In the past several months, there has been an outside investigation into sexual misconduct allegations of Ravi Zacharias, who was a well-known and sought after Christian apologist and speaker. The law firm conducting the investigation, Miller & Martin, released some devastating news in recent weeks: the allegations were all true. The firm found “convincing and credible evidence” that Zacharias had indeed engaged in sexual misconduct with multiple women over the course of many years.[1]
This news stunned many Christians. Zacharias was known for his rhetorical eloquence and powerful presentations in defense of the Christian faith. Perhaps even more troubling is that Zacharias, who died in the spring of 2020, never repented of his secret sin.
I for one looked up to Zacharias as an incredible man of faith, who spoke the truth boldly yet with genuine love for others – a truly rare quality. I have been helped by many of his books and talks, and I was equally shocked to read the report.
As I considered this news, two thoughts entered my head. What will be the long-term impact of Zacharias’s sin? Will this devastate the faith of thousands of young men and women that he greatly influenced? Secondly, I considered the pain this must cause his family. I can’t even imagine their grief. I’m praying for their hearts, as they desperately need the comfort and peace only God can give.
Although very saddened, I do have some takeaways from all this.
Sin always has consequences
Although we know this intuitively, it’s so easy for Christians to forget this: sin always has consequences. It always harms both ourselves and those around us. Especially grievous sins – and sexual sin definitely makes the list. It shatters trust. It boggles the mind. It cuts through bonds meant to last a lifetime. It divides couples who promised to love each other no matter what. It tears families apart. And sexual sin is always shrouded in deception. Unless it is quickly confessed and repented of, lies inevitably abound. It also has a distorting effect, twisting the way we view our relationships.
I’ve spoken to a man who cheated on his wife about this. While still feeling numb in the aftermath of his sin coming to light, he shook his head and said, “I never meant to hurt her. I never meant to hurt anyone.” That’s how it always goes. Our tendency as fallen people is to put all our focus on the pleasure of the moment, rather than the long-term consequences of one sinful choice. Only the Holy Spirit can break the power of sin and lead us to walk in faithfulness and self-control.
Christian leaders must hold themselves to a higher standard
It is both sad and reprehensible how some Christian pastors, authors, and thought leaders have not taken the influence they carry seriously. They abuse the power they have been entrusted with by manipulating others or hurting those who oppose them.
Others ignore biblical standards and mock those who still cherish historic Christian teachings. Perhaps they forget all the warnings the Bible gives about those who abuse spiritual influence. “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1, NIV). Whether you are a pastor or teacher or blogger, this verse should be engraved on your heart.
Christian leaders carry a lot of influence among the Lord’s people, and they should not downplay the seriousness of their role. If you lead others, please remember that you will be held accountable for how faithfully you stood against the tide of worldly influences.
After surveying the grandeur of His creation, God says in Isaiah: “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2, ESV). Do you still tremble at the thought of teaching God’s sacred Word? Don’t be so concerned with being admired among the cultural elites. Make your aim the faithful teaching of God’s Word. You have been entrusted with the life-changing message of the gospel, and that is no small thing.
It is the better part of wisdom to gather around you wise and godly believers who will have access to you, to correct you when you’re wrong, to ask you the hard questions, and to encourage you to stay the course. You have been put in a position with so much potential to advance God’s kingdom for good. God takes your role seriously; so should you. This is a loving warning all Christian leaders – including myself – need to hear.
Never put yourself in a compromising situation
One stand out example from the Bible is Joseph. Betrayed by his brothers, Joseph ended up as a slave in the house of Potiphar, an officer in Pharaoh’s army. Because Joseph trusted in God and worked hard in his master’s service, Potiphar put him in charge of his whole household. When Potiphar’s wife summoned Joseph to her quarters and tried to seduce him, he responded, “My master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God” (Genesis 39:8-9, NLT).
But apparently she didn’t give up easy. “She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible” (v. 10). Joseph knew that temptation is something to avoid at all costs – not something to go exploring out of curiosity.
Finally, the time came when Potiphar’s wife catches him alone in the empty house. Once again, she tried to lure him into the bedroom. So how did Joseph respond? Did he stand his ground to see how much temptation he could resist? No! He bolted out of there as if the whole house was about to burst into flames. Joseph understood the importance of avoiding compromising situations. He cared more about God’s honor than his self-serving pleasure. He did exactly what the Bible commands us to do: “Run from sexual immorality!” (1 Corinthians 6:18, HCSB).
Jesus Is the Real Hero of the Story
Never forget that the gospel makes everything about Christ and what He has done – not you or what you have or haven’t done. That doesn’t take away our sense of responsibility, but it does offer us incredible hope. Jesus, through His cross, can overcome all your shame, sin, and failure. His grace allows us to live out of our identity in Christ, not some self-made identity.
Since Jesus is the real hero of the story, we should never put all our hope in a Christian leader. God has put them in our lives to help guide us, but they are not our Lord. They did not die for our sins.
This should make us treasure the perfect life of Jesus. Whereas Christian leaders will always be fallible and inevitably make mistakes in this life, Jesus is the King who will never fail us. If a Christian leader has failed you, keep in mind that this doesn’t change the truth about Jesus. He was, is, and always will be the sinless Savior you and I desperately need. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Make Jesus your ultimate hero, because He will never let you down.
