Christ and the Bible
By Nick Bibile
Uniqueness of the Bible
Webster defines
"unique" as: (1) "One and only; single, sole"; (2)
"Different from all others; having no other equal."
It was written over
a 1500-year span, during 60 generations,
written in three continents, Africa, Asia and Europe, three different
languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek written by 40 authors from every walk of
life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen,
scholars, cupbearers, and others. Written in times of war and peace,
written in different moods, joy and sorrow, written on hundreds of
controversial subjects like, creation, origin of man, nature of God, sin and
redemption, yet there is unity in the Bible.
Let’s get to the
point. The Bible was written over a 1500 year span but lets get 10 people
living today, not from three different continents but in one country, one city,
not people from different languages but who speak one language, not people who
have different occupation but one occupation give them one controversial
subject, do you think they will be united in what they say? Certainly not.
Many tried to burn the Bible, ban the Bible yet still it is the number one seller. Voltaire the French atheist who lived in 1700’s predicted that Christianity would be swept from existence and pass into history within 100 years of his time. Fifty years of his death, the Geneva Bible society used his printing press and his house to produce thousands and thousands of Bibles.
1 Peter
Jesus Christ
The
center of the Bible is Christ Jesus.
Psalms 40:7 Then said
I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. (Written
thousands of years before Jesus birth)
Joh
Why
it is that Christ is the center? Because of redemption. Only the first two
chapters of the Bible speak on the creation and the balance is all about redemption,
meaning speaking of delivering the sinner from sin. It took God to speak his word in creation as
he spoke and it was created out of nothing but in redemption it took a blood
sacrifice.
Old Testament Prophecies of the Messiah
Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies,
meaning predictions of the prophets recorded in the Old Testament.
Isa 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall
be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, and The Prince of Peace.
Mic 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Crucifixion was prophesied.
Ps
The Book of Psalms
is in the Old Testament. What was the death penalty in the Old Testament?
Stoning to death. Crucifixion was invented by the Romans. Here in the book of
Psalms speaking of a future event as it says they pierced my hands and feet, a
clear prediction of the crucifixion given about thousand years before Christ
was born.
Jesus is the Greek
form of the Hebrew Joshua or Jehoshua derived from the Hebrew “Jehovah is
salvation or LORD is salvation"
"And she
shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save
his people from their sins.” ( Mt 1:21) He is the savior of the world.
There is only one savior and that is God himself.
"Even I, am
the LORD; and beside me there is no savior." ( Isa 43:11)
God became man
in Jesus, as he came to save his people from their sins. "For
unto you is born this day in the city of
Christ
This is
the New Testament form for the Old Testament 'Messiah,' which means 'the
anointed one.' According to the Old Testament, prophets, I Kings 19:16,
priests, Ex. 29:7, and kings, I Sam..10:1 were
anointed with oil, which symbolized the Holy By this anointing they were set
aside for their respective offices, and were qualified for them.
Christ was not
anointed earthly oil but by the Holy Spirit. "....for that which is
conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." (Mat
The Bible
represents Christ as a Person having two natures, the one divine and the other
human. This is the great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh,
He is the God
who became a man. The word that became flesh.
Mal
3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me:
and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the
messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the
LORD of hosts.
Joh 1:1 In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh
Jesus is not only a prophet but God in
flesh, some say that Jesus is a good person and he is a good teacher, he is a
prophet of God. Prophet of God will
never lie. Jesus himself claimed to be God.
John
John
Only God can
forgive sins but Jesus forgave sins.
Mark 2:5 When
Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be
forgiven thee. 6 But there were certain of the scribes
sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7 Why
doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Jesus is not just another prophet, a way
but the way. Christ is not just truth of many truths but the truth. Many would
say they believe in Christ and he is a great man. But they will not believe
when Jesus said he is the only way to God. They are contradicting their
statement as they are not telling the truth but Christ is telling the truth, as
he is the truth. He is the truth regarding not only to what he said but
regarding to his character, who he is. He is the life. The giver of life, the
author of life. He is the way to eternal life. The only mediator between God
and man is Christ.
Why he should be both God and Man? Because of Sin. Bible is unique as it define sin and expose sin.
The question is; God is righteous, man is
unrighteous, then how can an unrighteous man dwell in the presence of the
righteous God in heaven? The Psalmist cried out the following.
"If you, O LORD, kept a
record of our sins, O LORD who could stand?" (Psalm 130:3)
The answer is negative, no one.
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way.
Ro
Ro
It was
necessary that Christ should be both God and man. As man, he represented
the believing sinner, he was the last Adam. The first Adam was made upright and
perfect so was the last Adam. The first Adam was the federal head of all
humanity, the first Adam sinned and in him death came to all and all died.
(Romans 5:12) Jesus is called the last Adam, and he was our substitute came in
our behalf, we violated the laws of God, disobedient to God, he as our
substitute, did not come to break the law but to fulfill the law (Mat 5:17) and
he was subject to the Father in full obedience as he came to do the will of the
Father. As a substitute he was our mediator. Why we need a mediator?
