It's All About Jesus

Osborn asks Why be a Christian? After considering some of the typical answers tradition has<br>offered he contends that only one works: because Christianity is about truth the truth that bears<br>the name Jesus. It's all about Jesus-a most faithful Jewish son of God who was called by his<br>Father the Lord God of Israel to be the witness to the coming kingdom of God. This ministry<br>brought him into conflict with authorities and with the power of the death they wielded thus<br>raising serious questions about Jesus and his authority. His crucifixion appeared to answer the<br>question in the negative. However there was a divine irony in the cross as revealed by the<br>resurrection-namely that the life and especially the death of Jesus was really the story of God's<br>victory over death and the evil it empowers and thus the decisive event of Jesus's messiahship.<br>Yet while death is defeated and has no future it nevertheless persists and the church which God<br>brings into being as a result of Jesus's ministry is called to continue in the power of Jesus to fight<br>against death especially its manifestation in social/political evil as well as in personal sin.