The Rock of Christianity
The foundation upon which Christianity rests is Jesus Christ. The gospel writers Luke (1:1-4) and John (20:30-31) made known that Christianity is a historical religion. Christianity cannot be apart from the Christ of history.
Christ’s Historicity: Witness of the Pagans
The great Roman historian Tacitus (A.D. 55-A.D. 117) associated the name and beginnings of Christianity with “Christus” who in the Emperor Tiberius’ reign was executed under the judgment of Pontius Pilate, the Procurator.
Pliny, propraetor of Bithynia and Pontus of Asia Minor, sought the advice of the Emperor Trajan around A.D. 112 concerning the Christians. Pliny’s letter to Trajan offers excellent extra-Biblical information about Christ. He highly honored the Christians’ morality, and he acknowledges that the Christians sing to Christ as if He is God.
Suetonius’ Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Vita Claudius (25:4) says that the Jews were thrown out of Rome by Claudius because of riots over “Chrestos” (i.e. Christ).
Lucian (c. A.D. 125-c. A.D. 190) around A.D. 170 wrote a satire on Christians and the Christian faith. Lucian wrote that Christ was crucified for starting a new cult. He also wrote that the Christians believed that Christ taught them that they were brothers and ought to obey His laws. He further mocked them for bowing down to a crucified sophist.
These witnesses by the pagans are greatly important as historical evidence because they come from cultured Romans who generally mocked Christianity. On this foundation, in addition to the Bible which is also a historical writing, Christ did historically exist.
Christ’s Historicity: Jewish Witness
Flavius Josephus (c. A.D. 37-c. A.D. 100), a rich Jew who attempted to defend Judaism to the cultured Romans in his writings, mentioned Christ. He mentioned James the brother of Jesus who was assumed to be Christ. Josephus thought of Christ as a man of wisdom who was condemned to die on a Roman cross by Pilate. Josephus was not friendly toward Christianity. As such his mentioning of Christ garners more historical importance.
Christ’s Historicity: Christian Apocryphal Witness and Catacomb Graffiti
Numerous apocryphal gospels, acts, epistles, and apocalypses are founded upon the historical existence of Christ. Inscriptions and pictures of the dove, the fish, the anchor, and many other Christian symbols in the Roman catacombs offer evidence to the belief in a historical Christ in addition to the existence of the Christian calendar, Sunday as the day of Christian worship, and the Christian church itself.
Christ’s Character
Holy Scripture offers some points on the personality and character of Jesus Christ. In reading the Gospels, Jesus has a profound originality. When Jewish and other authorities quote others as authorities for sundry statements, Jesus basically gave the phrase “I say.” These occurrences in the Gospels show Jesus’ original, creative thought which amazed the people of His day (Mark 1:22; Luke 4:32). Jesus’ genuineness is very apparent in the scriptural record. Jesus was the only person on earth that had nothing to hide and could be completely Himself (John 8:46). The Gospels also bear witness to Jesus’ balanced character. There was no excess in Jesus’ character. This can only be sufficiently explained by the historical account of Jesus’ Virgin Birth.
Christ’s Work
The awe-inspiring importance of Christ’s personality is not separate from His work. His work was vigorous and submissive. In His three year ministry, Jesus evidenced righteousness as demanded by the Law in addition to His innate righteousness as God’s only begotten Son. His external and earned righteousness allowed Him to die for people who could never meet that standard and was in need of a perfect substitute to take their place in order to pay the penalty for sin and receive God’s grace and forgiveness. His vigorous work had its counterpart in His submissive work which was His willing submittal to death on a Roman Cross (Philippians 2:5-8). Christ’s work, manifested in these two historical stages, are brought together in His statement about His ministry of suffering service (Mark 10:45).
Christ’s Work: His Ministry
Not much is known of Christ’s early years in Nazareth except for His trip to Jerusalem with His parents at age twelve (Luke 2:41-50) and a few scattered mentionings of His mother and brothers. It can be legitimately assumed that Jesus received an Old Testament-based education at home and in the local synagogue school for children. Jesus would have also learned the trade of His earthly father Joseph, carpentry. Jewish children were expected to receive instruction in a trade. Nazareth was located on a major trade route so Jesus would have had ample chances of seeing life in the outside world as it passed through the town. Jesus’ sermons and parables show us that He was very observant of nature. Jesus knows God from natural revelation and the special revelation of God’s written word recorded in the Old Testament. As Luke 2:52 tells us, Jesus grew in body, mind, and spirit getting ready for the great task that was awaiting Him.
The ministry of Jesus was preceded by that of His cousin John the Baptist. His baptism by John the Baptist was Jesus’ first public appearance. Afterward Jesus most often worked in Jewish areas throughout His ministry. This was in keeping with His intent to save the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24).
Following the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus chose His disciples who would continue the work under the Holy Spirit after His resurrection and ascension. In Cana of Galilee Jesus performed His first miracle by changing the water into wine. He then had a short visit to Jerusalem during which He cleansed the Temple and had His famous discussion with Nicodemus. That interview revealed the spiritual nature of Jesus’ ministry (John 3:3, 5, 7). Jesus returned to Galilee via Samaria where His discussion with the woman at the well (John 4) showed that His ministry would be open to non-Jews and without regard to gender though the priority would still be on the Jews.
