With all the chaos and confusion in the world, think again about Jesus — the One who claimed to be life and sustenance, truth and light.
Reason One — Jesus didn’t show up out of nowhere.
He entered the world with credentials prepared over thousands of years. His life fit a pattern carefully laid out in the Old Testament. The Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, and David (Numbers 24:17; Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5-6). He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), and speak in parables (Psalm 78:2). He would heal the deaf, blind, lame, and mute (Isaiah 29:18; 35:6), be a light to the nations (Isaiah 42:6), and be betrayed for the exact price of 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13).
He would be beaten and His beard pulled out (Isaiah 50:6). Psalm 22:14-16 describes the manner of His death, and it sounds like crucifixion even though when the prophecy was written crucifixion as we know it lay centuries in the future. As He died, people would gamble over His clothes (Psalm 22:18). He would die with the wicked and be buried in a rich man’s grave (Isaiah 53:9, 12). An angel told Daniel the timetable leading to the Messiah and foretold that He would be “cut off,” meaning killed (Daniel 9:25-26). Daniel wrote it down hundreds of years in advance, giving an extraordinary prophetic timetable for the coming and death of the Messiah.
These are only a few of the prophecies Jesus fulfilled. Along with His miracles, the beauty of His Person, and His resurrection, these fulfilled prophecies serve as His credentials. He was exactly who He claimed to be.
Reason Two — Not only did Jesus fulfill individual prophecies — His entire life, death, and resurrection fit the prophetic pattern.
He would live a sinless life (Isaiah 53:9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15). Yet instead of giving Him their admiration, most would spurn Him. Isaiah 53:3-5 describes Him as “despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”
He would not be left in the grave (Psalm 16:10) but would rise again and reign forever (Isaiah 9:7; Daniel 7:14; Revelation 1:18). All these things converge on one Person in history — Jesus.
Reason Three — He alone answers our needs.
He is life-giving nourishment (John 6:35). He illuminates our darkness (John 8:12). He is the door to security and provision (John 10:7-10). He leads us and lays down His life for us (John 10:11-15). He is the resurrection and He is the life (John 11:25). He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He is the vine, and His life flows into those who abide in Him (John 15:1-4).
Isaiah 53:9 says, “He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.” Why then did He face rejection, sorrow, wounds, grief, bruises, chastisement, stripes, and death? Verse 6 explains what God accomplished and why: “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
We live backstage in our own lives. We know what lies behind the façade. We know we have strayed from God’s ways and in the process burdened ourselves with sin. We sense what Ezekiel 18:20 says explicitly: “The soul who sins shall die.”
His life affirms that our lives have meaning. His death paid for our sins. And His resurrection gives certainty to the promise of eternal life. World history is littered with the dead bodies of those who claimed to answer the human dilemma. But Jesus is not like them. Of all the individuals who ever lived, He alone answers our deepest needs.
