Why believe in Jesus?

He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4). In truth the resurrection proves all that Christ claimed to be. God would not have raised an impostor. As soon as Saul of Tarsus learned that the One, whom he treated in his blind zeal for God as an impostor, was at the right hand of God, in a moment his proud will was broken, and he who persecuted to the death God’s people, preached the faith which once he destroyed.

No historical event has better proof than that of the resurrection of Christ, and that resurrection was God’s seal upon every word that Christ spoke, every deed that He did, and especially upon the character of the work that He did upon the cross. The resurrection is the Divine upholding of every claim made by Christ.

We can well understand his reply. The resurrection of Christ was miraculous and perfectly unique. That proved, Christianity is proved and infidelity disproved. It was God’s answer to all that He had claimed to be and to have done. It put the coping stone on His life and death. It was God’s great AMEN to every word that He had said on earth, every claim that He made, and above all it was the proof that the death of the Lord was accepted as sufficient atonement for sin.

The writer got into conversation in the train with an avowed atheist. He felt led to press the testimony to the resurrection of Christ. As he did so, the atheist said with a kind of shudder, “Well, if you can prove to me the resurrection of Christ, I am bound to be some kind of a Christian.” He saw what was involved. If Jesus rose from the dead as the Scriptures state, and testimony supports, then He was indeed the Son of God; His death on the cross, a work which God accepted as satisfying His righteous claims the Gospel, a true message.

The Lord Jesus Christ appealed continually to the prophecies about himself as a proof of His mission; the Apostles did the same. These prophecies are in great detail. If not true, how easy it would be to prove that Jesus is not the Christ; but if true, then the conclusion is irresistible that the book is given by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the One of whom all the prophets from Moses to Malachi wrote.

Over three hundred direct prophecies as to the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and future glory of our Lord Jesus Christ’s lie scattered over the pages of the Old Testament scriptures. The fulfilment of prophecy (save that which is still future—“the glory that should follow,” 1 Peter 1:11) is the strongest proof of the divine origin and inspiration of the Bible. It is as if three hundred rays of light had been shot across the centuries, and lit up the face of the babe in Bethlehem’s manger; illuminated the form of Him who went about doing good; shone with heavenly glory on the form, more marred than any man’s, hanging on the cross of Calvary; disclosing the emptiness of the tomb, attesting the triumph of His work; and lighting Him up with their divine rays, who sits upon the throne of God, till we exclaim in adoring worship it is Jesus our Saviour, High Priest, Shepherd, King.

This Scripture is well worth pondering over. The resurrection of Christ is God’s seal of fullest approval of all that He said and did in this world. The Lord made the most tremendous claims, which, as we have already said, were either most blessedly true, and most vitally necessary for God’s glory and our rich blessing in Him, or else were the most daring and blasphemous assumptions that could call forth the direst wrath of God. There is nothing between these two positions.

A miracle is an act of superhuman power. All the miracles of the Lord Jesus were such, and were the attestation of His person and mission. He had come forth from the Father, and come into the world, and His miracles were the proof of this. They were His Father's works, as His arresting and challenging words to the Jews declared, "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him" (John 10:37-38). The Holy Ghost speaking through Simon Peter on the day of Pentecost described these works as "miracles, wonders and signs which God did by Him." They were works of power that amazed the people, and were signs to them that God had come down to them in mercy.

But there is another occasion, to which the apostle points as unsurpassed for magnitude of testimony: "after that he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the most remain till now, but some also have fallen asleep." (Ver. 6.) Never was a truth better attested. The greater part of these five hundred united witnesses still survived if any one doubted. Even if a person were prejudiced enough to accuse the twelve of a plot, what unreasonable folly to allow such a thought of so large a body of simple disciples, above all suspicion of object or office? The Holy Spirit left Luke to record the Lord's partaking of food when risen, and John the incredulity of the apostle Thomas, only the more to strengthen the truth; but Paul gives us this great body of witnesses, most then alive, if any chose to examine or cross-examine them. Surely had it not been the simple truth, some of that crowd of eyewitnesses must have disclosed the wickedness of thus conspiring in a lie against God.

It is very evident that a man who disbelieves in the Creator is not likely to believe in the Redeemer, and yet it is just because God, the Creator, is holy and must punish sin, and we His creatures are sinful and lost, that we need a Redeemer. We cannot put away our own sins—no amount of reformation or religiousness can atone for our guilt. The king upon his throne, the beggar upon the dunghill, the professor of morality in his chair, and the lewd sinner in the unspeakable slums—all alike need a Redeemer, a Saviour. It has been most solemnly said, “At every swing of the pendulum a soul goes into eternity. Between the rising and setting of every sun 43,000 souls are summoned before their Creator. Death is very busy, night and day, at all seasons, and in all climes.”

Saving faith is not reached by trying to believe in Christ, nor by any religious effort whatsoever. That which effectually disperses doubt is the heart's personal discovery of His undoubted trust-worthiness. When the man, whose blind eyes the Lord had opened, was asked, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” he replied, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” and when he discovered that it was the One whose gracious power had done what no one else on earth could do for him, he said, “Lord I believe, and worshipped Him” (John 9:35-38). Such a Person was well worthy of His trust; and without any trying or striving, or resolving, he trusted Him. Now God's Gospel message to sinful men is His joyful proclamation of the worthiness of His beloved Son to be trusted as a Saviour; and the greatest proof of it being this, that He Himself has found the fullest satisfaction in that which He has entrusted to Him.