WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
God has provided a way for us to return to Him and be forgiven.
This way is shown to us by Jesus.
The life of Jesus is amazing ! He was born into the family of a carpenter and builder who lived in the North of the land of Israel, in a little town called Nazareth.
People didn`t think much of Nazareth; they said "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).
Jesus must have followed Joseph into the family business because the neighbours also called Jesus `the carpenter`.
To their astonishment, when he was about thirty years of age, he began to teach publicly in a way that was fresh, and also to do miraculous acts of kindness.
Mark 6:2-4 “He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.
And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things?
What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offence at him.
And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household."
Jesus died when he was only about thirty three years old, and only about three of those years were lived in public.
He never built a monument, led an army, wrote a book or left any written record and yet surely he has made a bigger impression on the world that any other person in history.
As we have said before, many of the things done in his name (like the so-called `Christian Crusades` in the `Middle Ages`) are disgraceful and are totally against teaching of Jesus himself,
but even today more people claim to be Christians than to be followers of any other religion. Islam also, though classed as a different religion, accepts Jesus as a prophet of God.
Indeed, the Quran accepts that Jesus brought dead people to life again (Sura 3:50; 5:110) and it records that God “lifted him up to Himself” (Sura 3:51-58; 4:158). So for Muslims also, Jesus is unique.
The Bible goes further even than this. It tells us that Jesus lived a perfect life – the only human to do so.
As a child, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
In his adult life, he was “in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Through all his public life he was spied on by powerful men who hated Him for the way He exposed their hypocrisy and selfishness.
They tried all ways to catch Him out & trip Him up. They were every bit as persistent as our present day journalists.
Then, after they had followed every move he made for a couple of years Jesus challenged them.
“Which one of you convicts me of sin ?” (John 8:46). No-one answered.
No-one could. Jesus was unique: in fact he still is unique because although His enemies killed Him he was raised to eternal life by the power of God and is alive today, guiding the history of nations through the work of the angels.
About six weeks after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Apostle Peter accused his fellow-countrymen in Jerusalem: `you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a
murderer to be granted unto you, and you killed the Author of Life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.`
(Acts 3:14). But then he goes on “Repent therefore and turn again . . . that he may send the Christ appointed for you: - Jesus”.
The rulers were furious and tried to arrest the apostles but the response of the crowd was amazing. (Acts 4:4) “many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.”
Most of these new Christians were Jews, but before long, Gentiles (non-Jews) were given opportunity to accept Jesus as their saviour sent by God, on the same terms.
Now we – whether in the Middle East or Europe or anywhere else in the world, have the same opportunity. So our next question has to be – `how did it come about that Jesus was and is such an amazing person ?
` We must ask `how was it that after thousands of years of sin and failure, just one person got everything right, and what can his success do for us ?`
English queries:
.
What The Bible Says
