It was Stephen Nichols who wrote that Jesus is as American as Apple Pie. He was highlighting the reality that Jesus is a common cultural artifact of our country, and like all cultural artifacts (like apple pie) Jesus has come to be manifest in various forms and with a variety of toppings (I like caramel on my pie). There’s Jesus the CEO, Jesus the wise sage, Jesus the Homeboy, and cowboy Jesus (Johnny Cash called him the greatest cowboy that ever was). But while we may acknowledge the reality of Jesus as a cultural artifact, the true believer must distinguish between these characters and the true Jesus. The only way, of course, to actually make that distinction is to look to the authoritative source on the person of Jesus Christ. In fact this is one of the key reasons that we need the Scriptures: we cannot know Jesus without the Bible.
The reality is that there is very little historical documentation of Jesus outside of Scripture, and even the little that we have does not tell us much about who Jesus was, just that he was. So at the most basic level we need the Scriptures to fill out our picture of Jesus of Nazareth. We need the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John if we are really going to know who He was. Furthermore, we need the epistles of Paul if we are going to understand the full picture of salvation accomplished by Jesus. Paul unpacks the meaning of the events of Jesus life, death, and resurrection in such detail that without it we would not simply be missing a key piece of the gospel message, we would in fact not have a gospel message for us today. For Paul Himself testifies, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word about Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Without the Scriptures we do not have this Word which leads us to salvation. Without the Scriptures we do not have a concrete positive statement about who Jesus is and what He accomplished, we only variations of the story. Some have caramel topping, some use red apples, some green, some are served cold and others hot. But if what we want is the real deal and not someone’s interpretation of Jesus then we must look to the Bible. The Bible is necessary if we are to understand the gospel and the person of Jesus.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 