For those who follow the church year, this is the season of Lent, a 40-day period of devotional preparation for the celebration of Easter.
Lent is roughly based on the 40-day period of Jesus’ wilderness experience referenced in Mark 1:13. The Bible describes those days as a time of fasting and temptation following Jesus’ baptism. Historically, Lent has been a time of penitence for individual Christians as they look toward the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Easter is the focus of the Christian faith. Through His death on a cross, Jesus paid the sin debt for all who will trust Him as Lord and Savior. Through the resurrection of His Son, God the Father provided victory over mankind’s final enemy.
Today, some people attempt to explain away the role of Jesus of Nazareth as a historical person. Such people claim the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:16 devalue the importance of Jesus as a historical individual and talk only about His role as the Christ. In that verse, Paul said, “Therefore, from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.”
Paul made no difference between the historical personality of Jesus and the mediating role of Jesus as the Christ. He meant only that he, Paul, no longer sees according to the flesh or with literal eyes of flesh. It is with the new eyes of faith that Paul has come to see Jesus in a new way, to see Him as the Christ or Messiah.
The Gospels testify to the historical Jesus. Matthew presents Jesus as the “son of David” and “a descendant of Abraham.” John elaborates that Jesus was the Word made flesh. Luke begins and ends with Jesus as a historical person. Acts, a companion volume of Luke, is about “all the things which Jesus began to do and to teach.”
To the Gospel writers, Jesus was a real, flesh and blood historical figure. One Baptist theologian affirmed that “without Jesus, His person and teaching and works, the four Gospels would shrink into nothing.”
Other New Testament writers also emphasized Jesus’ historical nature. The writer of Hebrews traces creation and redemption to Jesus of Nazareth, a real Person. Jesus is the Mediator who brings God to man and the One through whom man is brought to God.
For Peter, the person of Jesus is the “Living Stone” (1 Pet. 2:4) as well as the “Living Hope” (1 Pet. 1:3). The Book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ. God has given the revelation through Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, but from beginning to end, Jesus is the revelation.
Jesus is the Lamb of God and the Great High Priest. Jesus is Mediator and He is also Savior. Jesus is the Word made flesh and the Son of Man. He is the Servant of the Lord as well as Lord of lords and King of kings.
Jesus is the only name given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus is the truth and the life.
Jesus is all of this and more. Yet He was a real historical figure. He was “born of a virgin.” He was nailed to a cross. He was buried in a grave. He was raised by the power of God. He ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for His children. He is coming again!
As Christians worldwide turn their attention toward Easter, let us never forget that Jesus was a real flesh and blood historical figure. Yet He was unlike any who ever lived before Him or since, for “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”
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