One of the towering questions of our day is “Are the gospels true?” Without them we would know little more than that Christ existed. Their validity is imperative in the Christian life. How can we be sure they are true?
1. They have the ring of truth. A careful study of the four gospels reveals their amazing nature. Strictly speaking, the gospels are not biographies at all. The earthly life of Jesus covered more than thirty years, yet you can read these little books at a sitting. Long periods of Jesus’ life are passed over in complete silence. None of the general biographical material such as the formative years of his life, his appearance, or his voice quality are given.
“The life of Jesus, as we ordinarily read it,” the Boston Herald wrote, “is what the life of Lincoln would be if we were given nothing of his boyhood and young manhood, very little of his work in the White House, and every detail of his assassination.” So often the gospel narratives amaze me by what they include, as well as by what they omit. They include matter that a “cooked account” would omit. Men writing to “sell the idea of a divine Christ” would never have admitted, for example, that Jesus was tired or hungry or that he could be surprised.
They tell the story with the utmost frankness and candor, never seeking to present the disciple-band in a specially favorable light, or to minimize their blunderings and faults. It is all here, with nothing hidden, nothing palliated. Earthly fame was nothing to these men; the beauty of Christ was everything.
2. They have had the impact of truth. John Richard Green in History of the English People said, “No greater moral change ever passed over a nation than passed over England [between 1583 and 1623]. England became the people of a book, and that book was the Bible … The whole temper of the nation was changed. A new moral and religious impulse spread through every class … The whole nation became, in fact, a church." How can you explain the effects Jesus has wrought on history? If the Jesus of the New Testament is essentially a fictitious character, how has it come about that he has energized history as though he were essentially a reality?
3. They have the satisfaction of truth. Why have the gospels survived the years? The answer is—they work. They give satisfactory answers to perplexing problems. It is even as President Woodrow Wilson said, “When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty.”