VERITAS
"Jesus: Legend or Lord? - Part 2"
By Craig Branch
Jul-Aug 2003
In
our last Areopagus Journal (Vol.
3, No. 3), we began our
apologetics response to the attacks on the trustworthiness
of the gospel accounts of Jesus and His message, as well
as His incarnational Deity. This issue is part two of that
theme, focusing on the historical Jesus and especially
on the centerpiece of the Christian faith – the reliability
of His resurrection. As important as the accuracy of the
life and teachings of Jesus is for the world, these events
mean nothing without the true historical event of His death
and bodily resurrection. His bodily resurrection affirms
both his identity as the unique God-man and true Lord,
and His atoning work which offers the gospel of eternal
salvation to all men.
The resurrection
was the center of apostolic preaching and therefore is
ours today (Acts 2,4,10,13,17). In Romans
10:9,
I
Thessalonians 4:14 and in I
Corinthians 15, Paul says that belief in the bodily
resurrection of Christ is absolutely
essential to the Christian faith. If Christ be not raised,
our preaching is useless, our faith is useless, the apostles
were false witnesses, our faith is in vain, we are still
in our sins, and those dead in Christ were deluded and
lost
(1
Cor. 15:14-19).
The
reliability of this historical event has manifold meanings
for Christians and
the world.
Because of this event we can
actually have and experience a new beginning (and many new
beginnings), receive real power for living the life we are
designed to live, and look to eternity with a confident expectation
(the Biblical meaning of the word “hope”). Without
the bodily resurrection of Christ, all Christians have is
another human philosophy however noble, inspiring and useful.
With
all this at stake, it is no wonder that the attacks, denials,
and rejections
are
manifold. Along with the skeptics,
atheists and agnostics, there are the Muslims and Jehovah’s
Witnesses who deny the bodily resurrection and deity of Christ.
According to George Barna, even 35% of professing “born
again Christians” deny the bodily resurrection. Most
Protestant and many Roman Catholic seminaries, and thus churches,
are liberal and neo-orthodox and regard the resurrection
and much of the life of Christ as legend, allegory, myth
or symbol. It appears that Satan uses the same strategy as
he did to tempt man in the Garden. He came to Eve and said, “Did
God say. . .?”
In
this issue of Areopagus Journal, we have asked Dr. Craig
Evans, a distinguished
New Testament
professor, to respond
to the liberal perspective on the historical Jesus. In the
article, “What Can We Know About the Historical Jesus?,” Evans
uses recognized historical methodology to discover what we
can know accurately about Jesus. He responds directly to
the charges with evidence gleaned using the historical criteria
of multiple attestation, dissimilarity, and embarrassment,
and points also to recent archeological discoveries. Evans
ties together certain themes of Jesus’ life and message
with overall biblical themes, which demonstrates both the
cohesiveness and coherence of the message.
Also
in this journal, ARC associate director and journal editor
Dr. Steve Cowan focuses on
the historical reliability
and certainty of Christ’s resurrection. He, too,
utilizes sound historical methodology to test and prove
the superiority
of the Christian’s historical belief in Christ’s
resurrection against naturalistic hypotheses. These two
essays demonstrate the problems with the liberal media’s
darling, the Jesus Seminar, as well as the likes of John
Shelby Spong
and his arguments outlined in his Rescuing the Bible From
Fundamentalism.
There are also occult forms of attack on the resurrection.
These come to us through Oprah and the media. We have popular
psychics John Edwards, James Van Praagh, and near-death advocates
like popular author Betty Eadie. And then there are the claims
of the many New Age groups and individuals who assert the
doctrine of reincarnation over the resurrection.1
Whereas
the above so-called supernatural claims may have some supernatural
occult implications, most of them are explainable
by the art of human deception and technique. Yet the life,
meaning, and resurrection of Jesus Christ can be shown
to be beyond human deception. For example, Josh McDowell
notes
that there are at least 332 prophesies in the Old Testament
revealing Jesus Christ.2 Concerning His death, burial,
and resurrection, one should be directed to the startling
clarity
of Isaiah
53; Psalm
22; Zechariah
12:10; 13:6;
and Psalm
16:10; 2:7 when
compared with the accounts in the Gospels and Acts
2:31; Acts
13:13-17.
So
the fact of the historical Jesus (which necessarily includes
his death, burial and
resurrection and its revealed meaning)
is Christianity. It, by necessity, goes far beyond merely
a concept in the world of religious ideas, but it is a fact
in the world of space, time, and reality. Because this is
a fact, it has ultimate significance and meaning for mankind—yesterday,
today, and forever. Let us explore the objective truths and
experiential implications for mankind.
