Question:

How can I defend my faith in Jesus when the question arises as follows:  How can a physical shedding of blood cleanse the sins and iniquities of a person?  Is it not like a superstition and even nonsensical?  How can I defend the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the materialists?

Answer:

This is a difficult question to answer.  I believe that it is not “logical” that the blood of a man who died nearly two thousand years ago could have any effect on removing the sins of people living today.  Any attempt to defend this proposition on a logical basis is sure to fall flat.  In fact, this is not logical at all.

Nevertheless it is true.  The reason I believe it is true is that this is what is said in the Bible.  Jesus, who fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and who worked thousands of miracles, including walking on water, making bread and fish from nothing, turning water to wine and raising the dead showed himself to be the prophesied Jewish Messiah and Savior.  It is the person of Jesus and faith in him, and faith in the reliability of the Bible that causes me to believe the proposition that the blood of Jesus, shed while he was crucified, could result in my being forgiven of my sins against God.  Like Paul said, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. (1 Cor 1:18)  Yet, it is the power of God for our salvation. Paul admits that this message does not appeal to man’s wisdom. (1 Cor 1:20-25)  Yet it is true.  Jesus, the only perfect man who ever lived told his followers that his body and blood were given for forgiveness of sins, so I believe it, but I do not claim that this is a logical proposition.

As for the resurrection, there is a LOT of material at the web site on this.  This includes audio, notes and power point.  Please do a search of the web site and you will find plenty of highly convincing evidence for the resurrection, including the fact of the crucifixion, the empty tomb, and the belief in the resurrection of the church from the very beginning.  The only reasonable explanation of the facts is the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  A detailed explanation of this is found in my book Reasons For Belief (available at www.ipibooks.com)

John Oakes