Was Jesus Christ really he who he claimed to be?
Whether one believes in Jesus or not, everyone should admit that he was an exceptional, outstandingly good person:
He taught everyone to love God, to love his fellow man and the Truth.
No one can find anything bad to say about him!
But Jesus claimed that he was not a mere man…
He said that, unlike us, he came down from heaven to earth in order to save all those who believe and follow him!
He insisted that only those who believe and follow Jesus himself will be allowed to enter the Kingdom of God.
And on top of it all, he claimed to be the “Only Son of God”, or God in the flesh, an essential part of God himself!
Outrageous claims!
If what Jesus said about himself was not true, then he could not be an exceptionally good man, but rather, a deluded lunatic, a megalomaniac and a deceiver of the worst kind!
His life however, does not depict to us such a vile person. On the contrary. The things that he said and did speak loudly of someone who is very moral, righteous, good, humble and sincere, someone who spent himself for the good of mankind…
He is considered by most to be the best person that ever lived.
In his short life Jesus had more impact on mankind than all other philosophers, prophets and political rulers combined. He changed this world not by means of wars and conquests, but only by the power of his words and example!
He has inspired millions of people throughout history to change radically the way they lived and to seek to become more like him!
He has left his mark on this world to such a degree that we count the years we live in from the year of his birth, thus acknowledging that Jesus was the most important person that ever existed…
Jesus was the best person that ever lived on earth, not the worst, and
it is inconceivable to think that he, who was morally well above all of us, was a deceiver – and one of the worst kind!
Anyone with a clean, innocent, childlike mind would be convinced without the need of further proof that whatever Jesus said must be the Truth! It could not be otherwise.
What really made me, personally, believe in him is when I told myself:
“I am not a good man, but bad as I am, I hate lying and deceiving people. I would never deceive anyone.
If Jesus, who was much, much better than I am, said such things as he did about God, about himself, about heaven and hell, then it must be true!”
This argument, by itself, should convince any sincere and honest thinking person that Jesus must have been he who he claimed to be!
But there are other unshakable arguments that can convince anyone who seeks the Truth:
The ultimate proof:
Apart from the many, amazing miracles that Jesus performed in front of his disciples, Jesus told them that he would give them another, irrefutable proof that will leave them without any shred of doubt that he was truly he who he claimed to be. He told them:
“Men will take hold of me and kill me, but three days later… I will come back from the dead, alive!”
How did he even dare to pronounce such words!
There is no prophecy, no proof, more pertinent or more impossible to fulfill than this one!
But one thing is for sure: If this prophecy was to be fulfilled, it would indeed prove to the apostles without a shred of doubt that he truly came from God, and that everything he had told them was the Truth!
And sure enough, the apostles wrote that things happened exactly as he had predicted: three days after his crucifixion they saw him indeed alive with their own disbelieving eyes… !
No, it cannot be attributed to delusions: They wrote that, after his death, Jesus appeared to them a number of times! He allowed them to touch him, (one actually put his fingers into his wounds).
He ate with them, walked with them, taught them…
And one day, when he was surrounded by more than 500 of his disciples, he rose slowly, slowly into the sky, right before their eyes…
From that time onward, the apostles started spreading the news to everyone, by word or letter, that Jesus was the Christ, (the long-awaited Messiah), the Only Son of God and the Only Saviour of mankind.
They didn’t merely believe it. They were absolutely sure of it !
In order to silence such claims, the Jewish religious authorities imprisoned the apostles, beat them up and warned them that they will be killed if they kept on spreading stories about Jesus having resurrected…
The apostles, for their part, did nothing else but that, evangelizing everyone, all the time and everywhere…
And, true to their threats, the Jewish authorities started killing anyone of them they could lay their hands on… In time, all the apostles were killed, one by one, by the Jewish or Roman authorities.
The apostles knew very well what they were in for: persecutions, beatings, imprisonment and death!
But they also knew what their duty was, having been eyewitnesses of everything that Jesus said and did and most of all of his resurrection. So, they kept on spreading the news everywhere, no matter what it cost them…
The unshakable argument:
How can you explain the willingness, the persistence of the apostles to fulfil their painful mission when they knew that they would have to face as much persecution as their Lord did if it is not for the fact that they truly saw Jesus resurrected?
A person could suffer much and give his life for something he believes in, (believes it to be true, even though he may actually be mistaken) !
No one, however, will ever give his life for something he knows it to be a lie. (In the apostles case, it would have been a lie that first came out of their own mouths, and which gave them nothing but trouble in this life…).
If they were lying for one reason or another, if they had not seen Jesus resurrected, they would have not (all of them, without exception) gone through the awful existence and death that they describe in their own letters, and that history confirms.
The fact that all the apostles, without exception, chose to persevere evangelizing in spite of the tremendous enmity and adversity they were receiving, proves beyond a doubt to us, today, that they were telling the Truth: They saw Jesus resurrected from the dead!
Having paid such a price for telling their story, the apostles would have certainly passed the scrutiny test of a “reliable and trustworthy eyewitness” in any Court of Justice today…
The written testimony of these eyewitnesses proves to us, today, that Jesus has resurrected, and that everything that he said is true:
There is a God, there is a life after this one, a heaven and hell…
Dear reader, having read the above, logical, down to earth arguments, you should now be shaken, convinced and convicted by them.
You are now standing in front of the most important crossroad that you will meet in your life! You must now choose the correct road to walk on.
Do not let these arguments that you have just read slip out of your mind until you have reached a definite conclusion and acted upon it. Do not let anything else distract you!
Do not harden your heart because today’s “Christians” may have put you off « religion »! You are not urged to become “religious”! You are to become like Jesus and follow his teachings!
You will have to change radically your way of thinking and living, if you want to live eternally happy after your death,
Jesus taught us that God is a Just God, and his justice demands that your sins be not simply “wiped out” and “forgiven”!
They must be punished, paid for.
And either you will pay yourself for your Godless way of living or you will join those whom Jesus died for… and be exempted!
What must you do?
Start by praying and asking the Lord Jesus to enter in your life and heart, allowing him to change you from within.
Cooperate with him and change what needs to be changed in your life.
What God requires of you is written in the New Testament.
It is God’s Word! It is the most precious thing humanity possesses! Read it every day and do what it teaches.