We tend to be skeptical when we hear an incredible story from someone we barely know. We inwardly ask ourselves what are the chances of this particular thing happening. We tend to sum up the person in our minds saying to ourselves, “even if this were true, what is the probability that this particular person could have experienced it.” Say for instance someone you just met told you they had lunch with the president of the United States last week. Most of us would be more skeptical than we would be favorably impressed.
Peter was aware of this kind of response as he had undoubtedly experienced the same kind of doubt himself (Mark 16:9-11). Knowing this he writes, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). He had lived with Jesus for three years before his death. He ate meals with him. He stayed the night in the same places Jesus did. He heard his teachings. He saw the miracles.
John writes, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” They knew Jesus as well as any human being can know another. They saw him die a cruel death at the hands of the Romans. They knew close up what it could cost them to follow the same path as Jesus. But they had seen “his glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
They saw him in his resurrected body and knew the truth. Peter tells us, we “were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” He is driven to share the truth about Christ at the cost of his own life.
A life full of grace and truth is the life that persuades others to believe in God. Does that describe you?
