Two years ago I had an email from someone who asked me why I believe Jesus was the Christ. Although I never heard from this inquirer again I want to share my response with you. I simply wish to give my statement of faith.

Dear (Inquirer),

Thank you for your email. I don't know if any of what I am about to say will satisfy your question, but I will give you my reasons for believing Jesus told the truth about himself. I also want to acknowledge that my reasons today are different from my reasons of well over forty-five years ago when I first became a believer. My understanding has shifted greatly over the years and I suspect that will continue to be the case. So, if in the future you still are curious, let's try this again!

That I today believe Jesus is the long-awaited Christ and a full disclosure of God is a statement of faith that has fully engaged my reason. So I have not come to faith apart from the activity of God and the historical testimony of the Christian community. In other words, I am led by God's grace to accept the historical faith delivered to me through Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. All of these paths are important but none are adequate without the desire of God to be known. I believe Jesus is the ultimate statement that God desires to be known to humanity. Jesus, a historical person, is the picture of God that makes known to us the love, commitment and desire of God for each of us. This I believe.

How did I get there? First, I do accept the testimony of the disciples and the early Christians as having integrity. I cannot imagine, in the case of the disciples, these followers of Jesus not turning away and literally disappearing from the social scene when Jesus was crucified. If history is accurate at all, then they maintained their commitment to Jesus in the very face of death and destruction by Rome. Yet, even at the risk of death to themselves and their family they testified publicly that Jesus was the Christ. Their witness is compelling for me. Their behavior at the trial and death of Jesus fits a historically believable pattern of fear and intimidation. However, that fear and intimidation is eliminated by their encounter with a resurrected Jesus. They had no reason to hatch up a resurrection story and place themselves at risk for something they knew to be untrue. Therefore, I believe they are reliable in their historical testimony that Jesus not only died but was raised from the dead by God. The meaning they attached to the historical event of the resurrection became the message preached by the disciples and the earliest Christian Church. I believe Jesus is the Christ, that he was crucified and raised from the dead, because the historical witness is utterly believable. Were I to discount the testimony of these eyewitnesses who placed themselves at risk for greater harm to declare their message, I, too, would have to discount the role of other historical accounts, including even that Nero ruled in Rome. For me, the history is that compelling.

However, history alone does not lead to faith. Faith is response to the ongoing activity of God to be known to us and to bring us to a mature realization of our full humanity. I realize that is a theological statement but to speak about God is theology. Theology, in this case, is an activity of reason influenced by historical faith. Theological reasoning offers me the best way to view the world, life and all aspects of life and community. The biblical witness is that God has a hope for our world that is both present and future. That hope is my guide for living a full and rewarding life in the present as well as a partnering with God that reaches into the future. Briefly stated, believing allows me to make sense of my world and to envision a future world that is consistent with love, peace and justice, all essential attributes of God.
We none come to faith alone and we none create our own faith. We are recipients of a faith handed to us by faithful witnesses from the past. Yet, our faith does not simply face the past but rather stands in the confident assurance of God's love in the present and anticipates a future in which all will know God.

In summary: I believe Jesus is the Christ because faithful witnesses (some of whom were eye witnesses) have passed on to me through the Church that which they and I call good news. That good news is the story of the God who loves us, came to us in Jesus, was crucified and was raised from the dead in a defeat of evil, and who actively seeks to be known to us. The God who seeks us enables us to believe that this story is true, confirms that truth to us by love, and imparts to us the gift of meaning or purpose. If I am wrong about every historical detail and mistaken about every theological conviction, I am still aware that my highest and noblest aspirations have been awaked by thoughts of God. That I cannot deny. If there is any good in me, I am so because God has made me so. If I have any strength for the present or hope for the future it is because God has given it. I know too, that without God in my life I would be totally inclined only toward my own interests, become utterly self-centered, cut off from others and fail to realize the joy of my own humanity. It is truly in this sense also that I can say "Jesus is my Savior." Through Jesus I am freed from a meaningless existence.

I hope this comes somewhere near to what you asked me. Thank you for writing.

Grace and Peace,


David Reed