Thomas Cole, “The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds,” 1834
During the Christmas season, my wife, Whitney, and I like to sit down and enjoy a good holiday movie together. Frequently, we turn to the Hallmark channel to watch one of their one million Christmas movies. I don’t want to knock Hallmark movies, because they are generally good, wholesome films with a guaranteed happy ending. Nevertheless, something I’ve found while watching these movies is that after you have watched a few of them, you begin to see some (how shall I put it?) consistency to the plot and character development. Before long, you can’t help but make some surefire predictions in the first five minutes, like “Oh, there’s the guy she’s going to fall in love with” and “That’s the guy who’s about to be dumped… Somebody better warn him!”
But for many of us, this predictability is not a bad thing. If you are watching a Hallmark movie, you’re not looking for a surprising plot twist or a suspense-filled ending. You just want to get into the Christmas spirit with an escape to the land of “feel good fiction.”
Maybe you can think of a time you were reading a book or watching a film, and you assumed the conclusion was well in hand. You can already imagine how everything is going to work out for all the characters involved. But then, in the final minutes, the plot takes a shocking twist, and the ending rocks your world.
As we read the Christmas story found in the Bible, one thing we have to see is that this is a script no one but God could write. Despite how familiar with the story we may be, there is a surprising truth to Christmas. Imagine, for example, what it would be like to be Joseph and to have your whole world turned upside down when you learn that your fiancée is pregnant via supernatural conception.
Or put yourself in the sandals of Mary, a young Jewish virgin probably still a teenager, who is visited by an angel telling her that she is about to give birth to the long-expected Messiah, who is also the eternal Son of God. What do you think was running through her head? She probably already had a life planned out for herself. Although we may know how the Christmas story goes, Mary did not. This was the last news she expected to receive.
Nevertheless, she humbly responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38, NIV). As her belly began to swell in the following months, she must have pondered late at night many times the magnitude of what was about to happen. She was going to give birth to the Savior of the world.
The problem with familiarity is that we can sometimes grow numb to how shocking the gospel really is. It is the news that the angels call “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Because the Creator of all laid aside the glory of Heaven to come as a little baby, we can have joy beyond measure.
The true story of Christmas tells us that God has not abandoned us. He did not leave us to the misery and chaos of this world. He came after us in Christ to redeem a lost and hurting world.
Recently, Whitney and I were with another couple, and the wife complimented her husband by simply saying, “He gets me.” That statement encapsulates what we all truly want: to be fully known and fully loved. Because of Christmas, we can say of God, “He gets me.” Because He has lived a full human life on this planet, He is acquainted with all our sorrows, joys, struggles, and emotions. Because of Christmas, no one can say, “God doesn’t understand me.” He does.
Now think of this. When the Sovereign King of the universe steps into His world, shouldn’t we expect Him to be raised in a palace, reigning over the world empire, and wearing a crown of gold? But what happens instead? When God finally shows up, we can’t even make room for Him in a small town inn. Instead of being wrapped in silk and laid in an ornate crib, He is laid in a manger — a feeding trough for farm animals! If you’ve spent any time on a farm, you know that this a filthy nursery for a newborn baby. This is how the Lord God came to us.
Many have wondered, Why the shepherds? Of all the people that God could have chosen to make His great announcement to, why them? He doesn’t send the angels to make a royal announcement in Caesar’s palace or among the Jewish nobility in the temple. He didn’t come at a time when He could broadcast the announcement on cable news. No, He sent those angels out to the grassy fields outside of Bethlehem to tell none other than lowly shepherds – the guys who spend their whole lives chasing stubborn sheep around.
And while this too could be surprising, isn’t it only fitting that the God whom the Jews have long called the “Good Shepherd” should send the first invitation to them. Shepherds, after all, picture one who must care for, protect, and at times rescue those who are constantly wandering from the fold.
The Bible says that we are all like sheep who have gone astray. And that, ultimately, this is the whole purpose of Christmas. Jesus came as a baby, but He didn’t stay a baby. Jesus came not only to identify with us in our struggles but to save us from our sin. That is why Jesus came not to wear a crown of gold, but a crown of thorns. And that’s why He came to ascend not a throne, but a cross.
It is at the cross that our ultimate need is met – our need for forgiveness. Because of His great love for you, the Lord God Himself came from the highest realm of glory to the lowest of lows. He bore your burden of sin so that you can be free of your past – totally forgiven and restored to fellowship with your Creator. In the end, that is the surprise of Christmas.
“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.” (Luke 1:31, NIV)
In the ancient world, human life was viewed as very cheap. Someone’s value came from what they could offer to others. If you were useful or skilled, you had value in the eyes of others; if not, you were expendable. Babies were often viewed as disposable, and women and children were treated as property. Before Jesus came, human beings almost universally had only instrumental value in the eyes of others, not intrinsic value.
The birth of Jesus Christ changed all that. The Bible says of Jesus, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:19, NIV). His primary purpose for coming was to accomplish our redemption from sin and make us new. Yet the Creator of the cosmos was not above entering this world through a virgin’s womb. Although He was supernaturally conceived, He otherwise entered this world like you did, growing inside His mother’s belly for most of a year. And like you, after coming down the birth canal, He was totally dependent on His mother’s nourishment and care.
Here lies the greatest enigma of all. The Supreme Creator who spoke everything into being was coddled and nursed by His teenage mother. No wonder the angels look on in stunned amazement at what God has done (1 Peter 1:12). The One through whom and for whom all things exist had made Himself small. Simply put, Jesus was a fetus.
