What About Jesus?
Part 3: How Do We Know Jesus Was Not “Just A Man”?
Apart from the miracles done by Jesus and statements of divinity by His followers, the most powerful declaration that He was more than just a man is Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. No man has ever brought himself back to life after dying. People may be resuscitated immediately after death, and there are records of God raising people from the dead by the hands of the prophets, but no one ever got up and walked out a grave by himself, except Jesus.
Most people know how Jesus died by crucifixion and that Christians celebrate His return from the dead three days later. This resurrection from the dead, which is remembered today on Easter Sunday, was attested to not only by His disciples, but by over 500 witnesses who saw Jesus alive after His death.
|
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.” (I Corinthians 15:3-6)
|
Modern skeptics attempt to cast doubt on these witnesses with wild theories, but they cannot argue with the fact that many of these witnesses were persecuted and killed for the statements they made about Jesus coming back from the dead. How many people do you know who would die for what they knew to be a lie when telling the truth was the easy way out? So why would we reasonably expect that the followers of Jesus would die to defend His resurrection if they knew it didn’t happen? The credibility of the witnesses to Jesus return from the dead cannot be called into question.
In addition to the resurrection, the author of the Book of Hebrews gave us a scholarly analysis of Jesus and His divinity. He compares Jesus to several important spiritual figures as seen in the short excerpts below:
- Angles: “For to which of the angels did He ever say: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You’? And again: ‘I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son’?” (Hebrews 1:5) Obviously, Jesus is superior to God’s messengers, the angles.
- Moses: “And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” (Hebrews 3:5-6) Naturally, Jesus is superior to one of God’s greatest prophets.
- Priests: “(for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: ‘The LORD has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’’), by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.” (Hebrews 7:21-22) Certainly, Jesus who continues as a Priest forever, is superior to all human priests who are limited by their lifespan.
The natural conclusion to these comparisons is that Jesus is supernatural. Taken in conjunction with evidence that Jesus is God’s Son, it is a logical to accept that He is Divine. This of course agrees with Jesus own statements that He came down from Heaven “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 6:38) and “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.’” (John 8:42)
Back
Next Article
Continue your research in our reference section: click the "Learn More" link above
|
|