><>...The life of Jesus Christ...><>
Old Testament history paints a colorful picture of God's dealings with man; but it doesn't give us the whole story of God's plan to redeem men from sin. The New Testament brings us to the climax of God's redemptive work, because it introduces us to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and to the beginning of His church.
A. The Life of Christ. The writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us about Jesus' ministry. These writers were either eyewitnesses of Jesus' life or they wrote down what eyewitnesses told them, but they do not provide a full biography of Jesus. Everything they recorded actually happened, but they concentrate on Jesus' ministry and leave gaps elsewhere in the story of His life.
Imagine someone writing a letter to a friend to introduce him to an important person. Would the writer be able to describe everything about that person's life? Of course not. He could only write about what he knew—and he probably would not try to tell all of that, either. The writer would concentrate on what he thinks his friend wants and needs to know.
The men who wrote the Gospels did the same thing. They aimed to explain the person and work of Jesus by recording what He did and said. And each writer presents a slightly different view of Jesus and what He did.
The Gospel writers did not try to relate all the events of Jesus' boyhood, because that was not their reason for writing. They did not try to give us a daily diary of Jesus' life, either. They stuck to what matters for salvation and discipleship.
In this section we will take our cue from the Gospel writers. We will simply sketch the major events of Jesus' life and summarize how He brought the history of redemption to its climax.
Many people know about the birth and infancy of Jesus Christ. Every Christmas we hear the well-known carols about the Virgin Mary (the mother of Jesus), her trip to Bethlehem on the back of a donkey, and the birth of the baby Jesus Christ—true man and true God, who came to earth to save God's people. We hear the familiar story of how Jesus was born in Bethlehem, of the manger where He lay, and of the angels who announced His birth to the shepherds. We know the angels declared Jesus to be the long-promised Davidic king.
The wise men who brought gifts to the Christ child are mystery figures. We don't know which country (or countries) they came from, only that they were “from the East” (Matt. 2:1). They may well have come from the great eastern empires of Mesopotamia, Babylonia, or Persia. They studied the stars and realized that a new king was being born among the Jews, and so they came to the Jewish capital of Jerusalem to pay their respects. How surprised they were to learn that King Herod had no new children! Then they followed a clear prophecy from Micah 5:2 that led them to Bethlehem, where they found the baby Jesus.
The Bible does not say there were three wise men, but artists have usually painted three to show the three gifts that they brought—gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:11). Apparently the magi came to see Jesus several months after He was born, and some scholars think Jesus may have been as much as two years old when they came.
After Jesus was born, His parents dedicated Him at the Temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:22–28). They began training Him to live “in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
King Herod wanted to be certain that the people did not rally around the infant king to start a rebellion, so he ordered his soldiers to kill all the boy babies in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:16)An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told them to take the baby Jesus and flee to Egypt to escape the evil decree. After Herod died, they returned to Palestine and settled in the town of Nazareth.
The Bible says nothing else about Jesus until He was 12 or 13 years old. Then, to assume His proper role in the Jewish congregation, He had to make a special visit to Jerusalem and offer a sacrifice at the Temple. While He was there, Jesus talked with religious leaders. He showed an extraordinary understanding of the true God, and His answers amazed them. Later, His parents started home and discovered that Jesus was missing. They found Him at the Temple, still talking with the religious scholars.
Again, the Bible falls silent until it introduces us to the events that began Jesus' ministry when He was about 30 years old. First we see John the Baptist coming out of the wilderness and preaching in cities along the Jordan River, urging the people to prepare for their Messiah (Luke 3:3–9). John had been born into a godly family, and he grew up to love and serve God faithfully. God spoke through John, and crowds of people clamored to hear his preaching. He told them to return to God and begin obeying Him. When he saw Jesus he cried that this man was the “... Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). John baptized Jesus; and as Jesus came up from the water, God sent the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove that settled upon Jesus.
The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, where He went without food for 40 days. While He was in this weakened condition, the Devil came and tried to tempt Him in various ways. Jesus refused and sent the Devil away. Then angels came to feed Jesus and comfort Him.
At first, Jesus was a popular man. In the area around the Sea of Galilee, He attended a wedding feast and changed water into wine to serve the guests. This is the first of His miracles that the Bible mentions. It demonstrated that He truly was God, just as His later miracles did.
From Galilee, He went to Jerusalem and drove a group of religious hucksters out of the temple. For the first time, publicly He asserted His authority over the religious life of His people. This turned many of the other religious leaders against Him.
One of those leaders, Nicodemus, saw that Jesus was teaching the truth about God. He came to Jesus one night and asked how He could get into the kingdom of God, which is the realm of redemption and salvation. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must “be born again” (John 3:3);
James I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney and William White, Jr. |
