Gleanings from the Bible Ruth 2:2
Why 4 Gospels?
The Bible is a book of life, and this life is a living person, the wonderful and all-inclusive Christ. The Old Testament gives a portrait, in types and prophecies, of this wonderful person as the Coming One. Now, in the New Testament, this wonderful person has come, and He is introduced to us in four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But why four gospels?
Christ, as the wonderful center of the entire Bible, is all-inclusive, having many aspects. The New Testament at its beginning presents four biographies to portray the four main aspects of this all-inclusive Christ. A living person may be said to have four sides—a front, a left side, a right side and a back. While a description of the appearance of each side may be factually accurate each description will be dramatically different. Nevertheless, for a full comprehension of a living person he must be viewed from all four sides.
The Gospel of Matthew testifies that Jesus is the King-Savior, the Christ of God prophesied in the Old Testament, who brings the kingdom of the heavens to the earth. To prove Jesus is the true King, Matthew needed to show us the antecedents and status of this King as the proper successor to the throne of David. Accordingly, the genealogy of Christ in Matthew begins with Abraham, the father of the called race, and includes a royal linage through King David. In Matthew, Christ as the king was anointed in chapter 3, and decreed the constitution of His kingdom in chapters 5 through 7. In chapter 8, we see that He had authority over the wind, the sea, the demons, and the authority to forgive sin. In chapter 13, He unveiled the kingdom’s mysteries, and in the final chapter He is resurrected in victory to reign with all authority.
The Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus is the Slave-Savior faithfully laboring for God and for man. Accordingly, Mark’s gospel has no genealogy, as a slave has no social status that would require a genealogy. Furthermore, in Mark 10:45, Jesus said that He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. By comparison, Mark’s account is most simple, for a servant does not warrant a detailed record.
The Gospel of Luke presents a full picture of Jesus as the Man-Savior. He was the only proper and normal man who ever lived on this earth. To prove that Jesus is a proper and normal man, Luke’s gospel presents a long genealogy, tracing back not just to Abraham, but all the way back to Adam, the first generation of man. It is fitting that Luke was a physician (Col. 4:14) and had the standing to testify of the Lord’s human birth, human living, and human death. In Luke, we can see the Lord’s sympathetic humanity when He was moved with compassion for the widow who had lost her only son (Luke 7:13). In the last chapter of Luke, the disciples were able to touch the flesh and bones of the Man-Savior after His resurrection (Luke 24:39) and He ascended into heaven as a man.
Finally, the Gospel of John unveils Jesus as God the Savior, the Son of God, the very God Himself, who is life to God’s people. Accordingly, John also has no genealogy, as God is without beginning; rather, John begins his gospel with: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). In the first 11 chapters of John, Jesus as the very God changed man’s death into life, and satisfies every man’s need, including the moral Nicodemus, the immoral woman, the lame man, the hungry crowd, the thirsty woman, the condemned sinner, the blind man, and the dead Lazarus.
In the Old Testament these four aspects of Jesus Christ are foreshadowed in typology by the four living creatures in Ezekiel, with Christ in Matthew typified by the lion, Christ in Mark typified by the ox, Christ in Luke typified by the man, and Christ in John typified by the eagle (Ezekiel 1:10). Accordingly, the New Testament needed four gospels to present to us the four main aspects of such a living, wonderful, and all-inclusive Savior. After reading the four gospels, we can see a full portrait of the all-inclusive Christ. He is both a king and yet also a lowly slave; a proper man and yet the mighty God. He is everything we need! Sometimes we need Him to be a king to us to rule and reign in our lives. At other times, we need Him to serve us as a slave. Did you know you have a personal servant? He serves us by bringing us whatever we need (i.e. His human virtues and divine attributes).
This wonderful One is also a genuine man who is able to be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, having been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). However, this One not only empathizes with us, but He is the mighty God who gives life to the dead and calls the things not being as being (Rom. 4:17). He is not like many of our friends who may sympathize with us if we lose our job, for example, but cannot give us a loan because they are broke. He is Jehovah, the “I Am” (John 8:58), who can provide whatever we need—love, joy, life, grace, and peace to name a few.
In the concluding chapters of the fourth gospel, John gives us a call to action when he writes, “But these I have written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). Thankfully, this wonderful and all-inclusive Savior is not only factually real but subjectively experiential by believing into Him and calling upon His name (Rom. 10:12-13)—O Lord Jesus!
Gleanings from the Bible is a six-part series contributed by a local Christian home meeting group that loves the Lord Jesus, believes in the Bible, and cares for the oneness of the Body of Christ. For more information please visit our website at www.fromhouse2house.org or email us at info@fromhouse2house.org. This article is based in part on footnote 11 in chapter 1 of Matthew from the Holy Bible Recovery Version published by Living Steam Ministry.