John MacArthur explains why people lie about Jesus

I hope that those who have Easter Monday as a holiday are enjoying it! We in Britain are.

Yesterday’s post had as a source a sermon by John MacArthur about Acts 10:34-43.

‘The Why, Who and How of the Resurrection’, which he gave in 1996, begins with a summary of articles about Jesus which appeared in Easter editions of Time, Newsweek and US News and World Report.

I won’t go into their vile, false stories, which you can read for yourselves in the sermon.

This is MacArthur’s explanation for such falsehoods (emphases mine):

… they do not like the Jesus of the New Testament because He confronts their sin and He threatens judgment. And consequently, they, wanting to hold to their sin, invent a Jesus more to their liking.

A lot of Christians — especially clergy — do this, too. We have liberation theologians, social gospel proponents and others who say that Jesus came to change the temporal world.

No.

As MacArthur points out:

The historical Jesus reached a living end and because He lives we can live also and escape hell with our sins forgiven. The only thing that sends sinners to hell is their sins and God says I’ll forgive them if you’ll believe in Jesus Christ. What a gift.

I’ll tell you one thing, if you miss the real Jesus and His salvation, life will be a dead end.

It will indeed.

I hope and pray that we remember Christ’s resurrection from the dead not only at Easter but every day with thanks to God.