Jesus of Nazareth is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.
There are numerous surviving ancient texts both inside and outside of the religious world that attest to certain facts about Jesus’s life which are undisputed by the overwhelming majority of historical experts, including those who are non-Christian.*
- He was a real, Jewish man, born in Israel in the first century.
- We believe that Jesus was also the only begotten son of God, making him fully human and fully divine.
- That is why we call him Immanuel, which means “God with us”
- He traveled throughout Israel, calling disciples and teaching people about ‘the kingdom of God’.
- In Scripture, his teachings were often accompanied by incredible miracles that served to confirm the authority of his message and uplift the outcasted and lowly people in his society.
- In Scripture we read of the ways Jesus taught his disciples how to live as citizens of this Kingdom of God. He taught them that life in the kingdom was characterized first and foremost by self-sacrificial love. He taught his followers to quietly serve the least and to stand up for the cause of the voiceless. He taught his followers to forgive their enemies and show compassion for all people.
- He was brutally executed by crucifixion under the order of the local Roman authority: Pontius Pilate.
- The Bible speaks to the fact that though Jesus had the power to stop them at any moment, he willingly sacrificed his live as a ransom for the sins of humankind.
- Jesus’s death opened up a way for anyone to be made right with God, no matter what is in your past. The Bible says that if you put your faith in Jesus as your lord and savior, your sins will be forgiven.
- Shortly after his death, his tomb was found to be empty and his disciples claimed to have seen him alive.
- If Jesus rose from the dead (and we believe he did!) then there can be no dispute over his divinity. The resurrection not only demonstrates that Jesus is who he said he was, but it also means that his promise of eternal life to those who follow him is not empty words.
- The Bible teaches that Jesus is alive and will return to the world to put all that has gone wrong to rights and consummate the fullness of the kingdom of God, which will never end.
Jesus’s life, teachings, death, and resurrection have become the bedrock of the Christian faith. Those who have surrendered to Jesus seek to grow in obedience to his teachings and to participate in carrying on the mission he left to us: building the Kingdom of God by loving and serving people and teaching them about him!
*This list is adapted from The Historical Figure of Jesus by EP Sanders, himself a non-Christian.