LOOKING AT LIFE
SHOULD WE care ABOUT
SHOULD WE care ABOUT
what if a chance meeting with a stranger on a train changes your life forever? Would you talk to the person sitting next to you on your journey? Most of us get on a train and make a beeline for the nearest vacant seat or place to stand, and settle in for the ride with our earphones plugged in or our eyes glued to our smartphones. We usually don’t talk to the people around us, and we avoid eye contact. But before technology, train rides used to be a different story . . .
In 1876 two strangers shared a compartment on a train bound for Indianapolis in the US. One was the famous atheist and public speaker Robert Ingersoll. The other was ex-soldier and lawyer Lewis Wallace. As the two discussed religious matters, Ingersoll’s arguments against God impressed Wallace deeply. But Wallace
realised he’d never given God any real thought himself. Rather than just accept Ingersoll’s views, he decided to find out more about Jesus Christ for himself.
The result: four years later the book Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ was published. It became the biggest selling book in the US in the 19th century, and was made into a blockbuster movie in 1959, winning 11 Academy Awards. Many consider the movie to be one of the best epics of all time. But more importantly, Wallace himself had become a changed man who now believed in God and Christ.
“[Ingersoll] had made me ashamed of my ignorance . . . I resolved to study the subject [of religion] . . . It only remains to say that I did as resolved, with results—first, the book Ben Hur, and second, a conviction amounting to absolute belief in God and the divinity of Christ.”
What would we find if we looked at the life, death and resurrection of Jesus? Like Lewis Wallace, are we prepared to think about Jesus seriously? Are we prepared to take the time to research Christianity for ourselves and come to our own conclusions, rather than dismissing it as outdated in our modern world?
Without The Easter Events,
The Whole Story of Jesus Is Dead
the significance of Jesus Christ depends on the truth of Easter: his death and resurrection. Christianity is not founded on rules or wise sayings, but on historical events. If those events did not happen, then believing in Jesus is a waste of time.
A Christian is not simply someone who tries to live a good life and obey the teachings of Jesus. Christians are people who have decided to trust Jesus to give them a new life as part of God’s family. They believe Jesus has done this for them through his death on the cross and his resurrection—both are actual events in history. That is why Jesus is called “Saviour” more often than “Teacher” by Christians.
But how could Jesus, who was born 2,000 years ago affect our lives today? How can we possibly believe that he has come back from the dead? These questions are fair enough. We live in an age of science and information. We don’t need religious myth to explain the world to us. How can intelligent, logical people still believe Jesus rose from the dead?
The Problem We Need Fixing
to understand exactly what Jesus has to do with us, we have to start at the beginning: our problem. There are few who would deny that we live in a troubled world. We lock our doors, put passwords on our accounts and teach our children not to talk to strangers. Really, we know our world, our countries, our communities, and even our own homes and lives are far from perfect.
People often ask: if God is allpowerful, why doesn’t he simply get rid of all the bad stuff? Think about it. Imagine that tonight at midnight, God removes everything that’s wrong with the world. Anything that is not 100% morally perfect is destroyed. Where will you be? Do you see the problem? Even good people are not good enough to escape such a cleansing. Removing everything that’s wrong with the world would mean the end of all humanity. God has the right to do it, but he doesn’t want to. He wants to save!
Saving, however, isn’t as straightforward as just letting everyone off. Imagine a judge who did that in a court! If you were listening to a court case and the defendant was clearly guilty, you would expect a fair sentence
to be passed. Justice demands it. If the judge just smiled kindly at the guilty person and said, “I’m a kind, loving person . . . you can go free”, he would be a bad judge. In order for justice to be satisfied, crimes must be punished.
We tend to think that our good deeds will make up for the bad things we have done. But would we seriously expect a judge to say we didn’t need to pay our speeding fine because we volunteer at a care home? How can God, being good, overlook our wrongdoings? How could we trust God to be a fair ruler of the universe if he took a light view of our bad behaviours? There are consequences when we act wrongly. But in the end, we really owe the debt to God. It’s his world we are breaking. The Bible tells us the ultimate cost to our selfish actions is death.
What
Jesus Did this is where jesus entered in. The Bible tells us that Jesus, the creator of all things, was born into his own creation as a weak and vulnerable baby. He was poor and he was ordinary. But his message was unmistakable: I am the answer.
He said he had come to give new life and forgiveness to all who would trust him. The self-proclaimed “good” people hated him because he showed up their pretence and failings. The only ones who received Jesus gladly were those who already knew they were messed up and needed saving.
Jesus was not a martyr. His execution on the cross was not a tragic end to an inspirational life. Jesus actually explained that it was God’s plan! His death was the whole point of why he came to earth in the first place. He paid the penalty we owe for how we have lived. He came to die in our place!
And then he came back to life . . .
The Resurrection
this time, picture yourself in the courtroom scene: you have just been found guilty of owing a huge debt you could never pay back. A figure in the crowd steps forward and declares they will pay the entire sum for you. The judge accepts the offer and gives them 48 hours to settle your debt. Once it’s paid, you can never be brought to trial for it ever again. But during that 48 hours, although you have the promise that someone else will pay, you cannot
The claim that Jesus had come back to life would have been proven false if his body had still been in its tomb.
be at peace. What if they back out? What if they don’t have enough money? However, as soon as you’re told the money has gone through and your account is settled, you know that you are truly free.
