Amidst all of these cultural and sociological issues, the story of the life of Jesus Christ portrayed three distinct characteristics that would eventually set Him apart from the rest of the messianic competition. The first was His unique miraculous powers. The Christian faith today obviously acknowledges such works of mental and physical healing and demonic deliverance to be genuinely powerful works of God. But in Jesus’ own experience these miraculous works were highly questioned by the religious scholars of His day, just as they would be today. In Mark 11:28 the religious elite confronted Christ and asked him "By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?"

It had become obvious that these miraculous works alone didn’t instantly qualify Jesus as the much longed for Jewish Messiah. There were many miracle workers scattered throughout the streets of Judea and Galilee. Many times these miracle workers turned out to be con artists or standard run of the mill magicians just trying to earn a living.  

Some even taught very parallel messianic philosophies along with their miraculous activities. These lifestyle philosophies often included giving to the poor, exercising brotherly love and forgiveness to all other devout Jews.

Jesus left many receptors and witnesses of His miracles perplexed by His regular requests or commands for them not to talk about what they had just received or witnessed when He performed a miraculous work. This phenomenon is often referred to by Biblical scholars as the “Messianic Secret”. It was Jesus‘s own way of trying to defer the stereotypical “messianic junkies” and the “miracle chasers” of His day from attempting to exalt Him before His spiritual work of redemption through the cross was accomplished.

Jesus Christ knew that His ultimate achievement was to be offered as a pure sacrifice for the sinful state of the entire world, past present and future. This is evidenced by the recording in the three synoptic gospels (Matthew 10:38 & 16:24, Luke 9:23 and Mark 8:34) of Jesus telling His disciples that they must “take up their own cross and follow Him”.      

These recorded miraculous works of Jesus by the four Gospel writers in the Bible were probably eventually validated by the second distinction of Jesus Christ. This was He lived a faultless and sinless life throughout His entire mortality. Hebrews 4:15 says; “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

Again, the evangelical Christian faith today openly acknowledges and accepts the historical fact that Jesus Christ lived a faultless, sinless, perfect life. From a spiritual viewpoint, this was so that He could become the literal sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Jesus’ teaching and healing ministry on earth prepared His followers for His definitive act of self sacrifice.[1] “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; “But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,”  (Hebrews 10:11 & 12)

From the cultural position of His day, He was perplexing to the authorities, because they could ”find no fault in Him” (Luke 23:4) as Pilate would be quoted on the day of our Lord’s crucifixion. It became virtually impossible to make any charges of wrong doing or corruption stick against Him. There were many accusers, but no evidence or proof. At His trial just prior to His execution, the only accusers of Jesus Christ were those paid to drum up untrue stories and false facts about His life and ministry. Even the secular historians of His day such as Josephus made note of it. During His crucifixion, even the Roman military officers acknowledged openly that there was something uniquely different about this particular man. In the Gospel according to Matthew 27:54 we see this clearly stated; “Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

The third distinct aspect that would become the cornerstone of the faith was the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from amongst the mortal dead. No one has ever laid claim to such a phenomenal work of the power of God as the tangible resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus is recorded by the Gospel writers and the Pauline and Apostolic epistles alike. It is validated claim by literally hundreds of actual eyewitnesses who saw Jesus after His resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:6 says; “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.” The evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus is compelling. Some historians have called it the best-attested event in antiquity.[2]

Only those who do not claim Christianity as their religion or faith, will attempt to argue the fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some Gnostics and liberal theologians have attempted to dispute the literal aspects of Christ’s bodily resurrection by claiming that Jesus never actually died on the cross. They will often say that He swooned or became comatose and thus revived in the cool environment of the garden tomb. Others have held to the original story of the high priests in Matthew 28:11-14 that Jesus’ body was stolen by His disciples in a vigorous attempt to bring notoriety to their leader.

There is another obvious proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Down through the last two thousand years hundreds of thousands of people have been martyred because of their faith and belief in this Jesus who was raised bodily from the mortal dead.

There is a reason why ten of the original Apostles of Jesus Christ all died torturous martyrdoms. If they were just trying to perpetuate a simple religious story for personal gain or notoriety, one of them would have cried out just as they were about to unleash the lions – “Hold on guys! It’s all just a great hoax! It didn’t really happen. I’m sorry!”

Myths do not make martyrs. People in their right minds do not give their mortal lives to perpetuate a lie or a hoax. It just does not work that way. The whole resurrection scheme, if that’s what it really was, would have unraveled in a few short years if that was all there was to it. This has been proven to be true by others down through the years who have tried to create stories to deceive the masses. 

In 1 Corinthians 15 the Apostle  Paul describes the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the most essential event in the mortal existence of Jesus that validates the faith we now place in our salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul vigorously defends the fact of the resurrection by making it ultimately essential for our faith in Jesus Christ’s redemptive act to be complete. In verse 17 of that chapter Paul proclaims the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ when he says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”    

It is these three distinctions that set the life stage and ministry of Jesus Christ apart from the other “messiahs” of His day, and motivated His company of approximately 120 disciples to be the birthing agents of this life changing faith in God. That movement, was originally only recognized as a Jewish sect. But it eventually became that single ray of light and hope on the known world stage of human life in that era and in the generations to follow.

Empowered and controlled by the Holy Spirit, these unknown commoners set out to share the love of a savior they knew and experienced personally. Little did many of them know that this Gospel message of love and redemption that they spread would never be able to be snuffed out by any person force or political agenda. The Gospel is a universal invitation from which no one is excluded. There is no class of sins, no people group, no demographic that leads to exclusion from the call of the Gospel.[3]

Neither did these early Christian enthusiasts anticipate that within three hundred years they would come to the forefront of recognition in the largest political entity of that day – the Roman Empire.