Evidence of things not seen

An aborigine living his entire life in the deepest jungles of Africa would have no idea of Jesus’ identity. Forty-five years ago, I taught Matthew’s Christmas story to a Sunday school class. Afterward, a teenage boy approached me and asked, “Mr. Bill, who was this Baby Jesus you were speaking about?” This young man had never heard of Jesus. In most cases, you cannot know Jesus unless you read about Him in the gospels, you hear about Him in church, or someone witnesses to you.

Matthew, Mark and Luke testify that Jesus is the Son of God. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, as Jesus came out of the water, the Holy Spirit, as a dove, descended upon Jesus. Immediately, God spoke from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” At the transfiguration of Jesus, as He stood with Moses and Elijah, God again spoke these words: “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” John’s gospel concludes by saying, “These are written that you might know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and through belief in Him, you may have life in His name.”

In neither history books nor non-biblical historical accounts can you find complete information on Jesus regarding His birth, ministry, death and resurrection. Consequently, our knowledge of Jesus’ life is confined to the four gospels, which were not written until 40 to 65 years after Jesus’ lifetime. The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) vary from John’s gospel on the Christology of Jesus. The prologue to John’s gospel declares that Jesus was more than the Son of God. John 1, verses 1-3 and verse 14 assert that Jesus was preexistent with God and became a human being who “dwelt among us.” In John 14:10, Jesus stated, “The Father dwells in Me.” In this connection, a paraphrased version of II Corinthians 5:19 states that God was working through Christ to reconcile sinners by not counting their trespasses against them.

Only few “non-biblical” accounts of Jesus are extant. Those that still exist provide no details regarding Jesus’ life. Most identify Him as Christus, the leader of a sect whose beliefs were outside mainstream Judaism. Within the New Testament, the Pauline epistles and apostolic letters are primarily doctrinal. The Old Testament contains prophesies about the coming of a Messianic king who is thought to be Jesus. Thus, the discovery of Jesus is limited to the four gospels.

To conclude, in most cases, you cannot know Jesus unless someone witnesses to you the plan of salvation or you find Him on the pages of the New Testament. That’s why it’s important that pastors and church members alike communicate the gospel message to the unsaved. Once Jesus’ identity becomes known to a person, the Scriptures state that salvation is attainable only through faith in Jesus as Savior. Faith, as defined by Hebrews 11:1, is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

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