Embracing History

What it takes to stay out of the trash bin

“Christianity is a historical religion. It is a religion that is not based primarily on an idea or philosophy. Most of the religions of the world can exist apart from their founder. You do not have to have a historical Buddha to have Buddhism. All you have to have are Buddhist teachings. So also with many other religions. This is not the case with Christianity. If you take away the history–if you reduce it, as some have tried to do, to a religion of mere ethics or ideas–Christianity evaporates. This is because Christianity is indissolubly linked to the life and accomplishments of Christianity’s founder. Jesus taught about God, but he did not merely teach. He showed what God was like. Then, in order to achieve our salvation, he died for us, taking our place to bear the wrath of God. Without that historical basis, Christianity would pass, as have many other religions, into the trash bin of history.” J.M. Boice in his commentary on The Book of Acts

History means that that Jesus lived in that area of the Mediterranean, said such and such—and lived, died, was buried and then rose from the dead on the third day. It was THAT Jesus—the Matthew-Mark-Luke-John-and-Acts One.

“…[We] need…a sure and certain knowledge of Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes through faith in him. We need to know what Jesus accomplished. We need to know the perfection of his virgin birth, the obedience of his sinless life, the wisdom of his profound teaching, and the power of his divine miracles. We need to know these things because they prove that he is the Son of God. And we need to know what Jesus did to save us from the wrath of God. We need to know that he suffered and died on the cross for our sins. We need to know that he was raised from the dead to give eternal life to all who trust in him. And we need to know that he was ascended to heaven, where he rules over all things for the glory of God. We need to know these things because sometimes we have our doubts…If we are sometimes tempted to have our doubts, this does not mean that we are not Christians. It simply means that we are sinners who struggle to live by faith…Assurance does not come by looking within or by having some special experience. The only way we become sure of our salvation is by looking to Jesus…Luke…wrote…researched things carefully and wrote them down logically and accurately, giving us the real history of Jesus.” Phil Ryken, Commentary on Luke (Reformed Expository Commentary), Volume 1, pp. 14-15.

G. Mark Sumpter