Faith is conviction about things we cannot see. We surely cannot see God. How then do we attain a conviction about an unseen God? Through a fellow human being who has been seen – namely, Jesus of Nazareth.
For four thousand years, God did not call humanity to faith. Instead, He worked through individual men and their families: most notably, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and their descendants. The most notable descendant of all these was Jesus of Nazareth in the 1st century. It was at that time and through that man that God began to call the entire human race to believe in Him. And He’s still calling us to that faith today.
How interesting that a God we cannot see has called us to Himself through a man we can see. Or at least we could see him while he lived on earth. But he’s here no longer. If we are to see him at all, therefore, it must be through the eyes of history – that is, through the eyes of those who saw him while he walked the earth like we do.
Some men seek God through theology – that is, by thinking about God. But if we could achieve faith in God through theology, then Jesus’ life and mission on earth were unnecessary. Some men seek God through philosophy – that is, by thinking about life. But again, if we could achieve faith in God through philosophy, then Jesus’ life and mission were unnecessary. Jesus’ life and mission were absolutely necessary…and we meet him through history since that’s the only way we can come to know about a human being who has finished his time on earth.
It’s not natural to think that faith in God should begin with faith in a man. It’s more the case that people think they need to start with a belief in God and only then investigate whether or not Jesus – or someone else – is a true spokesman for Him. I do not object to people who take this path, but I, like most travelers, prefer the straightest, shortest path to a destination. Why muddle through theology and philosophy – subjects with which most of us are not well versed – to find God when you can just read history – something we’ve all done since junior high school – to find Jesus? Especially since – according to Jesus – finding Jesus ultimately means finding God.
We can indeed find Jesus in history, and, if we find him to be a worthy subject matter expert on God, we get an understanding of God thrown in with no extra effort on our part. Jesus claimed a knowledge of God superior to that of any other human being. In fact, Jesus claimed to have an exclusive franchise on this knowledge. As has been said on his behalf, “Know Jesus, know God; no Jesus, no God.” I know it sounds outlandish, but shouldn’t we at least hear him out – if for no other reason but that the number of the year in which we live is counted from the year he was born? (This ubiquitous fact alone indicates that He is not an insignificant man.)
Look at it this way: If you form your own conception of God before you engage with Jesus’ teaching, you’re probably going to have to alter your conception of God to match what Jesus teaches about Him. I say this because who, on his own, is going to conceive of a Creator willing to be crucified by His creatures? On the other hand, if you start with Jesus, you can let him give you a correct conception of God and you won’t have to unlearn anything you had taught yourself. After all, Jesus may know something about God that we don’t. In fact, that was the essence of his ministry – explaining God to people who didn’t understand Him.
Summing up, faith in Jesus Christ is best established by achieving a common-sense understanding of him as a man. To put it another way, we can’t really understand and appreciate Jesus as more than a man unless we first understand and appreciate him as a man.
Related essays:
- “One Solitary Life” as an Encapsulation of the History of Jesus (2 min)
- Lunatic, Liar, Lord…or Legend? (5 min)
- All Essays
10/25/25
The Duty of a Man 