The proof of the pudding
When someone makes extraordinary claims as Jesus did, the obvious thing to do is to ask the question: Do the other things we know about this person support such claims or not? I suggest there are four lines of evidence that support his claims. Each, taken separately, presents a compelling argument. Together they present overwhelming evidence. I shall avoid using the word "proof"! Each person must weigh up the evidence for themselves.
His character supports his claims
In all of history has there been anyone whose character and sheer goodness has shone so brightly? Although his claims seem egocentric, his life-style was humble. He avoided publicity and refused to perform miracles to please the crowds. He taught his disciples that service to others was the mark of greatness. He left them with a servant model by washing their feet. He deliberately sought out the despised of society, yet seemed equally at ease with the upper classes.
"We have here an example of love that is beyond human comprehension. At every point his teaching and example are one of a kind"
His life exemplified his own teaching. He said to the religious Jews, "How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God," and at the same time appeared immune to the praise or blame of others. He taught that "a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions," and demonstrated his own freedom from the grip of material things. As far as we know, he only possessed the clothes he wore. He condemned hypocrisy in others and gave no hint of it in himself.
He told his disciples to love their enemies and he himself prayed for forgiveness for those who nailed him on the cross. His compassion for others comes through in every chapter of the story. If, as the New Testament constantly affirms, he laid down his life for the sins of the human race, to reconcile people to God, we have here an example of love that is beyond human comprehension. At every point his teaching and his example are one of a kind.
His self-assurance and courage stand out clearly, and nowhere more so than at his trial. J. B. Phillips, who translated the New Testament into modern English, says of him:
This man could be moved with compassion and could be very gentle, but...he was quite terrifyingly tough, not in a James Bond sort of way, but in the sheer strength of a unified and utterly dedicated personality.
His attitude to women was in sharp contrast to the customs of the age, indeed of any age. Dorothy Sayers, in her book Are Women Human? sums this up aptly:
They had never known a man like this Man - there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as "The women, God help us!" or "The ladies, God bless them!"; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unselfconscious.
He showed particular kindness towards divorced women, prostitutes and his mother.
It is interesting to note what his closest friends made of him. John declared, "We have seen his glory...full of grace and truth" (John 1:14) and "in him is no sin" ( 1 John 3:5). Peter said, "He committed no sin" (1 Peter 2:22). These were men who spent two-and-a-half years as his closest companions. Paul, who did not know Christ personally while he was on earth, but who knew many who did, said that he "had no sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
His enemies sought to find fault with him over a period of two or more years. However, at his trial they could find no evidence against him, other than that of blasphemy for claiming to be the Messiah, and of insurrection for claiming to be a king. When they attacked his character they only contradicted themselves. Pilate, though allowing him to be crucified out of cowardice, declared twice, "I find no basis for a charge against him" (John 19:4,6). Even the traitor Judas confessed that he had betrayed an innocent man (Matthew 27:4).
What are we to make of such a man? The Russian author Dostoevski, in a letter to his brother, put it like this:
I want to say to you that I am a child of this age, a child of unbelief and scepticism and yet...I believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more human and more perfect than the Saviour.
Wakasa no Kami was a Japanese feudal lord. In 1854 he discovered a waterlogged copy of a Dutch translation of the Bible floating in the waves. He acquired a Chinese translation and studied it for eleven years. One day he appeared at the door of Verbeck, the first Protestant missionary to Japan, with fifty retainers in full regalia, and asked for baptism. He declared:
I cannot tell you my feelings when for the first time I read the account of the character and work of Jesus Christ. I had never seen, heard or imagined such a person. I was filled with admiration, overwhelmed with emotion and taken captive by the record of his nature and life.
Marcus Loane, biblical scholar and Archbishop, summed all this up well when he declared:
His life was marked by a moral perfection which people might try to describe but could never invent. His death was invested with a sacrificial value which could only have derived from one who was sinless. That perfection of character under every test and in every circumstance could not be the product of an imperfect group of disciples. There was no one like him: no saint or seer; no prophet or psalmist; he was unique. And the glory of the New Testament is that it shows how God sent His Son into this world that by means of him our sins may be forgiven.
His teaching supports his claims
One aspect of his teaching that constantly impressed his hearers was the authoritative manner with which he spoke: "...the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law" (Matthew 7:29); "The people were all so amazed that they asked one another, 'What is this? A new teaching - and with authority!'" (Mark 1:27). Jesus never quoted any authorities other than the Old Testament Scriptures. He never said, "Rabbi so-and-so says this". Neither did he hide behind the authority of Jehovah as the prophets of old: "Thus says the Lord". He simply declared, "Truly I say to you".
"I call myself a Christian because I discern in the New Testament a man whose life, death and central teaching penetrates more deeply into the mysterious reality of our condition than anyone or anything else has ever done"
There is a wisdom and comprehensiveness about the ethical teaching of Christ that has never been surpassed. He dealt with all the most vital issues of life: our relationship with God and with one another, our attitude to material possessions, our motivations and goals in life, and the relationship of this life to the next. Philip Toynbee, reviewer and writer, expressed it this way:
I call myself a Christian because I discern in the New Testament a man whose life, death and central teaching penetrates more deeply into the mysterious reality of our condition than anyone or anything else has ever done. In the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, I find a total view of what man is, of what he could be and ought to be,which evokes a response in me such as no other writings have ever done.
During the last 2,000 years no teaching on the subject of how people should behave has emerged that represents any advance on Jesus' model. According to G. Thomas:
...since the days of Christ, in spite of all the progress of thought, not a single new ethical ideal has been given to the world.
