Deccartes and Jesus self-existence or self authenticating

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English: Icon of Jesus Christ
English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Most people don’t feel the need to struggle with Descartes over how they can be sure that they exist. And most don’t doubt the existence of the sun. These things are self-authenticating when one sees them.

And so is Jesus Christ.

He is the supreme I am (John 8:58). He is the “sunrise from on high” (Luke 1:78). He is the most self-authenticating Reality that exists.

But he must be seen. And he must be seen with true eyes, for which the eyes in our heads are but copies and shadows. Paul calls them the eyes of the heart in Ephesians 1:18 or the eyes of the mind in 2 Corinthians 4:4. These eyes are designed to see reality, what we call the truth. And they either see truth or, if the god of this world has his way, they instead see a counterfeit posing as the truth:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3–4)

Jesus is the truth (John 14:6), which is also why he is called the Word (John 1:1) and the light of the world (John 1:5). But seeing Jesus with true eyes only happens when people behold him in (or through) the truth he speaks — “the light of the gospel.”

That’s why the most effective apologetic approach that most of us can employ is what Philip used to counter Nathaniel’s skepticism: “Come and see” (John 1:46). We use the apologetic of pointing people to the self-authenticating revelation of Jesus Christ in the Bible.

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