ARTICLE FOR THE WEEK

One Hundred Pages

(Kent Heaton)

The life of Jesus is contained in four books of the New Testament. As authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John offer different glimpses of the short life of God in the flesh (John 1:14). Matthew and Luke begin with his birth showing Jesus to be a Jew (Matthew 1:1-17) and a son of Adam (Luke 3:23-38). Mark declares the Christ as a man for all men (Mark 16:15) and John unveils the character of God embodied in the human form (John 20:30-31). All of the gospels put together only make up one hundred pages of typed manuscript; yet no words have changed the world as those few pages of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

How well do we know Jesus the man, Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the son of Abraham and Jesus the one who came for all men? The whole of scripture from Genesis to the Revelation declares the mystery of Christ and the revealing of God’s plan to save man. We see glimpses of the nature of God’s Son throughout the writings of Moses, the prophets and the psalmist (Luke 24:27,44). The epistles of the early church declare the risen savior as Lord and King. Yet contained within a fraction of the immense portrait of redemption is the earthly life of the crucified Christ.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us [and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father], full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). John was privileged to see and behold the Son of God. He walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, shared moments of joy and moments of grief in the presence of the Christ. What John found in the man from Nazareth was grace and truth. John lived with Jesus and devoted his life to him. For those of us removed in time from walking with Jesus in the flesh is given the call to walk with Jesus in the spirit. Like John we need to see Jesus for who He is and who He came to be for all men. The Son of God who, “existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

One hundred pages tell us everything about His teaching of grace and mercy. Upon those blood stained leaves contain the promise of redemption. Vibrant echoes of judgment pour forth as Jesus Christ the Lord sounds the message of His father to a lost world. Four men pen the immortal words of salvation in one single message of hope. Untold thousands have given their lives for those one hundred pages.

Four books; 89 chapters; 3,778 verses; 82,825 words; one hundred pages; the story of Jesus Christ – priceless. The written story of Christ could easily be read in a day but takes a lifetime to know, and even then the story has not fully been told. Yearn to know these 100 hundred pages for on these leaves lay the eternal blessing of God’s love. His story is to permeate every fiber of our lives. His life is to mark the path for our journey. His promise will uphold our hope in the security of His words that promise eternal life. His death will signal victory over that which we fear. His resurrection has declared the true story of why God’s Son became flesh and dwelt among us. He died that we might live and He arose that we would share in the final resurrection. One hundred pages – one single life. Thank God for Jesus Christ.