John 3:16 teaches that God gave His only begotten Son so that people can believe on Him, receive Him as Savior, and be saved. Hence, because Jesus is central to a person's salvation, it is important for an individual to believe in His historical existence. But there is more! We must understand and accept the validity of His virginal conception because this fact shows that He was God-incarnated. We must realize that He was tempted like all people, yet was without sin. We must see Him, as the above verse states, as our sinless Sacrifice, offered on the cross at Calvary. We must give assent to His death and resurrection because these show that death could not hold Him. And we must recognize Him as our Lord, ascended and at the right hand of God the Father.
These essential elements of the Christian Faith must be received by faith. Even in Jesus' time and shortly thereafter, people needed a similar faith. Interestingly enough, secular history did not immediately cooperate with Christianity! Jesus was born in Nazareth. His ministry was conducted in the secluded areas around Galilee and Jerusalem. And because He did not travel far from is birthplace, His fame was not broadcast very far. He had lived His life, was crucified, died, and then resurrected. Yet, no one outside that small, very remote part of the world around Jerusalem even knew Who He was. Therefore, years later when the Church began to spread, people were hearing about a Jesus Who had lived and died years before. Without credible historians to immediately affirm or disaffirm His life and ministry, they, like individuals today, would also have had to overcome their doubts and trust in the simple historicity of Jesus. Otherwise, they could not have known God and entered into a personal relationship with Him. One could argue that God, by keeping Jesus in such a remote part of the world, had wanted to keep faith as much a part of a person's input into their salvation as possible.
Tom of Spotswood "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
Lesson 15 - The Importance Of Believing The Historicity Of Jesus
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