What Jesus Believes

I love the genealogies in scripture.  They may be a bit tedious to read out loud or to teach from expositionally, but they are great evidence the Bible is a book of historical fact.  We understand in this world everyone is a descendant of other human beings, and the line of Jesus Christ is taken right back to the beginning, to the first man named Adam (Luke 3:38) God created from the dust of the ground and breathed into a human soul.  I do not find it difficult to believe there is a God who created all things and is able to do everything.  What I find impossible to reconcile is how people who say they believe in this God and the Bible is God's Word yet explain away Adam and creation account in Genesis as figurative.

Jesus claimed to be the Christ, the Son of God sent of the Father to save people from their sins.  He did many miraculous signs which confirmed His identity as God, the One who created all things.  I do not feel the need to scientifically explain how Jesus did miracles, for science bows before Him as King and Ruler.  The Bible says clearly what God has done and sometimes even how He did it.  He spoke the world into existence by speaking.  Jesus healed a man born blind by putting a mix of saliva and mud on his eyes and told Him to wash.  Science has no answer or even a theory to explain these things because we have spoken words and know dirt and water has not medicinal benefits.  In these acts we observe the same power revealed by the same God.

I thought it would be fun to point out a few things Jesus referenced from the Old Testament He believed were real, things which some people today imagine must be figurative or try to explain away:

• Jesus believed God created the heavens and the earth without any mention of Darwinian evolutionary process.  Mark 13:19 says, "For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be."
• Jesus believed there was a man called Noah who built an ark which saved him from the great flood which covered the earth.  Matthew 24:37-39 says, "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ³⁸ For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."
• Jesus believed in the existence of Satan, a wicked personality who opposes God and is an unseen enemy of human beings God alone can bind and destroy. Matthew 12:25-26 says, "But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶ If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?" 
• Jesus made a cryptic warning concerning Lot's wife who was turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back to Sodom in Luke 17:32:  "Remember Lot's wife." (you can read a post on this verse here)
• Jesus believed God spoke to Moses from a burning bush in Mark 12:26:  "But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?"
• Jesus believed a man named Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and lived to tell about it!  Luke 11:29-30 tells us, "And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. ³⁰ For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation."

I believe Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah who was conceived by the Holy Spirit in virgin Mary, died on a cross for my sins, after three days rose from the dead, and remains alive today.  His life and resurrection proved His power over sin, death, and hell.  If you can believe these things, is it so hard to believe God created the world, caused a flood to destroy it, led a man to build a boat to survive it, spoke to man face to face, and caused a man to survive being swallowed by a great fish?  I serve a God who has the power to do everything.  I praise God for making miracles possible, because without Him I could not love Him, know anything, or exist.