In the previous post, I suggested that the most significant day in history was the day of the resurrection since it is the only historical day that has significant impact for both the world and the individual. No other day in history until the end of the world is going to be as globally significant.

While at the end of the last post I zoned in on the reality that if Christ rose from the dead, every person has a decision to make. If Jesus rose from the dead, then everything else he said is true. That’s significant.

If Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, then he is the most significant person to ever live.

Before we plunge into that pool more deeply, a bit of housekeeping. When I began this blog many years ago, and I fully admit I have been an inconsistent blogger, the outline I was following was simply to go through the gospel of Mark. Not an exhaustive study of Mark but somewhat of an overview. I have reached the end of Mark and so there will be one more Mark centric post after today with a little look at the end of chapter 16 which may or may not have originally been written by Mark. After that I will begin a new and somewhat ambitious journey that the Lord has put on my heart born from a series of Bible Studies I led over the past several years for friends of mine. Normally, I say this at the end but, this blog is freely written and freely given. Share it or even use it for yourself, but please let others know where you got it. If any of the posts herein bless you then share those with friends that they might also benefit. My goal is simply to utilize a gifting and help people understand Jesus better and the Bible along the way.

If Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, then he is the most significant person to ever live.

What we read in the New Testament is a series of books that in various ways try to explain the significance of the Resurrected Jesus. The gospels seek to explain this using his words and recollections of his actions leading up to and in some cases after the empty tomb. Acts seeks to explain that significance through stories of how the good news of the resurrection event spread form Jerusalem around the Roman Empire. Pauls’ letters to the various churches and the other epistles all try to answer practical implications for believers all the while sharing the significance of who Jesus is. Finally, the Revelation of John, shares the future return of Jesus but even still seeks to explain what happened because of the Jesus event. So there is a theme running through the entirety of the New Testament.

Here is a small sampling of things said about Jesus in the New Testament:

  • “In Christ Jesus God was reconciling the world to himself” 2 Corinthians 5:19
  • “while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:6
  • “He is the radiance of His Glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things through the power of His Word.” Hebrews 1:3
  • “He himself will come to have first place in everything for it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him.” Colossians 1:18-19
  • “When I saw him I fell at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the Living One: and I was dead and behold I am alive forevermore…'” Revelation 1:17-18.
  • “awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm you to the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:8

The most significant person to ever live.

I would be remiss if I did not explain two words used so often with Jesus. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah which means “anointed one” and indicates someone on who God has placed a special status or blessing. It is a title and that is why we see it used on either side of the name Jesus by the various writers of the New Testament. Conversely Lord, is from the Greek word kurios, and while it can be used as a title in the sense of master or as a knight might refer to their Queen as “my Lord” in the Greek translation of the Old Testament the word is used almost exclusively for the place of YHWH, the name of God. Scholars argue, but the New Testament makes a lot more sense when we assume that these Jewish writers writing to Greek listeners about the significance of Jesus knew exactly how they would hear it as a statement of divinity.

Back to those verses. In order they lay out these truths of the significance of Jesus. The purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection was to reconcile God and sinners (Ephesians 2). This happened at the right time in the history of the universe and nothing about us as individuals or a community warranted it (Galatians 4). God anointed Jesus, the Man, with the Spirit and the fullness of who He is (two natures human and divine) and in him we can know the very nature of God (John 1). He has all power and authority (Phillipians2). On the last day those who believe in Him and trust him will be found blameless and like Jesus himself will live forevermore (1 John 2:25).

There you go the theme of the New Testament in 5 verses. You might note that the summary contains references that are different from the verses. I did that so you would know I wasn’t cherry-picking or simply proof-texting. Now let’s go just a little deeper into the concept of a New Testament.

The earliest use of the term New Testament to describe these writings is from the Second century (think years that are in the 100s) and is a translation from Latin. We tend to hear two things from that phrase. One we think testimony because testament is not a word that we use often in English anymore outside of the phrase last will and testament. It is true that testimony is from the same Latin root that we get the word testament. It is also true that there is a “witnessing” element throughout much of the New Testament. There is however another meaning that is locked away in the word.

Back to the example of a will. A will is at its core a covenant agreement. The deceased has shared that these are their wishes after death for the matters of their estate. The covenant is with those who have been named in the will as executor and beneficiaries to carry out those wishes. It is not a contract. Dear old Grandma doesn’t call you in and say here sign with me a contractual promise that when I die you get my rocking chair. No, she has her lawyer write a clause saying Sally I leave you my rocking chair. The expectation is that everyone, including cousin Julie who always wanted the rocking chair, will abide by the wishes of the dearly departed. What does this have to do with the significance of Jesus? The older meaning of the word Testament as it is used in Latin during the second century is covenant.

Covenant is a rich Biblical word. God makes a covenant, most famously with Abraham, but also with Adam, Noah, Moses, and David. They are promises made by God that He pledges to keep regardless of what the other party does. Starting with Adam and going forward these are the pledges of YHWH. To Adam he promises that one day there will be a descendant of humanity that will overcome the curse of sin. Noah is promised that never again will YHWH seek to destroy every living thing and start over. Abraham is promised that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars of the sky. Moses is promised that when it comes to the people who have been brought out of Egypt YHWH will be their God and they will be his people. David is promised that one of his heirs will reign forever.

In Jeremiah, the prophet shares the word of the Lord: “Behold the days are surely coming… when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with them when I brought them out of Egypt…this is the covenant that I will make… I will put my law in their hearts; I will be their God and they will be my people.”

The New Covenant is promised.

What we call the New Testament is the good news that the New Covenant has begun!

You can read a little more about the time that Jesus made the arrival of the new covenant explicit here.

The second thing we here is concerning the word new. We have been conditioned by marketing to assume that new means better than the old. With the exception of New Coke, there is an assumption that the new formula, the new car model, the new iPhone, etc. is always a replacement of the old. This was also the assumption of many second century Christians. The New Testament replaced the Old Testament. Except that is not true. The promises of God exist eternally so those previous covenants are all still in effect.

In this case the title New Testament is a collective proof that the covenant promised by the prophets has arrived in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The most significant person to ever live.

A theologian of the last century summarized it thus: “he has assumed human nature… united it to his Divine person so that our humanity belongs to him…. from the standpoint of reconciliation and justification effected in him, it means that, bearing our punishment, achieving the obedience we did not achieve and keeping the faith we did not keep, he acted once and for all in our place.”

Put a different way. Jesus is the one promised to Adam. Jesus is the first born of a new Creation whereby God will make all things new without simply destroying every living thing. Through Jesus the children of Abraham spans millions around the world. Jesus is the one who can keep the covenant law promised to Moses. Jesus is the heir of David who shall reign forever.

The most significant person to ever live.

And one of the great miracles of God is that you can know this Jesus, not like you know George Washington or William Shakespeare or Elenore Roosevelt, but like you know your best friend. Even better, you can know Jesus as you know yourself. It starts with the smallest amount of faith and seeking him while he can be found.

The most significant person to ever live is Jesus.