Does Jesus Need Credentials?...

 Jesus was well-known in Judea but especially in Capernaum and Nazareth where the ministry got off to a start and onto its feet as the first HQ.  His reputation preceded Him! He needed no introduction or publicity agent!   Fame was something that traveled fast in those days as the common folk spread the word, especially that there was a prophet in the nation, maybe even the Prophet that is to come.  Even today, people don't regard Him as Jesus the Great but simply Jesus.  He has no equal, neither predecessor nor successor.

John was His forerunner and character reference so to speak and he was the most highly regarded man in the land at the time, so much that the Pharisees dare not interfere with him, for the people loved him and respected his preaching the baptism of repentance. But Jesus needed no letter of recommendation or to refer to credentials as a way to impress Himself on others. His miracles spoke for themselves. 

What kind of credentials were these then? They consisted of perfect morality and keeping to a faultless degree every point of the Law of Moses, the Torah. No one could genuinely find fault in Him and He asked the Jewish leaders to accuse Him of sin with conviction and they failed; the only charge that could tick before the Sanhedrin was that He was an insurrection threat to Rome. Jesus was so holy that it made everyone who knew Him realized their own faults, shortcomings, and sins; Peter said, "Depart from me O Lord, for I am a sinful man!"  Now, normally familiarity breeds contempt but not in His case!  He could not have been anything but perfect to fulfill the Law and only one sin would have disqualified Him from being our Savior 

Another credential was His works, so ass to say that we should believe on account of the sake of the works alone, that they were of the Father.  He did many signs, wonders, and miracles that elicited faith in some and skepticism and cynicism in others; He had enemies because of the truths He spoke. He never footnoted His sayings but spoke directly as God Himself.  He spoke nothing but the truth but didn't say that He knew the truth or would say it or found it, but that He is the truth (cf. John 14:6); He didn't speak by authority, but with authority "as one who had authority" (cf. Mark 1:22; Matt. 7:29)! His word was binding, authoritative, and final.  He had and was the last word! 

Now, His miracles were not helter-skelter or for no reason scattered in the narrative, but God had a purpose for each of them and without them, the story wouldn't be the same and Christ would be but a footnote in history  If we remove the miracles from Christ then He is nothing and the faith is disemboweled and neutered. Other faiths remain intact even without the miracles--they are unnecessary for the religion. Jesus never did anything for selfish or self-serving reasons, but as acts of compassion and often to be object lessons to His sermons or sayings--no showy or biggie miracles!  

Now, Jesus had many character witnesses, and even if we look at His enemies (the witness of an enemy has a lot of weight in a court of law due to no personal gain by it), we learn quite a deal because they have no agenda or motive to lie about Him; they would unwittingly tell the truth. For instance, Judas said he had betrayed innocent blood, the soldier at the crucifixion called Him an innocent man or even the Son of God, Pontius Pilate said he found no fault in Him, even King Herod was unwilling to convict Him. When at the trial, they found no legitimate witnesses to tell the truth but they contradicted each other--they had to resort to getting a confession and self-condemnation which was illegal.  

But the biggest credential of Christ was His resurrection (cf. Romans 1:4; Acts 17:31), the final sign to a wicked generation.  He prophesied this and rose on the third day to prove His vindication for us and to give us hope of a resurrection, which doctrine had been vague to the Jews. The cornerstone of our faith is the historical truth of the resurrection and this is arguably the most attested fact in antiquity.  Either it's the most astounding fact in history or the biggest, cruelest hoax ever perpetrated according to Josh  MacDowell. If we remove this miracle then our faith is futile and we have no reason to trust Christ and we are indeed the most miserable of all men and most to be pitied (cf. 1 Cor. 15:14). 

But all this is only consistent with who Jesus claimed to be!  Most people mocked at having virgin births like Alexander the Great and Buddha, but if you lived the life of Jesus, you'd take it more seriously.  He claimed to be the Son of God, the Judge of mankind, the Lord of the Sabbath, to be without sin, and many more direct or indirect claims of deity.  Even though He mostly spoke in figures so speech, He didn't always beat around the bush though. His claims were consistent with His character.  Claims in themselves are not proof but in this case, they are consistent. Some cults teach that Jesus never claimed to be God, but Scripture makes it clear that He knew His mission and kept a low profile for that reason when they tried to kill him.

He made the most outstanding and bold claims and man since, or before ever did--even though the Caesars claimed deity, they didn't go this far! But He didn't go around bluntly announcing He was God, for His time had not come and he was looking for faith, not some who would believe had they had enough "evidence." It was obvious to the Pharisees just who Christ claimed to be and they plotted to kill Him for this reason. Jesus had to be both God to fulfill the Law and bear our sins, and man to relate to us as our Mediator. He must be the Go-between, the Daysman.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Present Your Credentials Please! ...