The word fetus simply means an “unborn baby.” Although there’s nothing degrading about the term itself, it is often used as a way to dehumanize the unborn. Not long ago, my wife, Whitney, and I visited OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). One of the most fascinating exhibits is called Prenatal Development. In a circular room, you find preserved unborn babies at every stage of development in utero.[1] What struck me was that from a very early stage, perhaps around nine weeks, the tiny baby revealed features that were so undeniably human. Already at that point, miniscule limbs have sprouted and little black eyes can be seen on the bean-shaped head. I came away from the exhibit agreeing with King David that we truly are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). How incredible to think that Jesus too passed through each one of those stages in Mary’s womb!
Luke records that when the pregnant Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant, Elizabeth’s baby – later known as John the Baptist – leaped in his mother’s womb. And then Elizabeth tells Mary:
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:42-44, ESV)
Today, many in our nation are asking, “Why should we care about the unborn?” One abortion rights advocate even mockingly called the pro-life position a “love affair with the fetus.”[2] The unborn child has even been likened to a parasite or blob of tissue.[3] No doubt the dehumanization of these precious little image bearers of God has led to the slaughter of millions.
So, why should we care about the baby in the womb? Here is one very good reason: Because Jesus was once a baby in the womb. And even while unborn, He brought joy to another unborn baby! If experiencing joy in the presence of another doesn’t qualify for personhood, I don’t know what would!
It’s worth noting that the Greek word used for baby here –βρέφος(brephos) – is the same word Luke uses for babies outside the womb elsewhere, showing that God’s Word doesn’t distinguish between babies inside and babies outside the womb (see Luke 2:12, 16; 18:15). Either way, they’re all babies.
It is because Jesus came as a baby and welcomed and loved the little children He encountered that Christians have always made the care of children a priority. In ancient Rome, where babies were often aborted or abandoned, the early Christians were known for saving thousands of babies. They brought them into their homes, adopted them as their own, and taught them the Christian faith.
When the disciples tried to hold the children back as little nuisances, Jesus famously said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them” (Matthew 19:14a, NIV). Those words inspired Christians throughout history to be the first to start orphanages, foundling homes, and eventually start Sunday Schools for children to learn about Jesus at an early age.[4]
Christians today are known for being at the forefront of the pro-life movement and starting the 3,000 to 4,000 crisis pregnancy centers across the United States. These clinics are known for offering free services and demonstrating compassion to thousands of young pregnant women in difficult situations and empowering them to make wise and informed decisions.
Many today view the pro-life movement as an obstacle to the women’s rights movement. However, those who hold this notion ignore the fact that the same Jesus movement that brought about the pro-life position also paved the way for equal treatment of women.
In ancient times, nearly every culture viewed women as having a lower status than men. Aristotle even argued that a woman ranked somewhere between a free man and a slave. Considering that a slave held no more value than cattle in ancient times, you get a glimpse of how poorly women were treated. As you review the accounts from ancient India, China, Rome, and Greece, the widespread consensus was that wives were the property of their husbands. Modern westerners can hardly fathom such a low view of women. So what changed all that? What inspired the now widespread perspective that women and men have equal value, rights, and dignity?
In the words of historian Rodney Stark, the elevation of women has its roots in the “triumph of Christianity.”[5] That is, Jesus Himself elevated women to a level of dignity and respect. He honored the women who followed Him, engaged them in conversation, and was eager to teach them alongside the men, all social taboos at the time. Jesus treated women as equals to their male counterparts. It is the early Christians who taught the then-pagan world that husbands are to love and be faithful to their wives, widows should be cared for, and polygamy was forbidden by God. Stark writes, “In response to the special appeal that the faith had for women, the early church drew substantially more female than male converts, and this in a world where women were in short supply.”[6]
What does all this have to do with Christmas?
By daring to become a human Himself, Jesus imbued all human life with greater dignity than it ever had before His birth. In the Christian worldview, unborn children, women, and men all have equal value as image bearers of God, and consistent followers of Jesus have always stood for the rights of each.
All this because of Christmas. When you trace the roots of all these changes back far enough, you will find that they all began in a little manger in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago.
[1] According to the display, all of the unborn children died as a result of “natural causes or accidents,” not abortion.
You are on a quest for happiness. From the moment you entered this world, you’ve had this impulse. Deep within your soul, you have a powerful urge — an unquenchable thirst — for joy. Whatever the good life is, we don’t want to miss it.
The philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once said: “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”[1]
That’s a bold statement. But it’s impossible to argue with, isn’t it? Some of us seek happiness through political power or professional success; others through material accumulation or limitless sexual excursions; and even others try the route of popularity, likability, or athletic accomplishment.
The only problem is that our quest for contentment often leaves us frustrated. The road we thought led to delight often turns out to be a dead end.
If I only had my dream career, I’d be satisfied. If I only found my soul mate, my life would be complete. If only I had children, I know I’d be happy. If I could just reach a point of financial security, I’m sure I would be content.
Certainly, such things can bring a type of happiness, at least for a time. Then we find a new longing growing in our heart — one more ingredient for lasting joy that we hadn’t considered before. We begin to ache until that one more thing is ours. Once we finally have what we thought was the final ingredient, the cycle repeats itself. A new emptiness begins to swell inside, and we are back to square one. Lasting happiness seems tantalizingly out of reach.
