7; 42:3; Polycarp, To the Philippians 9:2, Cited and translated in Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 54. Also see Scorpiace, 15, in Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe, eds. And trans., The Ante-Nicene Fathers.
[13] Gerd Lüdemann, What Really Happened to Jesus? Trans. John Bowden (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 80.
[14] Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.” Also see 1 Samuel 15:29; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalm 139:7; Jeremiah 23:24.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
“God’s
power is at its greatest not in his destruction of the wicked but in his taking
all the wickedness of the earth into himself and giving back love.”[1]
I
recently heard in the news about the unfortunate strife that led to the
collapse of a sports team with a lot of talent. Various sports commentators
discussed who was to blame for the team’s gradual demise. One television
personality even gave out certain percentages of blame to various persons
involved in the whole debacle. Before long, various teammates and coaches began
to voice who they thought should be blamed. Interestingly, not one person pointed
his thumb at his chest and said, “Yeah, it’s all my fault.”
Masters at Blame Shifting
Have you ever noticed how powerful your need to justify your own actions is? Why is that so often we are quick to blame in others what we would gladly excuse in ourselves? When the other team cheats or the other person lies, they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But when our team gets caught cheating or we get found out, we shrug and quip, “Well, everybody does it.” Why is it that whenever we are accused of something, our gut reaction is either to go into hiding or fight with all our might to clear ourselves of all blame? Deep in our bones, we know that we cannot shoulder our own guilt. Our troubled conscience testifies to this. We need a way out.
We attempt to write off our guilty feelings as nothing more than social conditioning, or perhaps our parents’ strict disciplinarian methods fobbed off onto our psyche. We tell ourselves that we are not really that bad. After all, it is those other people in our lives that are the real problem. We both subtly and not so subtly affix guilt to our parents, our spouse, our boss, or our children. We even manage to paint them in a negative light with an “understanding” tone. We are masters at blame shifting. Can anyone really argue that this is not true of the human heart? We are constantly scouring the universe for someone else to be the scapegoat, when in our heart of hearts we know we are blameworthy.
The unwillingness to own up to our guilt seems to be a perennial problem. Remember what Pontius Pilate did after sentencing Jesus to death? He washed his hands before the crowds, as if to clear himself of all guilt for the blood of this righteous man. Very similarly, Shakespeare has Lady Macbeth desperately trying to wash her hands clean after her part in the murder of Duncan. “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” she wails. “Here’s the smell of blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”[2] We see this same dynamic when politicians or corporate executives plead ignorance when investigators catch them in a scandal.
So what does this self-justifying strategy say about us? It says something about our moral condition. The Bible explains our own condition to us. We are made in God’s image, and that is why we know right from wrong (Genesis 1:26-27). We know that guilt demands punishment. We know this. And yet, we also know that we have not even lived up to our own standards of right and wrong — let alone God’s standard of perfection. Scripture makes it clear that every human being finds him or herself in this quandary: we are both those who know what we ought and ought not to do and those who know we have failed to live up to these moral obligations. So, what are we to do about this predicament?
The Intolerable Burden
When we come face to face with the Law of God, we all know we fall short. “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19). When a shameful thing we have done or said in the past rises to the surface in our mind, we sense the weight of our guilt all over again. We can identify with Thomas Cranmer, when he wrote in The Book of Common Prayer:
“Almighty God, Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men, we acknowledge and bewail
our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously
have committed, by thought, word and deed, against thy Divine Majesty,
provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly
repent and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings. The remembrance of them
is grievous unto us; the burden of them is intolerable.”
In John Bunyan’s allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, the protagonist Christian bears an “intolerable” burden on his back. The great load represents the weight of his own sin, which grows more burdensome as he reads from a book. “He opened the book, and as he read, he wept and trembled.”[3] That is what Scripture does: it exposes our guilt so that we suddenly see the sinfulness of sin. But — and this is of infinite importance — it does not leave us to wallow in our guilt. It is right at this point that we begin to see our genuine need for the gospel of the crucified and risen Messiah. Our guilt demands punishment, and the more we know of God’s holiness, the more we are desperate to be free… and the more we long to be made new.
God’s Great Love
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All
this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to
Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the
message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).
In a world where we are persistently trying to shift the blame to someone else, God Himself shifted the blame from us to His own Son, Jesus Christ. Why? What could possibly lead a loving Father to do this? God “did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). To spare us from eternal judgment, He could “not spare His own Son.” The only way not to count our trespasses against us was to count our trespasses against Jesus. For God to overlook sin would mean that He would cease to be holy and just. God would cease to be God, and that could never happen. In order for God to uphold the moral order of the universe, He must deal justly with our great offense against Him. Someone had to go through the fire of judgment. God’s great love went out to meet the demands of His perfect justice.
Therefore, the Son of God bowed His head to the Father’s will and did just that. The very “punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6). Jesus received the cruelty of man and the wrath of God both without protest. Our Lord never once disobeyed His Father. He was utterly pure, spotless, and clean. “Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush Him” (v. 10). He willingly laid down His life in obedience to His Father’s command.
The Free Gift
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we
might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV).
We long to be in the right before men and women. However, our most urgent need is to be in the right before our Maker. In biblical language, what we need most is righteousness. The marvelous truth of the gospel is that we have God’s own righteousness offered to us through the cross. As Martin Luther put it, a “great exchange” took place at the cross. Christ took our sin, so that we might receive His righteousness. He bears our guilt, and we are clothed in His perfection. Out of His abundant love and mercy, God urges you to lay down your defenses and receive the forgiveness He purchased with His Son’s death.
While
we are anxiously striving to justify ourselves day after day, the gospel is about God justifying us for
all time. The Apostle Paul explained it this way: “But now apart from the
law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the
Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to
all who believe” (Romans 3:21-22, NIV). Read that last sentence again. Divine
righteousness comes to us as a free gift through simple faith. All we must do
is turn from sin to God, entrusting ourselves to the tender and secure hands of
Jesus.
We do not pay off the great debt we owe. Jesus takes that debt for us. Oh, sweet release! Complete divine forgiveness is offered to us as a free gift! What could possibly be better news than this? The cross answers the great question, “How can I, a sinner, be made right with a holy God?” The answer: through faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross for us.
Jesus really did die on Calvary for all our sins, but He did not stay dead. The tomb is still vacant. “Fear not,” He says, “I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17b-18). As we approach the celebration of our Lord’s death and resurrection from the grave, let us remember the chief need for every person on the planet is that we be reconciled to the God of love. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
[1] J.
N. Oswalt, “Isaiah,” in New Dictionary of
Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), eds. T.
Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner, 222.
Lamp and Light 