Why Jesus? Because He is God. And what
He says is true. The most compelling evidence for the truthfulness of
Jesus is that He predicted His own death and resurrection at least
six times3,
and then just as He foretold He was raised from the dead, to never
die again. For evidence of His resurrection, take the evidence of the
radical change in the disciples' lives. Because of His resurrection
(and the power of the Holy Spirit), His disciples, who previously had
their doors locked out of fear (John 20:19) were filled with such
zeal and boldness that they publicly preached His resurrection in
Jerusalem, the very same city where He was publicly crucified. Many
disciples even died because of their continual preaching of the
resurrection (Acts 12:1-3, etc.). Because of their bold witness for
Jesus they “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Jesus
surely is alive, as evidenced by the historically accurate NT
accounts, the changed lives of the disciples, etc. Because He
predicted his own death and resurrection as it actually happened,
surely we can trust everything else He said.
So, how did Jesus treat the OT?
According to Matthew 4, after getting baptized by John the Baptist,
He goes into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. While confronting
the most wicked being in the universe, He needs to pull out His most
powerful weapon. Just as a man would use his most powerful weapon to
shoot a charging rhino about to take his life, Jesus pulls out the
“big guns”. The OT! What does He quote? Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, &
16, words which Moses wrote over 1400 years earlier.4
He demonstrates that the Scripture is the most powerful weapon
against Satan, that it is trustworthy, true and is spiritually
powerful. If Jesus trusted the OT in the face of Satan, we too can
trust it when facing adversity.
“But wait!” You might ask. Isn't
the OT historically inaccurate, though there may be some positive
spiritual truth? Not possible! Jesus doesn't give us the option to
think that. He talks about many characters from the OT as though they
were completely historical and never once questioned their reality.
Jonah and the great fish, Noah, Elijah, Daniel, the places Sodom and
Gomorrah, etc. are declared by Jesus to be as real as you and me. He
even tells about the very first man and woman to ever exist, named
Adam and Eve.5
According to Jesus, the OT is also historically accurate as well as
spiritually powerful.
Because of these reasons and much more,
I agree with Jono Hall, teacher of OT survey at IHOPU: “It is... impossible to
believe in Jesus as Son of God and not believe the events of the Old
Testament. If we are to believe Jesus’ truthfulness, we must
believe his statements about the Old Testament.” Jesus is the Son of God and if He said it, we
should believe it. The OT is the inspired, true, reliable and
authoritative word of God.
1 While
I do affirm that salvation is through faith in Christ alone (Eph
2:8-9, etc.), true biblical faith necessitates that we believe and
agree with everything Jesus actually said. If He said the OT was the
inspired, true word of God and we don't agree with Him, we've made
Him a liar and therefore don't have the biblical faith that leads to
salvation. Faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26), and our
supposed faith in Jesus that includes a rejection of His view of the
OT is not true saving faith.
2 The
Bible clearly declares that Jesus is God. While there are many more
verses, here are the most basic verses often used to support His
divinity: Philippians 2:6-11; John 1:1-2, 20:28; Mark 2:5-12.
3 From
the Gospel of Matthew alone: 12:38-40; 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19, 26:32
4 Jesus
affirmed the long standing tradition that Moses wrote
Genesis-Deuteronomy (see John 5:46 , etc.), and the dating comes
from 1 Kings 6:1, that states the Exodus happened 480 years after
Solomon started building the temple. Scholars date this event at 966
BC, placing the Exodus at about 1446 BC. Deuteronomy was written
after the 40 wilderness experience, at about 1406 BC (Deuteronomy
1:3)
5 Jonah
(and the great fish sometimes): Matthew 12:39-41, 16:4; Luke
11:29-32
Noah: Matthew 24:37-38, Luke 17:26-27
Elijah: Matthew 11:14, 17:11-12; Mark 9:12-13;
Luke 4:25-26
Daniel: Matthew 24:15
Sodom and Gomorrah: Matthew 10:15, 11:23-24,
Luke 10:12, 17:29
Adam and Eve: Matthew 19:4-6
