Get to Know Jesus Christ
At London International Church of Christ, we believe the life of Jesus to be a historical fact that proves the existance of a Judeo Christian God, Yahweh, or Jehovah.
Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, sent to the World to spread His word, who lived among us before being killed unjustly. Jesus died having taken on our sins before God raised him once more to grant anyone who has faith in him and his forgiveness the gift of eternal life.
Who is Jesus Christ?
Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, sent to our world to spread His word and reveal himself to us.
Jesus was God’s way of telling his people that he existed, and spreading the word that by getting to know Christ, the saviour, and by trusting in him to forgive our sins you will receive his gift of eternal life (John 3:16)
God saw the sins of the people of the world and looked for a way to spread his message of love. When he saw that his people continued to partake in self-destructive activities despite the prophets He sent for this purpose he was heart-broken. With this approach proving unsuccessful (Acts 7:52) God sent his own Son, Jesus Christ to spend time on Earth.
Why did the son of God come to Earth?
But why? You would think there would be an easier way for God to tell people about Him that sending His own son to live among us. A book, for example?
Well, there are plenty of books in the Bible that do just that, with Leviticus and Deuteronomy in particular revealing a lot about the love of God to Israel when studied closely. If these books are a bit dry, understandable especially for those starting out in their journey to knowing Jesus Christ, there are countless stories full of intrigue and adventure in the Bible about those who walked with God and those who did not.
In these tales we are asked to judge ourselves what the right path was and what lessons we can learn about out own lives and the relationship we want to have with God. Other passages are less ambiguous and explicitly state God’s view on how we should live our lives in his image.
One of the many great things about the Bible is that no-one in the many stories told, besides Jesus Christ Himself, live a perfect life, making mistakes and sinning, just as we all do. In fact, many of the people in the Bible are simply evil, whilst most are neither wholly bad or good, with failures and traits that you may well see in yourself through a period of self-refection. When reading the Bible, be critical in your thinking and discuss with other mature, godly, people the message that God wants us to take from these stories before replicating the actions of those involved in your own life!
Other ways in which God demonstrates his immeasurable greatness and great might (Ephesians 1:19) to us is through miracles. You may well have wondered why God doesn’t simply reveal Himself through miracles that break the laws of physics or similar impossible feats that no force on earth is capable of.
Well, the Bible tells us that he did indeed do this in the past, through Moses who asked the Pharaoh to let his people go before splitting the Red Sea to aid in their escape, and later through His son Jesus Christ who walked on water and turned water into wine.
God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), however, and the laws of physics are evidence of good design that God Himself put in place and have been unearthed over time by the great scientists of our day. The work of Newton, Einstein, James Clark Maxwell, and many more genius minds does not, as some believe, disprove God’s existence, but reinforces His desire for a stable environment in which we can enjoy and discover together. Just think for a moment, you have probably wished to see a miracle with your own eyes, but how would you react is the rules of the world you have lived in all your life were suddenly broken? If gravity vanished or time stood still? Your first thought would probably be panic, not oh look there’s God showing me he’s real!
Before Jesus was born, this is exactly what would have happened, and with second hand stories proving ineffective in spreading the word of the only true God, drastic action was needed to reveal the truth to mankind. This is exactly what God decided, sending his one and only son to the World to live a “perfect life” and teach the deep truths of God before raising him from the dead when he was killed by the mob.
God’s son was physical and living proof of God’s existance and both took on the sins of the world before his death, and forgave those who accepted forgiveness through faith. It is no surprise then, that Christians are so excited about the life of Jesus, our that Jesus is such a big part of our teaching and discussion at London Church of Christ.
Did Jesus Definitely Exist?
Christians, including us, believe Jesus to be the one true Son of God, whilst others call him a prophet, and others still a fake or a fraud.
The one thing that cannot be disputed, however, is that Jesus Christ lived, walked, and died on Earth. The isn’t one single credible historian who disputes this, and his activities are recorded and recounted by many non-believing writers of the time, including Tacitus, Pliny, Thallus, and Josephus.
Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (born around 53 AD), for example, writing with regard to Nero and the fire of Rome (which Nero blames on the Christians) said, “Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the time of Tiberius” [Annals XV. 44].