It goes without saying that Jesus was not the Messiah of conventional wisdom--a military prince to deliver Israel from Rome; instead, they got a pacifist with a whole new way of living. No one had the unique character of Christ that forgave His enemies and had compassion on the multitudes; no one had exhibited such unprecedented conduct like turning the other cheek or practicing what He preached to such a magnitude; no one demonstrated such unparalleled claims like being the incarnation of God--yet people were puzzled as to His very identity: He didn't go around advertising that He was the Son of David, neither did He ever deny it. He did speak in figures of speech at first but didn't always beat around the bush--His enemies knew full well what He was claiming. He didn't have a publicity agent to promote Him, but the word sure got around that He couldn't escape the adoring crowds and curiosity seekers.

In short, no one has ever had His credentials, just like George Gordon, Lord Byron said, "If ever a man were God, or God was a man, Jesus was both." For instance, he despised duplicity and hypocrisy in others, and yet he was so straightforward and guileless Himself. This is notable because normally familiarity breeds contempt, and the closer the disciples got to Him the more they saw their sin, not His and respected Him to the point of worshiping.

Jesus is unique and cannot be pegged or put in a box to be analyzed: No one ever spoke like Jesus; He is easily the most outstanding personality of all time and easily the dominant figure of Western Civilization; His ethic is unheard of to the time in formulating the Golden Rule; He is the greatest teacher, lived the holiest life, has the most adherents, made the biggest impact on history, and He is by far the leader par excellence of mankind (John Stuart Mill, atheist, called Him the "guide of humanity") and the greatest man of letters, William Shakespeare called Him his Lord and Savior in his will. Without an army He has conquered more hearts, without going to formal school or penning anything He has inspired more songs, books, poetry, and sermons that can be counted! Even Napoleon wandered at His influence over man and said, "I tell you, I know men, and Jesus was no mere man!"

Let's examine some credentials of the God-man: His enemies concede more than you might realize in saying He was innocent blood, truly the Son of God, having no fault to crucify for, and did nothing worthy of death. His friends like Peter testified that He was the Son of the living God, and Thomas cried, "My Lord, and my God." The thief on the cross unwittingly said that "He saved others." The chief priests and elders couldn't deny the miracles (it was common knowledge!) that He wrought and even plotted to kill Lazarus because of his testimony. Some of the strongest credentials are the 333 prophecies He fulfilled to the letter of at least 456 details. He had all the witnesses you could ask for John the Baptist announced the inauguration of His ministry; the Holy Spirit was there at His baptism; the soldier at the cross realized He was the Son of God; Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus; a heavenly chorus of angels sang at His birth; More than 500 eyewitnesses saw Him in His resurrected body at one time; He was showered with gifts by magi; (the books couldn't all be written) ad infinitum.

The sign of His virgin birth, given as fulfillment of prophecy (Is. 7:14) was a biological anomaly, but is wholly consistent with His character: If a man lived the kind of life He did and died the way He did, you would believe Him when He claimed a virgin birth, unlike Alexander the Great, who claimed his real father was a snake!

To mention in passing that His historicity is vouched for by pagan as well as religious or spiritual sources is only common sense. Pliny the Younger, the Talmud, Suetonius, Tacitus, Josephus, et al mention vital facts about Christ inadvertently and what seems fortuitously. One can no longer dismiss the Scripture record as legend or myth because these didn't have time to develop and the timeline places them in the first century mostly before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

We would have no reason to believe in His deity had He not risen from the dead to prove it as the ultimate credential--this is a historical fact that can be vouched for by more various sources than any antiquarian fact. His miracles were not denied but attributed to Satan--even the historian Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews claimed miracles done and the Jews never denied this. The point is that He didn't just do fantastic miracles to attract attention, on-demand, or for selfish reasons, but only as signs of His nature and out of compassion. In multiplying the loaves He was proclaiming Himself as the Bread of Life; in raising Lazarus as the Resurrection and the Life, etc.

In application, we have to realize that we present Jesus to the world and people look at our personal credentials: What manner of person are we or what are we really made of in a crisis? Our testimony shows our true colors and there comes a time when our actions may speak louder than our words. To some people, Jesus would never measure up because He isn't what they are looking for; and likewise, we will be rejected by the world and we must learn that the world hated Him and will hate us also. We have the honor to bear our cross, which pales in comparison to His, and to suffer for Jesus in ways that He never did to complete them and so that we can share the fellowship of suffering as Paul did and said in Philippians 3:10 (ESV) which says, "[T]hat I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings [the fellowship of His sufferings] ...."

In sum, John couldn't have said it more clearly: "This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true" (John 21:24, ESV). I appeal to no higher authority than Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, because He is the highest authority and is self-attesting. This means that Jesus measures up and to appeal to any other authority than to Him is to dethrone Him and exalt that authority to God-like status. Soli Deo Gloria!