The Life of Jesus Christ

A Biographical Overview of the Life of Christ

James Stalker

• Publisher: Aneko Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781622457366
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Biography

There was only one man who was so important that His birth caused our calendar to split in two (B.C./A.D). There was only one man who, despite being tempted, did not sin even once. There was only one man who died for your sins and mine and by whom we can have eternal life. That man was Jesus Christ of Nazareth.How much do you know about Jesus? Have you spent much time thinking about how He lived? Do you know Him? James Stalker carefully goes through each stage of Jesus' life and presents, in a biographical format, what we know about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If anyone deserves to have our attention and our interest, that person is Jesus. He is more than a hero. He is a perfect example of how we should live. He is the only one who gives us any real hope at all. If we are to take up our cross and follow Him, we must understand what that means and must see what that looks like. This book will help you to do just that.

Conclusion

No life ends, even for this world, when the body in which it has been made visible for a little while disappears from the face of the earth. It enters into the stream of the ever-swelling life of mankind, and it continues to act there with its whole force forevermore. Indeed, the true magnitude of a human being can often only be measured by what this afterlife shows him to have been.

So it was with Christ. The modest narrative of the Gospels scarcely prepares us for the outburst of creative force that issued from His life when it appeared to have ended. His influence on the modern world is the evidence of how great He was, for there must have been as much in the cause as there is in the effect. It has blanketed the life of man and caused it to blossom with the vigor of a spiritual spring. It has absorbed into itself all other influences, just as a mighty river flowing along the center of a continent receives tributaries from a hundred hills. Its quality has been even more exceptional than its quantity.

The most important evidence of what He was, though, is to be found neither in the general history of modern civilization nor in the public history of the visible church, but in the experiences of the succession of genuine believers who, with linked hands, stretch back to touch Him through the Christian generations. The experience of innumerable souls, redeemed by Him from themselves and from the world, proves that history was cut in two by the appearance of One who would breathe new life into them, who was not a mere link in the chain of common men, but was One whom the race could not from its own resources have produced. He was the perfect Type, the Man of men.

The experience of innumerable consciences, the most sensitive to both their own sinfulness and the holiness of the Divine Being that the world has ever seen, yet who were able to rejoice in a peace with God that has been found to be the most powerful result of a holy life, proves that in the midst of the ages an act of reconciliation was worked out by which sinful people can be made one with a holy God.

The experience of innumerable minds, rendered blessed by the vision of a God who, to the eye that has been purified by the Word of Christ, is so completely Light that in Him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5), proves that the final revelation of the Eternal to the world has been made by One who knew Him so well that He could not Himself have been less than Divine.

The life of Christ in history cannot cease. His influence increases more and more. The unreached nations are waiting until it reaches them. All great discoveries of the modern world, every development of ideas that are more just, that are of greater virtue, and that are more excellent in mankind are only new ways to help us know and understand Him more.

Hints for Teachers and Questions for Students

It will be observed that what has been attempted in the preceding pages has been to lift the main details of our Lord’s life into prominence and to clearly point out its decisive events, keeping the details as brief as possible. These details are more popularly known than any other part of human knowledge. What most readers of the Gospels need is a concise summary that will naturally arrange itself so that the life of Jesus can be seen as a whole, and an attempt has here been made to supply this need.

However, in a Bible class course that extends beyond twelve or fifteen lessons, more details might be beneficial. Therefore, a more detailed outline is included here, along with a few questions on the text intended to encourage students to further thought and inquiry.6

As tools for the teacher, I would recommend:

• Samuel James Andrews’ The Bible Student’s Life of Our Lord, an unpretentious but excellent book, in which the apologetic difficulties in the details of the life are treated with much candor and success
• Augustus Neander’s Life of Jesus Christ, the best life, in my opinion, that has been published, although sadly marred by too great concessions to the spirit of denial, which had reached its climax in Germany at the time when it was written
• Frederic Farrar’s The Life of Christ, John Cunningham Geikie’s The Life and Words of Christ, or Alfred Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, which will lend vividness to the teacher’s remarks.
• These books, along with a good commentary on the Gospels, a harmony of the Gospels, and a handbook of Bible geography, are sufficient.
• Happy will the teacher be who has, in addition to the above books, James Hastings’ Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels or his Dictionary of the Bible.

Preliminary Characteristics of the Four Gospels

Matthew

• Hebrew thought and diction.
• Well acquainted with Old Testament in the original.
• Frequent quotations, That it might be fulfilled (Matthew 1:22; 2:15, 23; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21:4; 27:35)
• His aim was to prove that Jesus was the Messiah.
• The kingdom is very prominent (Matthew 3:2; 4:17, 23; 5:3, 10, 19, 20, etc.).
• Methodical groupings and combinations, such as groups of parables (chapters ...