This is the truth behind the resurrection too. It’s not just a neat trick or a stunt to get our attention. If Jesus is still dead, there is no way of knowing whether or not we still have to pay for our own wrongs and mistakes. But his resurrection is the proof that God accepted his payment on our behalf. If Jesus is alive, we can know for sure that the account is settled, we’re forgiven by God and we’re welcomed into his family right now.
One writer in the Bible told Christians: “If Christ has not been raised [from the dead], then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). That is why the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as historical events, are central to Christianity. Without them, we are still guilty before God and due to face him in his courtroom when we die.
But can we really believe this story?
The Evidence
we cannot prove beyond any doubt that Jesus walked out of His grave after He was executed. We weren’t there to see it with our own eyes. But we can look at the evidence, listen to the experts (many who are not Christians), take the subject seriously like Lewis Wallace did and make up our own minds. Here are some significant factors to consider:
The empty tomb: The claim that Jesus had come back to life would have been proven false if his body had still been in its tomb. All the authorities had to do was show the corpse to people. But none of the Jewish or Roman leaders were able to produce the body of Jesus. Roman authorities had posted a 24-hour armed guard around Jesus’ tomb and then sealed it with a massive rock. Even so, the Bible tells us the authorities had to admit that Jesus had somehow gone missing.
The radical change in Jesus’ followers: The men who were the first leaders of Christianity were the same ones who ran away in fear when Jesus was arrested and executed. After his death, they were depressed and confused. Yet only a few weeks later they were boldly telling everyone that
Jesus was alive. They were hounded, beaten, imprisoned, and most were eventually killed for spreading their message. Clearly these men really believed they had seen the risen Jesus.
The Bible’s eyewitness accounts: There are four different accounts (by eyewitnesses and an historian) of Jesus’ life in the Bible, written in the years shortly after his resurrection. If they had been false in any way, they would have been discredited instantly because the people first reading them were the people alive during Jesus’ life. The fact that so many believed these retellings, and the fact that the accounts were so widely spread, indicates that they matched the reality.
Historical records: The Bible isn’t the only text that talks about Jesus. There are Roman documents, along with writings from Jewish teachers, Roman senators and historians of the time, that agree on the existence of Jesus, his death on the cross, and the certainty that his followers believed he was God.
For example, Josephus, a Jewish historian (AD 37–101) who wrote The Antiquities of the Jews in AD 93, mentions John the Baptist’s death and the execution of James. He also gave
Jesus did actually walk out of his own grave. He was who he said he was.
numerous accounts of Jesus, whom he describes as a wise man and teacher who worked amazing deeds, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and had followers called Christians.
Cornelius Tacticus, a Roman senator and renowned ancient historian (AD 56–120), also wrote of Christ’s death under Pontius Pilate and the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
Caring Enough To Take It
Seriously
sure. so jesus’ followers could have gone all “mission impossible” to steal Jesus’ body through a sealed, guarded stone tomb. And then they could have gone to their deaths (some of which were pretty grim, involving stuff like beheadings and hungry lions) to protect their lie that Jesus had actually come back from the dead. They could have misled millions of people over the last 2,000 years and pulled off the most impressive heist in history. It’s possible. It’s also highly unlikely.
The most straightforward explanation of all the evidence is that Jesus did actually walk out of his own grave. He was who he said he was. He died for our wrongs; he rose again to offer us a new
and forgiven life with him right now, and forever. This is the way he totally transformed his first followers’ lives; it is the way he can impact ours too.
The story of Jesus doesn’t end with his resurrection. We’re told that God wants “everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For [God] has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising [Jesus] from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). The time will come when God really will get rid of everything that is not 100% good.
Before Jesus was executed, however, he promised his followers: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am” (John 14:1–3). We don’t have to face Jesus as our judge. He invites us to know him as our Saviour—our Saviour who promises us a new life with him now and a place in his good, perfect home after we die. In fact, we are told that God sent Jesus to
die for us “so that he could adopt us as his very own children” (Galatians 4:5).
Trusting Jesus isn’t just about getting a place in heaven; it’s about belonging to God and living life as an important part of his family!
Such a significant subject deserves investigation. Lewis Wallace could have just accepted Robert Ingersoll’s arguments without looking into it himself, but he didn’t. British writer C. S. Lewis, who famously turned from atheism to trust Jesus in 1931, once said: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
What you make of Jesus and the Easter events is up to you. If you want to think more about who Jesus is, the best way to start is by reading the accounts of his life in the Bible. Our Daily Bread Ministries also has lots of other booklets available which explain Christianity in more detail and go over the evidence more thoroughly. You can read them online at odb.org
Ultimately the key question we’re left with is this: if there is any chance that Jesus really did come back from the dead, isn’t it worth taking it seriously?
We invite you to talk to a Christian friend or attend a church to find out more about Jesus.
© 2020 Our Daily Bread Ministries. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Do you want to find out more about Jesus? A Story of Hope is a booklet that can tell you more about who Jesus is and what He has done and will do for you. Scan the QR Code to read it online, or contact us if you would like to receive a print copy. We invite you to also check out odb.org to view our other printed and digital resources.
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