We’re like the puppy who chases after every bird he sees only to find that every time he nearly catches it, the bird takes flight. Genuine joy always seems just beyond our grasp. Perhaps this is why many feel bored, listless, and empty inside. They’ve become cynical about life – even happiness itself.
In our more honest moments, we recognize how little we know about where to find true happiness. We are like explorers hiking through the wilderness, unaware that the compass in our hand is broken. We know that joy is out there — it must be! — but we are clueless on how to find it. Oh, there are times when we think we’ve found it. Most people would say that when they finally accomplished something great they had been working toward for many years, they were suddenly on cloud nine.
However, just as suddenly, this thing we thought would give us happiness vanishes before our eyes in a puff of smoke.
In a revealing interview on 60 Minutes, NFL quarterback Tom Brady expressed his surprise that despite reaching the pinnacle of athletic success (a three-time champion at the time), he was still unsatisfied. “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me?” Many have told Brady that considering where he’s at in life — having all the success, loads of cash, being married to a supermodel —he must feel like he’s on top of the world. His response: “Me? I think, there’s gotta be more than this.” When asked what that missing thing is, Brady replied, “I wish I knew… I wish I knew.”[2]I wish I could sit down and talk with Brady.
In the book of Jeremiah, God pleads with His people to not seek that happiness our soul is craving apart from Him. Trying to find happiness apart from Him is like trying to slake your thirst by running to a well that looks good on the surface, but is actually broken and can hold no water. Instead, God urges Israel (and us!) to return to Him, “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13, ESV).
Your soul thirsts for something far more real and lasting than the hollow and fleeting joys of this world. That inner sense of emptiness is like a fuel gauge for your heart, telling you of your need for God and the fulfillment only He can give.
C. S. Lewis said, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.”[3]
After Jesus fed a massive crowd by multiplying loaves, many were drawn to Him. In fact, at that point the fickle crowds “were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king” (John 6:15, ESV). Interestingly, Jesus would have none of it. He knew that they weren’t seeking Him as the Savior who came to satisfy their souls, but as a compliant king who could satisfy their earthly desires. Jesus warned them about trying to fill the infinite hole in their souls with things that are destined to perish.
He told them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35, NIV).
Jesus was teaching them the secret sauce for happiness, which none of the sages throughout ancient history understood. Supreme happiness cannot be achieved by aiming first at happiness; it is found only as a result of first finding Jesus – through having a personal relationship with your Creator. When you look at the chasm within your hungry heart and then at the eternal life Jesus can give, it’s a perfect match. In Jesus alone, the abundant life – not just the good life, but the very best life! – is found.
Here is Jesus’s promise for you: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full” (see John 10:10).
[1] Blaise Pascal, Pascal’s Pensees, trans. W. F. Trotter (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958), 113, thought #425.
“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!
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)
You know that moment when you first sense fear rising in your heart? We’ve all felt it. It can happen when you look over the railing above a steep canyon wall that descends hundreds of feet below. You can feel it when you hear the sound of a woman screaming, a child shrieking, or brakes squealing. We all know that feeling when our stomach lurches and our heart sinks. I see it on my three-year-old’s face when he tells me he’s scared of the dark. The experience of fear is common to us all.
But is fear always a bad thing? If you hear an unmistakable rattle while hiking in Eastern Oregon, fear can keep you from stepping into a rattlesnake’s nest. If you are afraid of what too much alcohol might do to you, fear may keep you from driving while drunk. Fear of a loss of income may keep you from sleeping in.
So fear does serve a purpose – at times. But fear should not be our default mode of life. We shouldn’t operate hour by hour persistently dwelling on the “What ifs” of life. “What if this goes wrong?” “What if something happens to the ones I love?” “What if I fail?” In the midst of this ongoing pandemic, many Americans have become chronic worriers. Countless bad decisions are made when we are driven by fear. Growing up, I remember my mom saying to us kids, “You don’t want to be a worry wart.” That’s sound advice, Mom.
In fact, it sounds a lot like something Jesus said: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27). In that context, Jesus was talking about those who worry about not having the basic necessities of life, like food and clothing. So if we cannot lengthen our days by worrying, why do we do it? How do we break free from the shackles of fear?
It has everything to do with replacing your toxic fear of loss with a healthy fear of God. Interestingly, “fear not” (or some close variation of that) is the most common command in Scripture, and our need to “fear the Lord” is one of the most common themes. When talking to His disciples about facing persecution for their faith, Jesus put it this way: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). To fear God is to revere Him, to honor Him as holy and powerful. It’s less a cowering dread and more a humble submission to God as the Almighty Sovereign of the universe. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” writes King Solomon (Proverbs 1:7). To fear God is to recognize that only His grace can save us from the worst thing imaginable – a Christless eternity in hell. In a strange paradox, when we fear God properly, we can actually grow in our love for Him. This is because He loved us first and He alone can ultimately deliver us from every conceivable danger.
The psalmist writes, “You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday… Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place – the Most High, who is my refuge – no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent” (Psalm 91:5-6, 9-10).