After being rejected in Nazareth, Jesus made Capernaum His headquarters for His Galilean ministry. Galilee made up the majority of His ministerial activity. Jesus did three journeys through Galilee. His first journey through eastern Galilee was replete with healings and the finishing of His choice of disciples. Jesus also declared perfectly the principles that should govern personal conduct. This was exemplified in the Sermon on the Mount in which true religion was internalized. It was a matter of the spirit which goes deeper than the external demands of the Law.
The zenith of Jesus’ second journey through southern Galilee was His parables about His kingdom (Matthew 13). More miracles showed that His words were bolstered by deeds. His third journey furthered the work of teaching, preaching, and healing.
These three Galilean journeys were followed by short retreats in which Jesus concentrated on the instruction of His disciples. However, Jesus did meet the needs of the people who came to Him. He showed His power over nature on the Sea of Galilee. He continued healing, and He continued to show His power.
This in turn was followed by a brief ministry in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths at which time Jesus boldly faced increasing antagonism from the Jewish religious leaders, namely the Pharisees and Sadducees. Because of this, Jesus retreated to Perea which was beyond Jordan during which time He taught and healed. This was followed by the last week in Jerusalem wherein Jesus confronted very publicly the massed opposition from the Jewish national and religious leaders. Jesus condemned their outward religiosity in His parables. The weekend wherein He willfully died on a Roman cross brought His active ministry to an end. After His bodily resurrection—an established fact of history founded on the documents of the New Testament (Acts 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:4-8)—Jesus appeared to His own disciples. The climax of His entire ministry occurred with His ascension into heaven in the presence of His disciples. This was prefaced by His promise to send the Holy Spirit in His stead and to personally return again to this earth.
The Christian church is indeed blessed to have four written accounts of the ministry of Jesus Christ. The Gospel writers offered their own unique perspectives. Matthew portrayed Jesus as the promised Messiah in fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. Mark, appealing to a Roman mindset, emphasized the urgency and practicality of Jesus’ ministry as the Son of Man. Luke, a historian and a Greek physician (Luke 1:1-4), placed Jesus’ ministry within a historical context and presented the human side of His ministry with particular emphasis on the least, the last, and the lost. John showed Jesus as the Son of God with the power to bring blessing and salvation to all those who accept Him by faith (John 1:12; 20:30-31).
Christ’s Work: Mission
The lively part of Christ’s ministry on earth was in preparation for His submissive work through suffering and death on a Roman cross. This was foretold by the Prophets (see Isaiah 53). This event would bring about the ultimate defeat of evil and release from sin (Galatians 3:10, 13) those who accept Him and use the spiritual power of His work on the cross (Ephesians 1:19-23; 3:20). This was why Jesus came to earth. The Gospels call attention to this fact in such references as Matthew 16:21; Mark 8:31; and Luke 9:44.
Christ’s Work: Message
Dying on a Roman cross for humanity’s salvation was indeed the paramount mission of Jesus Christ, but His chief message was something else. A study of the Gospels shows that Jesus’ core message was the kingdom of God. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus talked about “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of heaven”. There has been significant theological debate about these terms over time, but most will now probably agree that these phrases refer to the reign of God that manifests itself both now and in the not yet future.
Christ’s Work: Miracles
The miracles of Jesus Christ were many, and they formed a vital portion of His earthly ministry. These miracles revealed God’s glory and power. They showed that Jesus was indeed the Son of God (John 2:22-23; 3:2; 9:3). Belief would hopefully follow, and God would be honored. Persons who rely solely on human reason and empirical data have denied the possibility of miracles, and they have attempted to explain them away using natural laws or dismissing them as myths. This would bring a person to deny that the records of miracles are historical. Miracles are supernatural acts that cannot be analyzed through natural laws, but they are unique interventions of Deity for moral reasons. Miracles happened because Jesus did them, and the historical records of His miracles are historical facts. Christ’s person and work was validated through the many eyewitnesses of His time directly as a result of the miracles He performed.
Christ’s Work: Significance
Jesus has been viewed in many ways resulting from the vivid presentation of Him in the Gospels. Some have viewed Him solely via the creeds. The mystics saw Him as an immediate individual experience. As we shall see later in another course, some in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries saw Him as only the Jesus of history and stripped Him of all supernatural layers resulting in Him being just an unusual man. The true Christian has always viewed Jesus as the divine and human Anointed One of God.
Christ’s historical significance is manifested in the new value placed on human personality. The Greeks thought the dignity of human personality was because human beings are rational beings, but the Christian church has always maintained human personality has dignity because human beings can be and are children of God through having faith in Jesus Christ. This Christian view results in the humanizing of life. Class, gender, race have all been torn down in the Christian community; and social reform has made life better for all people. The internalizing of religion rather than external legalism is the byproduct of human personality interacting with the crucified Christ. Great is the influence of Christ on the arts and literature.
Summary of the Lesson
The death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, along with His character, work, and teachings, constitute the beginning of Christianity. Numerous religions could exist without their human founders, but Christ cannot be separated from Christianity. Christ provided to His church the two sacramental ordinances, the Apostles, its fundamental message of the kingdom of God, its paramount discipline (Matthew 16:16-19; 18:15-20), and the Holy Spirit to be the One to work through the Christian church in the spread of the Good News to all the world. Christ left no fundamental organizational structure, no clearly defined systematic theology, nor personally authored sacred books and writings. All of these things would be sorted out by the Apostles under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Questions
1. How do we know that Jesus Christ is a historical person and what are the historical evidences?
2. What makes the personality and character of Jesus Christ special?
3. How does Christ’s person and work constitute the beginning of Christianity?
