Renew Your Mind and Your Heart Will Follow
By Colette Aikema
As 2020 came to a close I felt myself struggling to be a good mother. I did everything that needed doing and tried to say all the Christmas things, but I knew I had not done right by my children, nor their Maker. I became frustrated at their yelling and anger, but my conscience told me that I was the one flipping my lid daily. I became incensed at their refusal to patiently wait turns or not interrupt, but I’ll bet you can guess the name of the adult who would not let anyone else finish their sentences. Me, of course. Discouraged by my own lack of Christmas cheer, I turned to the truths of Scripture with a question. “How can 2021 be different, Lord?” I asked.
The answer came, clear as day, from 1 Corinthians 2. And it challenged me deeply.
Let 2021 be the year you confess and desire to know Christ and Him crucified.
That’s it. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? And yet for most of us to know Christ at this level is the hardest thing we will ever do. Afflicted by the weakness of sinful flesh, the constant exaltation of the self, the guilt of sin, and the schemes of the enemy—we too easily forget about Christ and everything He is.
At Faith Beyond Belief, we want to be reminded this year not just that we need to know and embrace Jesus, but also that as followers of Jesus, we must defend and confess Him as He is, the Lord who calls us to Himself, and in so doing calls us to lives of sacrifice (Luke 14:25-27). God, in His infinite and incomprehensible grace, knew that we would need this two-fold calling because it not only glorifies Him, it makes us living letters through which His Holy Spirit calls our neighbors to faith in Christ.
“Afflicted by the weakness of sinful flesh, the constant exaltation of the self, the guilt of sin, and the schemes of the enemy—we too easily forget about Christ and everything He is.”
I vividly remember the moment when, as a child, Christ’s redemption and saving work became a reality in my life. In an instant filled with grace and faith He became my every breath and my reason for living. As a student of apologetics, I am grateful that even as a child God gifted me with an inquisitive and critical mind. But I have to admit, it was not always my first instinct to be so completely invested and determined. In fact, to get me to use my mind for His glory, God had to do a radical work in me, which I discovered He was quite willing to do.
I recall another occasion as a child when, sitting in church, I felt a deep thud of dread in the pit of my stomach as an idea came over me: What if it isn’t true?
I broke down in tears right there in church, inconsolable and too afraid to share the idea that had filled my mind. What if it isn’t true? What if the Bible isn’t true? What if Jesus was not real? When we got home my dad waited for a quiet moment, and then asked me what had happened during church. It turned out my dad knew how to restore my faith. And the confidence and clarity with which he answered me is something I will never forget. In fact, I can say that conversation was the start of my desire to study Jesus and the Bible, along with the proofs that their claims are true.
God knew that back then I needed my dad to lay out the extraordinary claims of the Scriptures, while asking me if I thought any human explanation could be given for such things. Something similar happened this past year. Like the loving Father He is, God used my experience in 2020 to strengthen my confidence in basic Biblical truth, including that Jesus really was born, that He actually lived, that He truly allowed Himself to be executed, and He really, actually, truly was raised to walk in newness of life so that in Him we may do the same (Romans 6:4).
How do I know all this is true? For one thing, since joining FBB I have been privileged to be able to study the Worldview Course in great detail in order to teach it. In fact, for me one of the highlights of the COVID lockdown was being privileged during Easter week to teach course session 8, Who is Jesus? I was able to relearn the reasons why it is absolutely reasonable and necessary to believe that Jesus existed, and that He is truly the Son of God.
For example, there is so much extra-biblical material written about Jesus in the first 150 years after He lived, that even modern scholars no longer doubt his existence. Consider this. We have about 17 non-Christians sources that talk about Jesus in those early decades. From those sources we can learn about 60 things that are in line with the gospel accounts, including His miraculous birth, many of His teachings, His death, and the disciples’ claims of His resurrection. A full 12 of those early sources mention Christ’s death, and six of them call Him deity, or state that His early disciples believed in His deity.
So overwhelming is the evidence for Jesus’ existence that famous atheist scholar Bart Ehrman has made two major claims in print. (1) No scholars “trained in New Testament or early Christian studies teaching at the major, or even the minor, accredited theological seminaries, divinity schools, universities or colleges of North America or Europe, or anywhere else in the world” doubt the existence of Jesus. And (2) the skeptical literature that doubts Jesus’ existence is so far outside the world of genuine scholarship that until he made a study of it, he and his colleagues were “almost completely unaware” of it. In his 2012 book, “Did Jesus Exist?” Ehrman states:
“The Faith, “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) is not for the faint of heart. It is for the contrite of heart who, broken by the exceeding sinfulness of their sin (Rom. 7:13), fall on their knees before the crucified King.”
I am not a Christian, and I have no interest in promoting a Christian cause or a Christian agenda. I am an agnostic with atheist leanings, and my life and views of the world would b approximately the same whether or not Jesus existed … But as a historian I think evidence matters. And the past matters. And for anyone to whom both evidence and the past matters, a dispassionate consideration of the case makes it quite plain: Jesus did exist.
Once you’ve settled the question of Jesus’ existence, the rest is easy. By His teachings and miracles, by His life, and especially by His resurrection, Jesus proved His divinity beyond doubt. Ehrman and other atheists continue to doubt these things because they don’t like them, not because they lack evidence for them. On the other hand, we who love the Lord and long to please Him, do so not because we are especially spiritual, but only because He is especially gracious and has blessed us with the gift of faith to believe and obey. Ultimately Ehrman, et al, exist to demonstrate that our faith is according to evidence, not in violation of it.
So how can we honour the risen Christ in 2021? Let us begin by accepting our Lord’s statement that the Scriptures are true in every part (John 10:35; 16:12-15). He wants you to believe this so that you can confidently proclaim His Name to the nations, His glories “to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 52:10).
It is not easy to be a Christian. The Faith, “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) is not for the faint of heart. It is for the contrite of heart who, broken by the exceeding sinfulness of their sin (Rom. 7:13), fall on their knees before the crucified King. Then we learn that although He demands all that we are, He gives back so much that it can only be described as “what no eye has seen, nor ear has heard” (I Cor. 2:9-10).
The events of the Bible are true. They really happened. Lee Strobel found this out when he fearlessly and thoroughly investigated the evidence for the Jesus of the Bible. The story of salvation as put forward by the Christian God far outweighs in wonder and evidence all other religions. God has powerfully used books like Strobel’s The Case for Christ, and the movie based on it, to convict believers and unbelievers alike of the proof for Christ’s existence.
This year may it be your goal to know Him, and Him crucified. Your life, and that of your acquaintances, depend upon it. Are you ready?
Become ‘fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace’ and join the countless Canadians committing their conversations to Christ. Join FBB today!