All other fears steal away our confidence, but fear of God instills us with a humble confidence. Why? Because if we know that through faith in Jesus, God rescues us from even the worst thing imaginable (an eternity apart from Him), we ultimately have nothing to fear in this life. That’s how Jesus’ logic works in the statement above. The worst possible thing to happen to you is condemnation from God, but because Jesus washed away all our guilt through the shedding of His blood, believers are set free from fear. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). What can anyone or anything possibly do to one who is secure in Christ’s loving arms? Nothing, ultimately.
The Apostle Paul asks a series of “who” questions to drive this point home: “If God is for us, who can be against us? … Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Romans 8:31, 33-35).
Does anyone doubt that people still fear such things today? Paul’s response is emphatic: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (v. 37). Notice that Paul doesn’t say believers in Jesus are barely scraping by while cowering in fear. He says “we are more than conquerors” not because of how great we are, but because of Him who loves us. We are safe in Christ and not even death can separate us from His love. For the believer, nothing can ultimately destroy you or sever your bond with Jesus.
This doesn’t mean we now can throw caution to the wind and brazenly make reckless decisions that would likely harm ourselves or others. But it does mean that we make decisions based on love for God and others, not fear.
If you don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I have to ask: What are you waiting for? I invite you to turn from your sin and come to Jesus by faith, trusting not in your good works but in His good work of dying on the cross for your sins and rising from the dead. When you do that, you can have the fear-crushing assurance of being forgiven and spending eternity surrounded by His love.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV). So fear not.
Feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Our hope in this article is to set the stage for how to think about racism in our nation through a biblical and gospel lens. Racism is so deeply enmeshed in our nation that we cannot afford to ignore it for the problem that it is. We also need to look for peaceful and sustainable solutions. Each of us needs to ask, “How can I do my part in seeing racial reconciliation happen?”
It’s so easy for people of different skin color to talk past one another rather than listen carefully with the goal of understanding. That’s why we made a point of writing this article as a collaborative effort between a black man (Derek) and a white man (Jason). Both of us love Jesus dearly and pray that those in the throes of racial violence may find the hope and peace that only our Lord can give. Although we want to confront some tragic realities in our world, we are also filled with hope because the gospel of God’s grace is greater than all our sin.
Only One Race
We both believe that the Bible is emphatically opposed to any and all forms of racism, bigotry, and hatred. Some have ignorantly claimed that the Bible supports racism by misreading and distorting certain passages, but the reality is that the biblical message offers the only genuine remedy to the plague of racism.
The very first chapter in Genesis, the Bible’s first book, tells us that God created the first man and woman in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). Of all the descriptions of humanity’s origin available, in both ancient and modern literature, you will not find a more magisterial description of our nature. In the Bible alone, we see the fascinating combination of humanity’s extraordinary greatness and tragic depravity. Because we bear God’s image, every person has unfathomable dignity. Because we are fallen, we are all prone to treat our fellow humans in horrendous ways.
The Bible’s teaching on the image of God condemns every form of racism. God did not create a white Adam, a black Adam, and a brown Adam, and so on, so that we might wonder if one is superior to another. Instead, the biblical argument goes like this: If we are all images of God, how can you hate another image of God (James 3:9)? How can you say you love God, whom you have never seen, but hate your brother, your neighbor, God’s image, whom you see every day (1 John 4:20-21)?
According to the Apostle Paul, we all have descended from one man (Acts 17:26). Therefore, we are all blood relatives. The black man and the white man truly are brothers by blood. This doesn’t squelch the beauty of cultural diversity; rather, it affirms the dignity of every person because of our common bond as image bearers of God – a truth that transcends every culture.
The Ultimate Source and Cure for Racism
Many have spoken about the need to end “systemic racism,” and we agree that racial injustice has infected nearly every corner of our nation. However, we also believe that every sin – including racism – begins with the human heart. Our Lord Jesus put it this way, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19). Therefore, it requires a solution that addresses the heart.
In other words, while new laws and policies certainly must be worked for, they ultimately lack the power to uproot all forms of racism. Each of us personally needs nothing less than a total renovation of the heart. That’s where the gospel of Christ comes in. In Christ, people of every ethnicity, background, and gender are united. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Jesus died for those of every nation and skin color, and through Him, believers are all brought into the one family of the church together.
Paul writes that Christ Himself “is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:14-16, ESV).
We all have equal access to God through the one cross. All the racial injustice and prejudice that is all too prevalent in this world is rendered powerless by Christ’s bloody cross, where He absorbed all our sin and reconciled us to our Maker.
The Need to Listen Well
When we hear about racial injustice in the news, we’re often guilty of jumping too quickly to conclusions. I (Jason) know, as a white person, how easy it is to minimize the prevalence of racism in our nation. In many ways, I would like to think that we’ve moved past the racism that has plagued our nation’s history. But in reality the stain of racism has not gone away, and we need to do our part in confronting prejudice wherever we find it, beginning with our own hearts.
We need to listen to those of a different skin tone and background to try and understand and help contribute to the solution. The point of Derek sharing the stories below isn’t to undermine the necessary and noble service of good and faithful police officers, but to give a better understanding of the experience of countless black men and women in America.
There are so many things I (Derek) can say about the death of innocent and/or unarmed black people at the hands of white police officers. I could say that this a new phenomenon, but that would be a lie. It’s being recorded on camera more often, but this has been happening for years. There are television shows and movies that try to shine a light on “The Talk” black parents have with their children, but I don’t know if it is understood by non-blacks that these types of conversations are real.
