The historical, Biblical and eye-witness evidence tells us that Jesus of Nazareth was a real man; a historical figure. The Bible goes on to reveal that Jesus was and is the Son of God, and that he has always existed with God and as God. But the Bible tells of how the eternal Son of God ‘became flesh’. This does not mean that God took over a human body, or that he was some kind of super-human, or that he ceased to be God. Quite simply, God became a human and was given the name Jesus (meaning Saviour). Therefore, Jesus is both God and man.
In doing this, God is able to sympathise with our struggles, difficulties and issues because he himself experienced life as a real human. But even greater than that, God became a human so that he might carry out a great rescue plan that had been promised throughout the Bible for centuries. The Bible describes how the world is under a ‘curse’ which results in death, suffering, wrong-doing, evil, injustices, disasters and all the bad things we see around us. Yet it also describes how Jesus was willing to die as a payment for our mistakes, wrongdoing, guilt and rejection of God. Therefore, when a person accepts Jesus’ sacrifice and asks God for forgiveness, God is able to forgive us and announce that we are innocent, because the punishment for all the things that make us guilty was taken by Jesus.
Who is Jesus? He is God, became a human to be a Saviour.
Tolerance is a very important concept in our society. Tolerance does not mean that we all think the same way, it means that we love and respect people who think differently to us. We as Christians believe what the Bible has to say about how to ‘get to God’. We believe that this is the only way, yet this does not mean that we force our views upon people, or ostracise people who believe something different. It means that we tolerate others. But it also means that we are keen to share why we believe the things we do, albeit within a loving, respectful and tolerant manner. Yet that does not water down the fact of the matter that Jesus called himself ‘the Way’, ‘the Truth’ and the only road by which we get to God. While we tolerantly accept that others may have different views, we cannot and will not pretend that the Bible says that all or many roads lead to God.
Some have described that perhaps we are all climbing a mountain that leads to God. We all take different paths, and view the mountain differently, yet it is the same mountain and we all find God at the summit. However, this view seems intolerant of belief systems such as Atheism or Zen Buddhism which believe there is no God, or Hinduism which believes there are several Gods. Others suggest that we are all like blind people feeling a different part of an elephant. One feels the trunk, another feels the body, therefore our experiences are different, our truths differ, but we are all feeling the same elephant (who represents God). However, proponents of this are suggesting that they can see the whole elephant and therefore it is they who have the ultimate truth, because they are able to see all the religions of the world feeling just a part of the truth, yet they are able to stand back with unblended eyes and view the whole truth.
But the Bible does not claim to feel a part of the elephant and guess at what God is like. The Bible claims to be the words of God, a revelation from God himself, and so no guesswork is involved. Therefore if God has revealed truth to us, we need not stumble around in the dark like a blind person and an elephant, we can simply believe that the way God has revealed to be true. It would also be unwise to say that even though God has declared that one road leads to heaven, I shall choose another road and hope that God will accept me.
The way to get to God was costly to God himself. God’s Son Jesus became a human, lived perfectly and died in punishment for our imperfections, therefore making a way for imperfect humans to get to a perfect God. Otherwise, we would have to try and make ourselves perfect before God by being religious, good and holy. Instead, God stepped in and made this possible, providing the way to God through Jesus.
We all suffer in life. Some people experience terrible suffering. Often, our personal experiences shape our view on the existence of God. For example, I remember the weeks following the awful tsunami of a few years ago. Within the space of a week I watched the two separate reports on the rescue attempts. Firstly, one mother had her child rescued and announced “now I know that there is a God”. This mother ignored the fact that hundreds of other parents had lost children, but as long as her child was rescued, this proved the existence of God. A few nights later, the reporters interviewed a set of parents who had lost a child. They replied, “now we know that there is no God”. Likewise, they did not care that many children had been rescued. The fact that their child was dead proved that God did not exist. As hard as personal experiences are, it is important that we view this issue with balance and sensitivity. Yet it is true that many people have turned to God in times of great suffering. Indeed that God has used suffering as a means to reveal himself to people. And so the question that assumes that God and suffering cannot exist together is on shaky ground.
Another view is that God cannot be both all-powerful and all-good. This suggests that God shares our view of goodness, and that true power is always expressed in removing suffering. Yet if life was plain-sailing and nothing ever went wrong, how would we ever see our need of God? Sometimes, suffering is the way in which God alerts us to the urgency of seeking him, that life doesn’t last forever and that we don’t know when it will end. All of these are warning for us to seek God while we have the chance and not waste the life God offers. “If God was all-powerful he would destroy all suffering”. Yet all of us have a part to play in the suffering experienced in the world by the way we treat others, treat God, refuse to oppose injustice and help those who suffer. We all compound the problem. Therefore, if God removed suffering, he would have to destroy us. We might want God to destroy others who cause suffering, but we want him to spare us. Instead of destroying us all, God patiently waits for us to turn to him. Because one day God will put an end to all suffering, but in the meantime he waits for us to accept his rescue plan from the coming destruction so that we can live with him in a world without suffering.
Likewise, some suggest: if God existed, he would put an end to all evil. However, God’s view of evil includes things that we all do. As none of us are able to live to God’s perfect standards, ending evil would involve wiping out the entire human race. We might like it if God stepped in and ended the evil that others do, but perhaps we would not be so keen on God ending the evil that we do in his eyes. So rather than destroy us all, God is loving and patient, and has postponed his destruction of evil, meanwhile providing a way by which we can escape this destruction through the death of Jesus.
In the time of Jesus, a tower had collapsed, killing some people. Jesus was asked whether this was God punishing those who had died and asking why God allowed this to happen. Jesus replied by telling them that everyone will die one day and therefore we should worry more about ourselves and whether we are right before God.
Ultimately, the Bible describes how Jesus was God, and how we suffered more than anyone in human history when he died an agonising death. It was through this suffering that Jesus allowed God to punish him for the crimes that we commit against God; crimes of lies, hate, jealousy, greed and pride and well as the more obvious crimes such as murder and theft. Therefore Jesus is able to sympathise with our sufferings and well as offer forgiveness to us, because he dealt with our wrongdoings through his own suffering. And so without suffering we could never know God.
Christianity, if false, is is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important
C.S. Lewis