Later, Pliny Secundus, the Roman governor of Bithynia, wrote in 112 AD, that christians were, “in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day … sang in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as to a god”, whilst Julius Africanus, in 221 AD, quoted a non-extant document that was written in 52 AD, and stated that “Thallus … explains away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun – unreasonably, as it seems to me”. [this ‘darkness’ is the one mentioned in Matthew 27:45 and is “unreasonable” because, in the Jewish calendar, Passover (when Jesus was crucified) always happened on a full moon, and solar eclipses cannot happen during a full-moon].
These accounts hold a huge amount of weight due to the non-Christian and even anti-Christian tendencies of the authors and there are plenty more slightly more contentious documents that reinforce them. Flavius Josephus, born in 37AD, was a Jew, not a christian, although he was known to align himself with the Christian doctrine at times so his accounts are slightly less universally accepted when those above. He is, however, widely respected for his authentic writings, and stated that “there lived Jesus … wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly … He was the Christ … On the third day, he appeared to them restored to life”.
Time and time again the life of Christ Jesus is recounted and retold and his existence is just as, if not more so, clearly demonstrated by academic literature as any historical figure of similar time such as Julius Caesar. The above quotes from historical scholars may be a bit confusing and technical but they all confirm that even those who believe strongly that he wasn’t the Son of God accept that Jesus was a very real person who lived and died in Palestine during the 1st Century.
Why do we want to get to know Jesus Christ?
How did Jesus spend his time on Earth? How did he gain such a devoted following? What does the Bible have to say on the matter?
Jesus’s life is studied and discussed every single day, both by our church, and by others from all walks of life in every corner of the world. Jesus spoke, Jesus prayed, and Jesus christ died on the cross to save us and bring us closer to God.
Here are some interesting things you might not know about the life of Jesus:
Jesus lived a life like no other
According to the gospels (and Galatians 1:1), Jesus’ life was the “right” one, something attested to by God who raised him from the dead in a new transformed body. There are numerous accounts in the Bible (John, Kings, Luke, Matthew, Acts, Mark and more) of Jesus, His apostles, and certain prophets, raising people from the dead back into their Normal body, but these accounts are only recounted or attested to by those in the Judeo-Christian world.
The only person to ever live a life of “Righteousness” is Jesus Christ.
The Bible says that Jesus is God
The Bible doesn’t just say that Jesus is the Son of God, it says that he IS God, part of a holy trinity made up of the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit that combine to make one true god.
This is an incredibly momentous thing to consider, as the bible tells us that as Jesus is the Word (John 1:14) and the Word was God (John 1:1) God personally died on the cross to save our sins!
Jesus is love
If God is love and Jesus is God (1 John 4:16) then Jesus is Love. This is a message that only Christians believe and whilst others may say that they believe in a God of love and not the Christian God, they often fail to explain where the get the idea of a God of Love from, if not the Bible.
The Roman and Greek Gods, for example, were rarely even friendly, let alone loving, and regularly sent lightning and all sorts of other nasty surprises down on their unsuspecting subjects. The Christian God, truly loves and cares for us, demonstrated by Jesus death who was sent to show us a route to redemption and to see that by admitting that we fall short and asking for forgiveness we will be granted it, along with everlasting life.
What does Jesus’ life tell us about God?
It is often said that God doesn’t care about us, and that he wouldn’t put us through the trials and tribulations of life if he did.
It is simply untrue, however, to say that God does not understand what humans go through during their lives. After all, Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was exposed to all forms of human hardship during his life, from the moment that he was born into great poverty to he moment he was killed in one of the most painful and gruesome ways ever devised by man. When Jesus was born, he was immediately vilified.
His parents weren’t married, for a start, much more of a stigma than it is today, not to mention that they were extremely poor and their society was heavily controlled and oppressed by the Roman Empire. According to Isaiah (53:2) he wasn’t attractive, and experienced mockery throughout much of his life for his teachings. As a child he was required to walk long distances with no rest, never married or had a family of his own, and was disowned by many of his closest friends towards the end of his life.
One of those closest to him betrayed him for money before he was publicly beaten and flogged, despite having committed no crime, before being unjustly put to death is an incredibly painful way. There can be no doubt that if Jesus is God, God knows exactly what it is like to live through the battles of human existance.
What next?
Now you know who Jesus is. Jesus is God who loves us, wants to be loved, and offers eternal salvation to those who want to be saved. To learn more why not attend one of our London Church of Christ small bible study groups or get in touch to learn more…