JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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The New Testament
First, the inspiration of these documents may be supported by their intrinsic content.
They all have for their central subject the person and work of Jesus Christ. Some may object
that any prominent person of antiquity could be immortalized by such a body of literature. This
is not a valid objection since there is no indication that Jesus of Nazareth was considered
important by the leaders and the teachers of His day other than what is presented in the New
Testament. Thus there is no reason why the writings concerning Him should survive in the
hostile Roman world.
The New Testament itself admits that the message about Jesus Christ was "to the Jews a
stumblingblock, and to the Gentiles foolishness" (1 Cor. 1:23). To His contemporaries Jesus
meant no more than any other person who aspired to Messiahship. Yet the fact remains that a
great religion grew from such humble beginnings. May this suggest a divine plan? Can a faith, or
an organized religion, be built and sustained on the kind of Jesus described by liberalism, a Jesus
who is a mere man? Such is highly improbable. But a Jesus who is both God and man provides a
logical explanation.
The message concerning the person of Jesus Christ was unique. Cults centering in
individuals was quite common in the first century, yet these individuals who were either
mythical or historical, did not endure as people to be worshiped. This unique message centers in
the books that are called "canonical." The early church found that the precision of narrative, the
depth of teaching, and the concentration on the person and work of Jesus Christ provided a
discernible difference between the canonical and the noncanonical books.
Second, inspiration is also corroborated by their moral effect. Wherever the message of
what we now have come to know as the canon has permeated and spread, the church has
expanded and brought with it a moral cleansing of society. Even though every person who
claimed to be a Christian was not a paragon of virtue, nevertheless when compared to the moral
standards of paganism, Christianity stood out distinctly. The power of the New Testament truth
(Truth: Jesus Christ) radically changed their lives.
Internal Testimony
Third, the historic testimony of the early church will show what value was placed on
these books that we now call canonical.
Several New Testament authors assumed a certain amount of canonical authority. In
Galatians Paul asserted that his gospel was "not something that man made up. I did not receive it
from any man, nor was I taught it; rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ" (Gal
1:11-12). In 1 Corinthians Paul defined "the gospel" as a message "which I received I passed on