One
should expect that the meaning of the historical fact
of the death, burial,
and resurrection
of Jesus, if true,
should combine both a supernatural element as well as be
coherent and cohesive throughout. It does. In the Old Testament,
God established the sacrificial system within His chosen
nation. One especially significant feature of this system
was the annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). It was then
that the high priest entered the holy of holies with a
blood sacrifice to make substitutionary atonement for all
the sins
of the people of Israel (Lev.
16). Even so, God reveals that the sacrifice itself
was unable to atone for sin, but it
must be accompanied by God’s free grace (Hos.
6:6; Micah
6:6-8; Ps.
51; Heb.
9:9f).
The culmination
of all this is the Person and work of Christ (Matt.
8:16f; Luke
2:38; John
3:14f; 8:56;
Rom
4:1-25; 10:11-13;
1
Cor. 5:7; Heb.
9:15; 10:12-14;
1
Pet. 1:18f). Christ literally fulfills the
established priestly office
of the
Old Testament
(Heb.
6:20-9:26). Christ is the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world as the High Priest and
serves also
as our redeemer (Ps.
49:7; Isa.
43:3; Mark
10:45; 1
Peter 1:18f; Luke
1:67-79; John
1:29).
Christ’s
office as King of kings and Lord of lords is rooted in
the Old Testament prophecies of the perpetual
throne and Kingdom of David (2
Sam. 7:12f; Ps.
89:3f), and thus the Messiah is anticipated in
royal terms (Isa.
9:6f; Jer.
30:8f; Ezek.
37:21f). Christ’s Kingship
is inextricably and intrinsically linked to Calvary as
he overcame the
enslaving powers of darkness. His resurrection sealed and
declared
the reality of His triumph (Rev.
17:14; 1:5;
19:16;
1
Tim. 6:15-16; Eph.
1:20-23).
The
historical fact and fulfillment of Christ’s work
has dramatic implications for us. Scripture tells us, for
example, that when we accept Christ as Savior, it is an
actual historical fact with God that our old sinful,
lost nature
died with Christ. And because Christ was raised as an historic
fact, we too shall be raised immortal, in Him (Romans
6:5-8). And even more (how good can it get!),
all of these great
truths of Christ’s fulfillment are brought into the
area of our present Christian life – true spirituality,
right now!
The
manifestations of Christ’s satisfaction, redemption
and victory in the cross and resurrection are wonderfully
exegeted in John Stott’s book, The Cross of Christ.3
Stott reminds us that the reversal of the Fall and the
victory over Satan began with the ministry of Christ. We
see the
kingdom advancing, demons cast out, sicknesses healed,
and even disordered nature obeying Him (Mark
4:39). The final conquest was achieved at the cross
and resurrection when
the “strong man” (Satan) was bound, death was
destroyed and the captives set free (Heb.
2:14-15, Rev.
12:10-11).
Christ’s
position and activity now as Lord and second Adam over
everything in heaven and earth has given to believers
victory over physical and spiritual death. The same Holy
Spirit active within the Trinity that made Jesus alive
has made us alive as well (2
Cor. 4:14; 2
Rom. 8:11; John
11:25; Eph.
2:4-9; Col.
2:13-15; 1
Pet. 3:18). We have the great news that we
have the same resurrection power to
overcome
sin (Phil.
3:10-11; Rom.
6:5-12, 20-22;
1
Cor. 15:57-58). But as Romans
6 exhorts us, “Knowing
these things,” we
are still responsible to “present ourselves to God
as those alive from the dead” and to not “present
the members of our body to sin.” We are to “put
on the whole armor of God” and to “fight the
good fight,” knowing that the power and victory are
ours to be realized. We are to “resist the Devil
and he will flee from you” (1
Pet. 5:8-9; Jas.
4:7). We live in the “already but
not yet” phase
of His kingdom.
Yes,
it does make all the difference in the world if the Gospels’ account
of Jesus is true. Jesus said He came that we might experience
the abundant life. He also came
not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom
for many. He came to seek and save those who are lost.
He said, “As I was sent, so I send you” (John
17:18). We have a positive message and we are
positive about our
message. Let us all go out and persuade men, yet with gentleness
and reverence. AJ
Craig
Branch is the Director of the Apologetics Resource Center in Birmingham,
Alabama.
NOTES
1 For free information packets on any of the above, contact
our office. 2 Josh McDowell, Evidence
that Demands a Verdict (San Bernadino, CA: Here’s
Life, 1979), 175.
3 John R.W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity,1986). (top) |