As a teenager, I was sat down by my father who taught me how to react to police officers who pull you over or seek to question you. “Always make your hands visible, always be polite, always follow directions, and always repeat vocally the directions as you’re doing them.” But the lesson that has always stuck with me is when my father told me that the police will always see me as black first. Not as human, not as a man, not as a person, just black. What’s really sad is that I have now had to have the same conversation with my son, and he’s only 11.
The color of my skin comes with certain stereotypical misconceptions. To some I’m seen as a criminal, dirty, less than, worthless, unintelligent or uneducated, a thief, a murderer, and a gang member. This has been the plight of the black man and woman for centuries.
I will give one example of my run in with law enforcement. As an Oakland, California, native, I know most areas of the city. While in my early twenties, I was in the Rockridge area of Oakland near College Boulevard. It is a more astute area of Oakland. I was coming from a friend’s dance studio in the area one evening, just after dark. The crosswalk light was so fast you would not be able to walk across before it changed. So, as the light turned green, I ran across the street just as a police officer was coming down the street and stopping at the red light. I got into my Honda Accord and waited to see if the police officer would drive past, because in my experience he was going to follow me. He didn’t move after the light turned green. I knew if I could make it to the freeway about a mile away, I’d be fine. So, I started my car and began to drive. Of course, the police officer began to follow behind me.
As I drove towards the freeway, I was extra cautious to follow all traffic laws. The police officer followed me the entire mile. Just before I got to the freeway, he turned his lights on and pulled me over. I remember what my father taught me. Before the officer made it to my door, I already had my wallet out with my license and registration on my dash and my hands on the steering wheel, with window down and engine off. So, when the officer made it to my car’s driver’s side window, he didn’t ask the usual, “License or registration?” He stated, “This car has been reported stolen.”
Now, my little light blue Honda Accord wasn’t much to look at, but it was the first car I bought with my own money and it was in my name. So, how did my car get reported as stolen? The officer then asked for my license. As I gave him my driver’s license, an operator came over his radio stating the car belongs to Derek Jackson. The officer looked at my license, then at me, and reluctantly handed my driver’s license back to me and told me I was free to go as he walked back to his car.
It may not be a big thing to some, but the fear I had at that moment is something that I should not have had. This officer didn’t ask if my car had been stolen, he stated that it had been reported as stolen. I believe if I had not heard what the operator said, it would have been a different story. That, I believe, was God’s protection.
I have other stories, such as being cursed out by a cop for being young and black or another incident of being handcuffed and put in the back of a police car after being pulled over driving to school. I can’t even get into the times I’ve been followed by police or followed in a store. God has protected me because those situations could have ended with someone posting an RIP on their Instagram or Facebook page.
We (Derek and Jason) both thank God for those police officers of every skin color who have faithfully served and protected the citizens under their care with diligence, sacrifice, and justice. We need more like them now more than ever.
What Can We Do About It?
But what about those who have suffered death, beatings, false accusations, and harassment from the police or Caucasians who hate blacks because of their skin color? Neither of us had a say in our skin color, but we exult in the fact that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). You were made the way you were on purpose, and we affirm God’s joyful creativity seen in the mosaic of all our varying skin tones. With grieved hearts, we both acknowledge the hatred and racism that can be traced through every era of our nation’s history. From the unjust killings of American Indians to the unspeakable atrocities of the enslavement of African men and women.
Together, we affirm God’s denunciation of hate and racism. He tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). He doesn’t say, “Love the neighbor who shares your skin color.” He just says, “Love your neighbor.” Your neighbor is anyone you come in contact with. We’re to love as God loves, and He loved us so much He sacrificed His Son on a cross to save us from our sin. The blood of Jesus can wash away the stain of hate, the stain of racism, and the stain of bigotry and discrimination.
Scripture tells us to speak up for the rights of the hurting and the oppressed (Proverbs 31:8-9). To be silent is to be complicit in the evil happening before our eyes. At the same time, we must not take personal vengeance into our own hands. Violence only begets more violence. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” We must demand justice for those who are oppressed, but we must always do so in love. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21, NIV). Will you join us in working for racial reconciliation today?
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)
Last week, on April 27th, my grandmother, Bettie Bramer, went to Heaven. She will be dearly missed.
Without question, Grandma loved me, as she did all her children and grandchildren. And we loved her. She was a strong, faithful, and wise woman. She loved Jesus with all her heart, and she wanted others to know and love Him.
And she loved her husband, Grandpa Jim, so very much. I loved to watch them care for one another, share memories together, and tease each other incessantly, in the way that only a long-married couple can. My grandparents were friends in middle school, sweet hearts in high school, and later wed in 1953. They were happily married for 66 years.
Whenever I saw Grandma, she always took such an interest in me, asking me what was new in my life and how I felt about it. She had a very sharp mind, too, and a quick wit! I remember countless times that she got laughing so hard, along with the rest of us, over a remark someone made. Grandma was also very warm and welcoming from the first time she met my wife, Whitney. And I’m so thankful she got to meet all three of our boys.
And, my goodness, she was the queen of her kitchen! Her vegetable soup always hit the spot. And her rolls – oh, her soft and buttery rolls! – well, they were legendary.