There is also a challenge in his teaching that has not been equalled. He drew attention to thoughts and motives as well as outward behaviour (Matthew 5:21,22, 27,28; Mark 7:6,21-23; Luke 12:15; John 5:44, etc.). There is an uncanny way in which he always gets to the core of an issue. It is therefore difficult to study the gospels with moral neutrality. Carnegie Simpson, in his book The Fact of Christ, says:
The historical fact of Christ has religious issues because of its moral challenge. As we study, our conscience is aroused. As we examine him intellectually, he examines us spiritually, and the roles are reversed. We study Aristotle and are intellectually edified thereby. We study Jesus and are in the profoundest way spiritually disturbed. We are constrained to take up some inward moral attitude of heart and will in relation to Jesus. A man may study Jesus with intellectual impartiality, but he cannot do it with moral neutrality. We must declare our colours.
Jesus also had the ability to take the ordinary experiences of everyday people and use them to illustrate, in unforgettable ways, the deeper truths of life. The method of his teaching, as well as its content, was unique. Although he had never had higher education he impressed his hearers. "The Jews were amazed and asked, 'How did this man get such learning without having studied?'" (John 7:15). How indeed?
Here again, the problem between his claims and the wisdom of his teaching is highlighted. As Elton Trueblood put it:
All four Gospels bristle with supernatural claims on the part of Jesus. If he was only a teacher, he was a very misleading one.
Or to quote C. S. Lewis again:
...the discrepancy between the depth and sanity and (let me add) shrewdness of his moral teaching, and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind his theological teaching, unless he is indeed God, has never been satisfactorily got over.
His miracles support his claims
The influential Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, noted:
It is now recognised that the one Christ for whose existence there is any evidence at all is a miraculous figure making stupendous claims.
The gospel stories contain numerous examples of Jesus healing all kinds of illnesses and, in three instances, raising the dead. He also demonstrated his powers over nature. These miracles, as Archibald Alexander puts it:
...were performed, for the most part, in an open and public manner, in the presence of multitudes of witnesses, under the inspection of learned and malignant enemies, in a great variety of circumstances, and for several years in succession. His enemies never denied these signs.
In today's materialistic world these miracles appear as an embarrassment. We distrust anything that does not have a "scientific" explanation. However, I suspect that the problem is often not so much with Jesus' miracles as with his claims. The question we ought to be asking is, "If Jesus was the one through whom the universe was created, would we expect his life to be different?" If he had the power to heal, and did not do so, then would we use this as an argument to dispute his claims?
Jesus himself claimed that his works were evidence that the Father had sent him. He urged both his disciples and his opponents to believe in him on the basis of these works if they found it difficult to believe on the basis of any other evidence (John 5:36; 10:37,38; 14:11). However, he studiously avoided performing miracles just for show or to obtain a following. John calls his miracles "signs" - signs of who he was and what he had come to do.
The greatest of all miracles in the life of Jesus was his own resurrection. I have dealt with this in a separate booklet, Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? as it is worth a booklet on its own.
His influence in history supports his claims
We divide history into BC and AD because of Jesus! H. G. Wells said:
I am an historian. I am not a believer. But I must confess, as an historian, this penniless creature from Galilee is irresistibly the centre of history.
Jesus has captured the heart and mind and allegiance of peasant and king, of intellectual and illiterate the world over. Wherever the message of this man has been proclaimed, among all races and cultures, people have turned from their own ways to follow him. His influence in art, music and literature is incalculable.
So much of what may be called "progress" has been done in his name: the abolition of slavery; the building of hospitals; the development of the nursing profession; the reform of prisons; the abolition of child labour; the care of orphans and the elderly; the foundation of innumerable charitable organisations such as the Red Cross and the YMCA; the development of education worldwide, particularly of the lower classes; pioneer work with lepers; literacy projects all round the world; the abolition of forced labour in the Congo; resistance to black-birding in the Pacific; the ending of cannibalism and child sacrifice on several continents; the fight for human rights in combating opium, foot-binding and exposure of girl babies in China; the war against widow-burning, infanticide and temple prostitution in India - the list goes on and on. Until comparatively recently eighty percent of all education in Africa south of the Sahara was done by Christian missionaries.
Historian Ruth Tucker says:
The ministry of missionary medicine during the twentieth century has been without a doubt the greatest humanitarian effort the world has ever known.
As late as 1935, half the hospitals in China were run by missionaries. Even the foundations of modern science were laid in the name of this man from Nazareth, as were the foundations of Western music.
Much of the influence of Jesus is well documented in the book What If Jesus Had Never Been Born by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe (Word Publishing, 1994). This is an excellent book as it does not overlook the failures of those who claim to be his followers. It is no wonder that the Encyclopaedia Britannica gives far more space to the historic Jesus than any other human figure.
His influence has not diminished today. Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette has observed that:
Never has Jesus had so wide and so profound an effect upon humanity as in the past three or four generations. Through him, millions of individuals have been transformed and have begun to live the kind of life which he exemplified...Gauged by the consequences, the events which have followed the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus have been the most important events in the history of man. Measured by his influence, Jesus is central in the human story.
Christians claim that this influence stems not only from his life on earth, but also from his resurrection and continued activity in the lives of his people by the Holy Spirit. If we deny this, then we are left with the belief that it all grew out of the impact of a mere three years ministry of this remarkable man, in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire, and that alone.
