Immerse yourself in Scripture and develop a biblically informed muscle memory for recalling the life of Jesus and using his story to counter misconceptions about God. The more you are familiar with Scripture, the more you can reflexively respond when someone says God is like this or that, when you know good and well Jesus proves otherwise, the more effective you will be in sharing your faith.

Jesus is incredibly influential. There are breadcrumbs from his legacy everywhere you look. That’s why your best defense of the Christian faith may very well be to simply begin with this epic historical figure who turned the world upside down.

But how can you begin to develop a Jesus-centered apologetic? The obvious answer is to look to the Bible itself. Even more specific, look to the gospel accounts. These ancient documents have more literary evidence for their trustworthiness than any other writing from antiquity. And they focus on the life of the one who stands at the center for the Christian faith.

The point of this series isn’t to give you concrete tactics. Though there will be some specific methods along the way, the main goal is to encourage you to immerse yourself in Scripture and develop a biblically informed muscle memory for recalling the life of Jesus and using his story to counter misconceptions about God. The more you are familiar with Scripture, the more you can reflexively respond when someone says God is like this or that, when you know good and well Jesus proves otherwise, the more effective you will be in sharing your faith.

 Stories About Jesus 

The gospels are all about Jesus. Each gospel has a different focus. The early church developed symbols, inspired by the four living creatures referred to in the book of Ezekiel (a man, a lion, a calf, and an eagle), to reflect different emphases in the gospels. This is called a tetramorph, where four symbols are placed together to point to a single focus. The gospel accounts have a singular focus of the life of Christ from four differing perspectives and priorities.

The church father Irenaeus identified the four gospel symbols this way: Matthew with the man emphasizing Christ’s humanity, Mark with the eagle underlining Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah, Luke with the ox focusing on Jesus’s sacrifice, and John with the lion exalting Christ as King. As you read these accounts you will see multi-faceted ways the gospels point to Jesus as the solution to humanity’s deepest needs.

Obviously some will continue to challenge the reliability of Scripture. There are numerous resources available like this one for responding to such challenges, like this helpful book, Why Should We Trust the Bible, by Dr. Timothy Paul Jones. If you are sharing the faith with someone who refuses to listen to stories of Jesus without first considering arguments for Scripture, you will need to begin by addressing their concerns. But for those who are willing to look at the ways Jesus shows us what God is really like, Jesus-centered apologetics is an ideal method.

There’s no substitute in apologetics for one’s personal encounter with God through His Word. As you read the Gospels, think about the ways the different accounts of Jesus correlate to various contemporary objections to belief in God. Take some notes on what questions you feel these stories relate to. Think about past conversations with unbelievers, and how various depictions of Jesus speak into questions about God. Develop your own tactics for the next time someone presents you with a view of God that doesn’t line up with the life of Jesus, so that you can quickly respond with either a true story about Jesus, or a story told by Jesus.

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