My earliest memory of Grandma is actually pretty funny. My parents were out, and she and Grandpa were watching us kids. I remember her clearly telling me that I needed to lay down for a nap, but I just couldn’t handle the thought of missing out on all the family fun. Mind you, I was probably three or four. Like a prison escapee, I carefully crawled down the hallway, passing the room I thought she was in. Then, to my horror, I realized she was actually in the kitchen – and had spotted me! What was I to do? There was only one option left: I took off running. I swung open the front door and sprinted past a crowd of onlookers – consisting of my siblings and their neighborhood friends – then bolted toward the backyard, hoping beyond hope to find safe haven there. The gate is open! I could see the grass. I was nearly there. I could smell freedom!
But then it happened. I felt an arm wrap around my waist and whisk me off the front lawn. I was fast… but Grandma was faster. My master plan of skipping nap time was utterly foiled.
It’s funny how an early memory like that can shape a young child’s perspective. For a time, I thought of Grandma Bettie as strict and unyielding. But only a couple summers later, that perspective changed. She and Grandpa joined our family for a trip to Disneyland, and I saw how kind, fun, and generous Grandma really was. Over the years, I had the privilege of getting to know Grandma better and better, and I came to see that she was more than just a kind woman who gave me Christmas presents and made delicious food.
Grandma Bettie was a woman who cared deeply about her family, her church, and her community. But most of all, I could see how clearly she loved Grandpa.
One of the challenges right now for my family – and my Grandpa Jim, especially – is not being able to have a memorial service right away, due to COVID-19.
Whenever we lose someone in our lives, there’s always going to be a mix of emotions. It’s common for grieving family and friends to feel everything from sorrow to regret to guilt to peace. Psychologists even talk about the various stages of grieving. I’m convinced it’s not the same for everyone. But ultimately we all need some sense of closure or acceptance of the “new normal,” even while we never forget the incredible impact our loved ones had.
I thank God for my Grandma Bettie. While I miss her very much, I’m grateful for the incredible legacy both she and Grandpa have left for the rest of the family. And it lifts my heart to imagine how glorious life is now like in the presence of Jesus, her Savior. Though her body is lifeless, I promise you, Bettie Bramer has never been more alive.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
It’s an intriguing question, isn’t it? Just what did the carpenter from Nazareth think of the writings that Christians today call “the Bible”?
It’s a question worth asking because today there are many self-identifying Christians who claim unswerving loyalty to the King of kings while taking a much more ambivalent approach to Scripture than Christians generally have throughout the last 2,000 years. Why is it, for instance, that there is a growing number of Christians who hesitate to even call the Bible “the Word of God”? Such progressive Christians will often express great love and admiration for the Bible, but they are less certain about its abiding authority for believers today.
Take, for example, what Rob Bell says about Scripture’s origin:
“The Bible is a library of books reflecting how human beings have understood the divine. People at that time believed the gods were with them when they went to war and killed everyone in the village. What you’re reading is someone’s perspective that reflects the time and the place they lived in. It’s not God’s perspective — it’s theirs. And when they say it’s God’s perspective, what they’re telling you is their perspective on God’s perspective. Don’t confuse the two.”[1]
The problem with this assertion is that the Bible is filled with claims that it is God’s perspective, not merely man’s perspective on God’s perspective.[2] For instance, the Apostle Paul seems to be alluding to compromises similar to Bell’s when he writes,
“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, emphasis added).
Paul is crystal clear. The words he writes are the very words of God. They ultimately originate not with Paul, but with God. They are not primarily Paul’s perspective on God’s perspective (whatever that means), but God’s perspective written through the vantage point of a human author. While human authors were the means — and certainly they expressed their personalities and styles in their writing — what they wrote ultimately has a divine Author.
What Is at Stake
Theologian James White rightly observes,
“A solid view of the Bible begins with the recognition that God is its principle author, the origin and source of its very essence. All sub-Christian systems must, by definition, attack God’s Word at this very point, for the survival of their unbiblical teachings and views of authority is dependent upon overthrowing this precise truth.” [3]
Therefore, Scripture’s divine authorship is a truth that Christians cannot neglect, and the church must persistently and unapologetically teach it with unwavering confidence.
Is it possible that many Christians in the West are being deeply influenced by secularism without even realizing it? To claim that Scripture is not truly from God is to strip it of all authority. And that, my friend, is the point. After all, if the Bible doesn’t really have a divine origin, then it doesn’t have any say over how I live my life.
Let me be candid. To claim to follow Jesus while denying the Bible’s divine authority over your life is both a grave dishonor to the Lord and a tragic rejection of a precious gift we ought to cherish. But beyond this, how can anyone deny Scripture’s authority while claiming to love the very Jesus described in those pages?
Jesus’ View of the Bible
So, what did Jesus think of the Bible? Would Jesus have considered the Bible to be the very Word of God?
In the Gospel of Matthew, we read of a time when a group of religious leaders, known as Sadducees, attempted to trip Jesus up with a somewhat ridiculous scenario of a widow who consecutively married seven brothers, all of whom died soon after saying “I do.” (As an aside, shouldn’t we begin to suspect this widow of murder?)
Now, something you should know is that the Sadducees didn’t believe in bodily resurrection. They only considered the first five books of the Bible to be Scripture, and resurrection isn’t explicitly taught until later revelation. So they ask Jesus a “gotcha” question: “So tell us, Jesus, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her” (Matthew 22:28). Their aim was to make the resurrection look nonsensical. Jesus’ response is remarkable:
“You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:29-32 NASB, emphasis added).
