I believe Jesus is God… I believe that with ALL my heart and soul.
I'm guessing if you're reading this right now, you might believe that to be true as well.
Now, maybe this isn't true for you, but for me — at one time, if you had asked me, "But Michael, WHY do you believe that Jesus is God?" — I would have told you: "Because that's exactly what the Bible reveals and declares to be true about Jesus."
And if you had responded by saying, "Well Michael, I don't believe the Bible is God's Word. I think it's a good book, but can you explain to me why Jesus is God without using a book I don't believe in?" — the look on my face would have been pure deer-in-the-headlights.
I think this is true for many — if not most — disciples of Jesus. We believe, but if pressed on WHY we believe, things get difficult fast. If that's where you are today, that's okay. But what's not okay is staying there.
One of the many gifts God has given us is the gift of EVIDENCE. As a disciple of Jesus, I do not need to check my brain at the door and believe simply because the Bible tells me so.
To state the obvious: quoting the Bible as our only evidence to someone who doesn't accept it as God's authoritative Word isn't helpful. And if our only response to "Why is Jesus God?" is "The Bible says so," we are doing a real disservice to the family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and classmates who are genuinely curious about Jesus — about who He was and the claims He made about Himself.
Someone who had a profound impact on my walk with God was an apologist named Josh McDowell. Initially, McDowell was a skeptic who set out to disprove Christianity — to dismantle it and embarrass those who believed Jesus was God. What he discovered through rigorous historical investigation is that the evidence outside the Bible for Jesus being God was staggering. Staggering enough to make him a follower of Jesus.
Lee Strobel was a journalist on the same mission — to disprove the claims of Christ. After thorough investigation, like McDowell, Strobel became one of the loudest proponents of faith in Jesus as God in the flesh.
Truth be told, for a good portion of my Christian journey, I was not equipped to give a thoughtful reason for why I believe what I believe — other than "the Bible told me so." And my desire to get equipped had little to do with wanting to win debates, rather, it had everything to do with wanting to win people. In other words, I want the people in my life to see that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be and the historical evidence supporting those claims is compelling.
Please know this…
FAITH AND EVIDENCE ARE NOT ENEMIES.
In fact, the more you explore the historical case for Jesus, the more you'll find that the evidence doesn't undermine your faith — it deepens it.
On Friday, June 28th, GENESIS hosted a CONVERSATION about ALL of this.
If you are a Christ-follower who’d like to be further equipped...
If you are not yet convinced that Jesus is who He claimed to be...
PLEASE take some time to watch this CONVERSATION.
CONVERSATIONS RESOURCE PAGE
