A Case for Christ

Jesus made a remarkable claim about himself: that the whole Old Testament (written by many hands across thousands of years, and finished long before he was born) had been pointing to him all along. On the first Easter evening he said so to his followers, and named what those ancient writings had foretold.

Agnus Dei by Francisco de Zurbaran: a bound lamb on a dark ground — *Agnus Dei*, Francisco de Zurbarán, c. 1635–1640. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

“Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:44–47)

The claim can be checked. If Jesus was right, then long before he lived the Old Testament should already hold the specific shape of his life. And it does: over more than 5,000 years, different authors in different centuries foretold a coming figure: a descendant of Eve, of Abraham, of David; a man who would die as a guilt offering for sin, be pierced in Jerusalem, rise from the dead, and whose story would reach every nation on earth.

This page follows those predictions one by one and asks where they point. There is nothing to watch or click; you can read the whole case straight through. See where the thread leads, and decide what you make of it.

The promises converge

Across more than 5,000 years, the promises accumulate:

a descendant of Eve;
a blessing for all nations through Abraham;
a guilt offering greater than any animal;
an eternal king from David’s line;
a man who would be pierced in Jerusalem, and then see the light of life again.

These were written by different people, across different centuries, and they converge on one person. That convergence is either the most remarkable coincidence in history, or it is exactly what it claims to be: a story that was known in advance.

Jesus said: “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” (Luke 24:44)

What is a guilt offering?

In ancient Israel, when someone sinned, they brought an animal to the priest. The animal was killed. The idea was precise: sin deserves death. A substitute dies. The guilty person goes free.

“The priest will make atonement for them with the ram as a guilt offering, and they will be forgiven.” (Leviticus 5:16)

But the system itself raises a problem it cannot solve. What if a person’s guilt is too great for any animal to pay for? The seriousness of a wrong depends on who it is against: a sharp word to a stranger is soon forgotten, but the same word to someone who has given you their life can take years to mend. Sin is a wrong against God himself, who is infinite in worth. An animal’s death is finite, and a finite payment cannot cover a debt of that size.

Isaiah 53, written 700 years before Christ, gives the answer: a man, not an animal, will give his life as a guilt offering. And because this man is also the Son of Man of Daniel 7 (who must be God, since all nations worship him), his death is not finite. It is sufficient to pay for the guilt of the whole world.

That is why Jesus, at the Last Supper, said: “This is my body given for you… This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” He was identifying himself as the guilt offering Isaiah described.

Isaiah 53: written 700 years before

Isaiah wrote around 700 BC, seven centuries before Jesus was born. He describes a man, not an animal, who suffers, is pierced, and carries the sins of many until he is killed: the guilt offering Israel had been waiting for, now a person. And then, remarkably: “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life.” (Isaiah 53:11) He does not stay dead.

So the prophecy holds out two things at once: a man who would die in our place, and a man death could not hold. Whether it came true is a question of history, and we will come to it.

Why must the Christ be God?

The Old Testament is unmistakeable on one point: only God is to be worshipped. “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3). Yet Daniel 7 describes a figure who receives worship from all peoples of every language, worship that “will not pass away.” Therefore this figure must be God.

Psalm 45 addresses the coming king directly as “O God” (v.6). Psalm 72 says all kings will bow down to him. The Christ who is worshipped forever must be divine.

There is also a logical reason: only God can pay an infinite debt. Our sin is against someone infinitely holy. The price of that offence is infinite. A finite person’s death cannot pay an infinite debt. Only God, who is infinite, can. That is why the guilt-offering man must be God himself.

Jesus accepted this conclusion. When the high priest asked him directly, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”, Jesus replied: “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:61–62). He was claiming to be the figure of Daniel 7. The high priest understood exactly what he was claiming, and called it blasphemy.

Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

Here are four reasons to believe that Jesus rose from the dead as eternal ruler of the world:

1. More than five hundred eyewitnesses

Paul writes in the mid-50s AD, about 20 years after the resurrection, listing those who had seen the risen Jesus: Peter, the twelve disciples, “more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:6). He is inviting scrutiny. Go and ask them, he says.

2. The empty tomb

Jesus’ enemies never denied the tomb was empty. They only tried to explain it away (Matthew 28:13). The emptiness of the tomb was not in dispute; the dispute was over how to explain it.

3. James, Jesus’ own brother

James did not believe in Jesus during his lifetime (John 7:5). After the resurrection, he became a leader of the Jerusalem church and died for his faith. The most plausible explanation is that he saw his brother alive after death.

4. Paul, the persecutor

Paul was actively hunting down Christians when he experienced a dramatic reversal. He claimed to have seen the risen Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:8) and spent the rest of his life proclaiming it at personal cost. People do not give their lives for something they know to be a lie.

Outside the Bible, and in public

None of this rests on Christian sources alone. Jesus’ execution under Pontius Pilate is recorded by Tacitus, a Roman historian with no love for Christians. And the claim that Jesus had risen was not whispered years later in a distant city; it was announced within weeks in Jerusalem itself, the one place where anyone could have walked to the tomb and produced the body. No one did.

One detail is easy to miss. Isaiah’s man rises “on the third day,” and that is no stray number. The third day is the Old Testament’s own marked day of reversal from death to life, a pattern you can trace across the whole Old Testament yourself.

Jesus’ execution under Pontius Pilate: Tacitus, Annals 15.44.

The promise reaches you and me

There is one promise left, and it is the one you and I are standing inside. Jesus said the good news would be “preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). Centuries earlier the prophets had said the same: God would pour out his Spirit on all people, and “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (Joel 2:32).

It began exactly where it was said it would. Weeks after the resurrection, in Jerusalem, Jesus’ followers began announcing that he had risen (Acts 2). From that one city the message spread outward, nation by nation, century by century, until it reached the country I am writing from and the language you are reading in now.

That is the part of the prophecy anyone can check, without a library or a laboratory. The promise was that this news would reach every nation on earth, and it has reached ours. You and I are among the “all nations”, and the offer first made in Jerusalem is still open today. None of this forces anyone’s hand; it simply lays the choice in front of us.

What does this mean for you?

Jesus died to pay for your sin. He rose again to give you new life. That offer is open to anyone who turns to him.

If you want to respond, you could pray something like this, not as a magic formula but as a genuine turning toward God:

Lord God, I’m sorry that I have rejected you as the ruler of my life. I need your forgiveness. Thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place. Thank you that he rose again to give me new life. Please forgive me and change me, that I might live with Jesus as my ruler. Amen.

If you have prayed that prayer and meant it, you may feel different, or you may not. Feelings are not the point. The important thing is this: you can be confident that God has answered. He did the hard thing by sending his Son to die for you. Answering the prayer of someone who genuinely turns to him is the easy thing. He will do it.

Tell someone. Find a church where the Bible is taught. Read Luke’s Gospel.

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