What is the best way for someone to ensure that a record of his life, teachings, and achievements should live on after he himself is departed? The most obvious answer—write a book.
There is much to be said for writing your own biography rather than leaving someone else to do it.
Yet Jesus wrote no book.
The story of his life is recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Though less than a biography, they chronicle Jesus’ life mostly from his public ministry through his death and resurrection.
Yet Jesus wrote no book about his own life and teachings.
In the gospel accounts we learn that Jesus honored, revered, and read Scripture (the Old Testament) in the synagogue.
He told the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 that they were slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had written about himself in the Old Testament.
Yet Jesus wrote no book telling us how to read and interpret the Bible.
When he was raised from the dead, he remained with the disciples forty days before ascending to heaven. He comforted them, taught them, encouraged them, and commissioned them.
Yet Jesus wrote no book for them to read after he went back to heaven.
Without a book Jesus wrote, how in the world are his followers supposed to know what to believe and how to live? What are our marching orders?
They are all found in a book . . . that Jesus wrote.
Wait a minute! Jesus wrote no book! In one sense – true enough. During his life on earth, He never took pen in hand and wrote a book.
On the other hand, he did write a book. His book is called the Bible.
But how can a book written by some forty different authors over a period of some 1600 years on three continents in three languages be at the same time a book written by Jesus?
Since the Bible is inspired by God, and since the Godhead is a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, wrote the Bible.
Jesus wrote a book after all.
The Bible doesn’t answer all your questions. But it does answer the single most important question of your life: How can my sins be forgiven? No one can afford to be in the dark on this question.
Woody Allen, actor, comedian, and movie director, is an atheist. He was once asked the question, “if there is a God, and if that God should speak to you, what would you most want to hear him say?” Allen thought for a moment and responded: “I would most want to hear him say three words: ‘You are forgiven.’”
This book tells us who God is, who we are, how we went wrong, how God fixed it, and how our sins can be forgiven through faith in His Son, who died for our sins on the cross, rose again, ascended to heaven, and one day will return to this earth.