Ask An Evangelical: Why Jesus, Why?

Ask An Evangelical: I love Jesus, but have questions.

What do you want to know about Evangelicalism? Submit your question here.

How can we believe that Jesus who taught such wonderful things in the New Testament can be the same being who gave the laws of Moses, many of which were horrid such as with slavery and women?

I would love to just believe in the New Testament, but Jesus quoted the Old Testament and held it in reverence, so I can’t dismiss the discrepancy that seems to be between the two books.

Thoughts?

Not being a Biblical scholar, I’m going to take the ‘easy’ way out on this question and give an answer that can, hopefully, be understood and accepted by our reader and a wide range of people. That said, after this article is published, I plan to go online and research this issue in more depth and, if there are other sound reasons to believe that any discrepancies between the two books don’t cast a negative light on our Savior, there well could be a follow-up piece. And now for my answer.

I believe there’s a commonality between the three ‘persons’ of our Holy God: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit; they ALWAYS act in a way that is without sin.

This concept can be somewhat difficult for our human brains to comprehend because we live in a world where the imperfect is all around us and even part of our very own lives. But if God is perfect, as I believe he is, then nothing done by either of the deity figures can be wrong.

He Is In Control

In order to be an all-mighty God, he must have the power to stop any action from occurring. So, if that’s true, not a single harmful thing happens to anyone on this planet unless he allows it. Does that make all behaviors and thoughts of humanity good? Nope, but it does put the ultimate, and correct, blame on the person who commits the bad and not on God.

I’m not aware of anyplace in God’s Word where it says that he makes us perform acts of a sinful nature. The responsibility for sin is ours alone and that’s why Jesus died…so that mankind would have a way of redemption from their behavior.

But why are there times when we can’t justify something that happens in the Bible? Ultimately, it’s because our opinions about the actions of the Father, Son, and or Holy Spirit, are based on the knowledge we possess, which is dramatically less than enough to comprehend the work of our triune God.

Like a Child

Imaging a 5 year-old child listening to their father discussing various aspects of life as a married individual. Would they have a complete understanding of everything they heard? Could the child sort out all incorrect ideas the dad might share? Would an opinion that could lead to seemingly harmful behavior be understood to actually be the right thing to do?

We know that, regardless of how hard they tried, a typical 5 year-old boy or girl would not have the ability to grasp everything their father might share, and the difference between their knowledge level and the actual facts would be dramatic. But what about man and God?

The percentage of God’s teaching and actions that can be understood by mankind has to be tremendously less than that of the human child and his father. And because of that, we often don’t understand how a behavior of God’s could be anything other than ‘horrid’.

When faced with that in the Bible, I suggest we fall back on what we believe to be true, even if we can’t completely understand it. God is always doing his faultless will out of a perfect love for every person on earth.