Because we were at enmity with God, we were carnal. (Rom 8:7) we were the
children of wrath. (Eph 2:3) Christ came as a mediator to reconcile us back to
God.
He was also
God, and as God the sacrifice of Christ had infinite value as it is not
possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins, there
remain no more sacrifice for sins.
Adam's righteousness was an earthly
righteousness, but Christ's righteousness is the heavenly righteousness, it is
the righteousness of God, it is the holiness of God. Not only our sins are
forgiven but Christ's righteousness is imputed to us!
"God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
At the cross
the guilt and the penalty due to the believing sinners were imputed (charged,
or credited) to the account of Jesus. Then the righteousness of Jesus was
imputed (credited) to the believing sinners account. Now the believing sinner
has become righteous, and it is not the believing sinner’s righteousness but a
righteousness that is outside of that believing sinner and that is the
righteousness of Jesus.
The question
was God is righteous, man is unrighteous, and then how can an unrighteous man
dwell in the presence of the righteous God in heaven? The answer is not by our
righteousness not by our merit, not by our sacrifices but by Christ work alone
on the cross by Christ’s righteousness we go to heaven. The human righteousness
of Adam failed; but the believer has a divine righteousness, which can never
fail! Now the sinner can be pardoned, justified through the blood of Jesus
Christ!
Ps 103:12 As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us.
We say we are
saved by grace alone. This is the amazing grace of God to an unworthy sinner,
we did not come to God but he came from heaven to earth for us, we did not
chose him but he chose us, we did not love him but he loved us first.
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die.
(From the Hymn: "Rock of Ages" by A.M.Toplady 1740-78)
Christianity is centered on the person
of Jesus Christ, his life, character, death and the resurrection, but all other
religions focus on the teachings of the teacher and not on the teacher. A dead
teacher or a prophet cannot save anyone. In Christianity we don’t have a dead savior
but a living savior who has conquered death as he rose from the dead.
Resurrection
of Christ Jesus
The Old Testament
again predicted that the Savior cannot stay in the grave.
Psalm
Frank Morrison, a competent lawyer
said, “This Christianity business is rubbish. I will prove that it is rubbish.
I will write a book, and it will be the expose of the Christian faith. I will
call the book Who Moved the
Stone? I will show and demonstrate as I would in a court of law
that all the evidence when taken into consideration will demonstrate beyond a
shadow of a doubt that this is the greatest hoax in human history.” Frank
Morrison set out to prove that the story of Christ's Resurrection was only a
myth. But in the book after looking for all the evidence he could not prove
that Christ did not rise from the dead, he became a Christian and the book is
available today.
Apostle Paul said, “And if Christ be not risen, then is
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” (1 Cor
Again he said, “And
if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
(verse 17)
If you go to a court to prove a case you need
eye witnesses. This is what Apostle Paul
said. “3 For
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And
that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the
twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five
hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present…”
(1 Cor 15:3)
At the crucifixion
the disciples had their worst day, even Peter denied Christ because of fear, it was a day of gloom, a day of darkness, a
day that they lost hope, a day that the world ridiculed them, mock them and
they could not face the public. But after the resurrection of Christ their life
changed, there was boldness; they preached the resurrection at the heart of the
city in
The best way they
could have done to disapprove the resurrection of Christ is to bring the dead
body of Christ and parade on the street but they could not do it as there was
no dead body Christ rose from the dead. They told a story that the disciples
stole the body of Christ.
One man who was
highly skilled at dealing with evidence was Dr. Simon Greenleaf. He was the
famous Royal Professor of Law at
Greenleaf
examined the value of the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus
Christ to ascertain the truth. He applied the principles contained in his
three-volume treatise on evidence. His findings were recorded in his book, An
Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence
Administered in the Courts of Justice.
Greenleaf came
to the conclusion that, according to the laws of legal evidence used in courts
of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history.
An Englishman,
John Singleton Copley, better known as Lord Lyndhurst, is recognized as one of
the greatest legal minds in British history. . . .
Upon Copley’s
death, among his personal papers were found his comments concerning the
resurrection in the light of legal evidence and why he became a Christian: “I
know pretty well what evidence is; and I tell you, such evidence as that for
the resurrection has never broken down yet.
Lord Chief
Justice of
Christianity alone
is based on historical and objective facts rather than the subjective ideas of
man. Its truthfulness stands on the validity of historical records which are
subject to investigation and examination. (J. Hampton Keathley III)
All of the apostles except John were martyred for
their belief. The early Christians were tortured, crucified, beheaded, burned
alive and some were thrown alive to be eaten by lions. They never denied the
faith as they cannot lie what they have seen.
The resurrection changed the year of our calendar as it changed the
course of history from B.C. (Before Christ) to A.D. (the Latin Anno Domini--the year of our Lord).
Only a living savior can save a sinner. There
was a British tourist visiting some parts of