Of Life and Death

The story of Jesus stretches credibility as no other. But it also gives hope like no other. It's your choice. By Graeme Loftus.

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ will always constitute the watershed of meaning in human life and the history of our planet.

Humanistic minds have always baulked at the claims of Scripture regarding Jesus. They reduce the Bible to humankind's thoughts about God rather than a revelation of God. The Bible says its contents have been transmitted to us by a process of divine inspiration. The thoughts of humans were guided as they wrote in order to convey accurately the thoughts God wanted to share with us.

The supernatural aspects of Jesus' birth stretch human credibility to its limit. No human placed any sperm in His mother's womb. The Holy Spirit “overshadowed” Mary, is how the Bible puts it, and the Baby born to her was called a “holy one” and “the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). The Bible is clear in its claims that Jesus was fully God as well as fully human. The implications of the virgin birth mean that Jesus received humanity from Mary, and divinity from the Holy Spirit.

The supernatural aspects of Jesus' life also stretch human credibility to its limit.

The supernatural aspects of Jesus' death stretch people's credibility, because no human ever died like this Man.

We cannot dismiss Jesus as just one gifted teacher among several others who have lived at different times in history. If He were not who He claimed to be—the God who created all animate and inanimate things, the one who keeps our very hearts continually beating, the one who sacrificially made a way for every person to be right with God and transcend the crippled nature of our bodies, souls and spirits, and the one who will ultimately take us to be with Him in a renewed earth—then He is the greatest selfdeceived individual this world has seen.

When I've weighed it all up, I have acknowledged my sin and crowned Him Lord of my life.