Originally published in the June 2005 issue of The Christadelphian magazine
A Life of Jesus
THE whole message of the scriptures turns on the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. To know about God and His Son is “life eternal”, the Lord said (John 17:3). Any study of the Saviour therefore has enormous personal benefit, for by seeing the Son, we see the Father also (John 14:9), and are led to worship Him.
The importance of Jesus’ life can be measured by the preservation of four separate Gospel accounts to reveal the multi-faceted character of God’s only begotten Son. In the process of reading these accounts, a person is lifted up to heavenly places to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Much time can be spent attempting to reconcile the details of the four Gospels, and place them all in a chronological context. The result can be confusing and mechanical, and in the process the wonder of the Lord’s life can be obscured. Yet all the details were provided by God. Much more could have been written, “but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31).
What the Gospel records provide in their combined message is a devotional account of the earthly ministry of God’s Son. They reveal not only the bald details of various incidents, but the attitudes and reactions of those who witnessed them, and the gracious teaching of the Master from heaven. This distillation of the Gospel messages about the Lord is vital if a believer is truly to come to “know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10). Disciples may
start as spectators taking note of what occurred; quickly they must become partakers – sharers with him in God’s eternal purpose.
Just over fifty years ago, brethren and sisters received great assistance in learning about the Saviour and his life from the dedicated work of Brother Melva Purkis. His book, A Life of Jesus, immediately filled a need. Its message rouses the heart as well as the mind, taking two-dimensional facts to paint a three-dimensional picture. Since its first publication in 1953, generations of brethren and sisters have warmed to the very personal account Brother Melva penned. It is clearly the product of scholarship and research, yet is infused with warmth and understanding, both of the human condition and its weaknesses, and of the remarkable and unique character of the Son of God.
By assisting readers to meditate more closely on the Lord’s life, this work helps brethren and sisters to say with the Apostle Paul: “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). With the publication of the third edition, this same help is now available to a new generation of readers.
