Jesus said to the Jews:
“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.
But there is another who testifies on my behalf,
and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept human testimony,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
He was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John’s.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.
Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.
But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
and you do not have his word remaining in you,
because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.
“I do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I came in the name of my Father,
but you do not accept me;
yet if another comes in his own name,
you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:
the one who will accuse you is Moses,
in whom you have placed your hope.
For if you had believed Moses,
you would have believed me,
because he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?”
These works are His teachings and His living witness to the truth. But even more, His works are His death and resurrection. Without the resurrection, Jesus is nothing more than a man who died. But because of it, we can believe that He is the one true God, because not even death can touch him. Death is the one thing in this world that no one can escape. No amount of money, power, or ingenuity can keep you from this fate. The athiest in silicon valley, think that they can create computers that will someday house human souls, and they are working really hard on this, but it is a fools errand. Only God can put a soul into a body, and there is nothing we can do to change that.
The Lord, creator of the universe, did not want us to have to face death. It was a mercy given to us, because Adam and Eve chose sin over God. You may be thinking that I am crazy to say that death is a mercy, but think of it this way…, would you want to spend eternity, in a state of sin? I believe that that would be a fate worse than hell. In fact, the mythology of the vampire was created to show us exactly what an eternity of sin would look like… Total Hell!
So death is indeed a mercy, it forces us to face our lives, and our choices, and to hopefully reconcile with God before we die. The athiest wants to try to avoid this, they want to keep themselves from facing the one thing that they cant do anything about, but time catches up to us all, and we will be all forced to face the reality of our sin, and the effect it has on others, at some point in our life.
So if Jesus were only a man, He would not be able to overcome the fate of death either, He would eventually succomb like everyone else. But Jesus is not just a man, He is God, and who else but God can raise themselves from the dead. But even more incredible, who else but God could suffer all the hate and indignation man could muster, and return from that fate of death with only forgiving love. Only God could do that.
These are the works that testify to his divinity, Jesus Christ was inacrnated as man, He lived and taught us how we are to direct our lives. He sacraficed himself for the redemption of all of us, and then He proved that is was all real by raising Himself from death, triumphing over the worst that we could do to Him, and finally inviting us all to follow Him so that we can be with Him for all eternity.
So we are left to to decide what we are going to do with that information. If He is God, then you must live as He commanded. If He is God you must change your life to conform with His will and His teachings. If you do this your reward will be eternity with Him in Heaven. If not, then your fate will not be death, but a fall into an eternity in hell. I do not wish that for anyone, but it is your choice, so choose wisely.