Not only does Jesus demonstrate His belief in the absolute power and clarity of Scripture, but notice His question: “Have you not read what was spoken to you by God” (v. 31). According to Jesus, when we read from the pages of Scripture, the Creator God Himself is speaking to us. Consider the way Jesus frequently quotes Scripture with the preface “It is written.”[4] When settling a theological issue with the religious leaders, Jesus repeatedly asks, “Have you not read?”[5] Christ’s basic assumption is that if the so-called “experts” in the Law had only carefully read and submitted to the Law, they wouldn’t be mistaken. By appealing to Scripture in this way, Jesus was displaying His unyielding conviction that Scripture is the final word on the matter.
That’s because Jesus believed the Bible was the Word of God, and He had no problem calling it that.
For example, when the Pharisees and scribes confront Jesus and His disciples on their apparent disregard for the traditions of the elders (v. 2), Jesus turns the accusation around, calling these religious leaders to account for exalting their tradition while disregarding “the word of God.”
[Jesus] answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” (Matthew 15:3-6, emphasis added)
Notice how Jesus clearly affirms Scripture as the “commandment of God.” His point is not that human tradition is all bad. Rather, Jesus is confronting the fact that their reverence and esteem for merely human tradition has supplanted Scripture’s rightful place of authority in their lives. God had clearly taught the great importance of honoring one’s parents, but there was a tradition handed down by the ancient rabbis that essentially nullified this teaching and muted what God had clearly said on the matter. By clinging so tightly to man-made teachings they had “made void the word of God” (v. 6, cf. v.9). This is a serious charge, and it demonstrates Jesus’ view both on the origin of Scripture and its supreme authority on every area of human life.
But the Pharisees and scribes aren’t alone here. Jesus would have us recognize this tendency even in our own hearts to exalt the wisdom of mere humans and disregard the wisdom of God. It’s a symptom of the brokenness from which Jesus came to set us free.
“Your Word Is Truth”
God has been so very gracious to give us the Bible. He didn’t have to do that. How tragic it is when we sneer at it and claim it is filled with human error.
For example, the late progressive Christian Rachel Held Evans wrote,
“While Christians believe the Bible to be uniquely revelatory and authoritative to the faith, we have no reason to think its many authors were exempt from the mistakes, edits, rewrites, and dry spells of everyday creative work.”[6]
She so emphasizes the human side that she discounts the fact that “those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21, NLT).
Compare Evans’ claim that the Bible is marked by “mistakes, edits, rewrites and dry spells of everyday creative work” with Jesus’ claim that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Jesus told God the Father “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). When facing Satan’s temptations in the desert, Jesus counters by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written, ‘Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[7]
Not even once does Jesus express even the slightest doubt that every word we find in Scripture is spoken by God, and, therefore, without error. Jesus would no doubt affirm Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God proves true.” Kevin DeYoung has rightly concluded that “it is impossible to revere the Scriptures more deeply or affirm them more completely than Jesus did.”[8]
So this beckons the question: Do you share Jesus’ view of Scripture? Do you believe that what is written is “spoken by God” (Matthew 22:31)? Would you be willing to affirm that it is “the word of God” (Matthew 15:6). Do you believe those who wrote it “spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21), and thereby gave us an unbreakable “truth” (John 17:17)? Here’s my encouragement. If you consider yourself a Christian or follower of Jesus, you should want to see the Bible the way He saw it. God’s Word can give you the confidence to face each day and the certainty of what lies in store for you beyond the grave.
[1] Rob Bell, What Is the Bible? (New York: HarperCollins, 2017), 295-296.
[2] 2 Timothy 3:16 calls all of Scripture theopneustos, meaning “God-breathed.” 2 Peter 1:20 clearly says that Scripture does not come “from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Clearly, Scripture teaches that its origin, source, and wisdom begins not with humans, who are the active agents writing Scripture, but with God Himself who oversaw their environment, life, and activity, and carried them along in the writing process.
[3] James R. White, Scripture Alone (Grand Rapids, MI: Bethany House, 2004), 50.
[4] See the previous footnote. For but a small sampling see Matthew 4:4, 7, 10; 11:10; 21:13; 26:24, 31; Mark 7:6; 9:12-13; 11:17; 14:21, 27; Luke 4:4, 8, 10; 7:27; 10:26; 18:31; 19:46; 20:17; 21:22; 22:37; 24:44, 46; John 6:45; 8:17; 10:34; 15:25.
[5] cf. Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:31; Mark 2:25; 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3; 10:26.
[6] Rachel Held Evans, Inspired (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2018), xxiii. Evans fails to recognize that when Paul uses the word “inspired” (theopneustos in the original Greek) in 2 Timothy 3:16, he is calling the Scriptures themselves “God-breathed.” She re-imagines inspiration to mean something totally foreign to the original text. She writes, “Inspiration, on both the giving and receiving end, takes practice and patience. It means showing up when you don’t feel like it, even when it seems as if no one else is there. It means waiting for wind to stir.” I don’t know of any Christian throughout church history who would have agreed with her definition.
[7] The familiar Greek phrase γέγραπται, usually translated “It is written” or “Scripture has it,” is repeated over 90 times by Jesus and the New Testament authors to connote Scripture’s authoritative declaration on a matter.
[8] Kevin DeYoung, Taking God at His Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 109.
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.
Lamp and Light 