References: (1) Jesus Christ was UNIQUE in that He ALONE, of all who ever lived, was both GOD and MAN. The Nicene Creed (325 AD) states the uniform belief of all orthodox Christianity was that Christ was FULLY GOD and FULLY MAN in one person. (2) The central message of the Bible is that God Himself has provided a PERFECT MEDIATOR, Jesus Christ. But in order to be a mediator between us and God, Jesus would have to be both human AND divine. He would have to be human in order to REPRESENT the human race before the Divine Judge. Yet He would also have to be divine, because no one but God Himself could have the AUTHORITY to represent God. Jesus, the God-man, was UNIQUELY QUALIFIED to be the Savior of the fallen human race. (3) Normal human experience senses this moral failure and guilt before God. After all, if we are honest about ourselves, we know we are REBELLIOUS. And because God gave us His 10 commandments, we know we will violate them sooner or later. (4) The prospect of deliverance from our predicament would require some sort of ATONEMENT, an act that cancels the sin which has broken our relationship with God. There is a BARRIER between us and God brought on by our rebellion to God [Isa. 59:2]. Only Christ can remove that barrier. (5) The only person who could make atonement would be a person who is BOTH human and divine — human, so that He could suffer the penalty of death on our behalf; divine, so that His life would be absolutely FLAWLESS and His sacrifice would be sufficiently VALUABLE to pay the price, not merely for ONE LIFE but for ANY NUMBER of human lives. (6) The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are central to the Christian faith. 1 Cor. 15:3-8 describes 4 major points of the gospel: (a) Christ DIED for sins. (b) He was BURIED proving He died. (c) He was RAISED on the third day. (d) He APPEARED to Cephas (the apostle Simon Peter), to more than 500 brethren, most of whom were still alive at the time of the writing of 1 Corinthians, so they could attest and not refute the resurrection. Jesus appeared not only to James the brother of Jesus, but also to all the apostles, and last of all, to Paul himself. (7) These appearances prove that Jesus did rise from the grave. Christ Jesus CONQUERED death. No other leader of a religion could make such a claim. That means that our death is not the end. There is an after-life. The Scriptures say that there ore only 2 destinations after death: either heaven or hell. Believing in Christ and receiving Him will make your destination heaven. This is episode 230.