I am currently taking a class called Jesus and His Interpreters, and we focus on Jesus as a historical figure, Jesus as the Christ, and where tension develops as these ideas are implemented in religion and in society. Many people think many different things about the man Jesus. It is fascinating to read about what different people from varying cultures think and have thought about Jesus Christ. In class the other day, one of my classmates made the comment that without Jesus’ sacrifice, we would not know love. What he meant is that through Jesus’ sacrifice, God was proving his devotion to his children. The problem with this thought, however, is that it assumes humans were unaware of God’s love before Jesus. This to me is a very dangerous comment. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is full of people who God showed love towards. I asked my classmate If humans didn’t know the love of God before the crucifixion, what about Adam and Eve? He was a little puzzled by my question, so I reminded him that Jesus is often referred to as the second Adam. It didn’t start with Jesus, it started long before God took on flesh. Jesus’ life and death was to restore our relationship to God, the relationship we had in the garden. The point of Jesus was to restore the relationship to the Father, not to create it. There is a very important distinction that needs to be made; if Jesus was here to create a relationship between God and people, how do you explain the history leading up to his life? We live in a fallen world, one that desperately needs Jesus. Who Jesus is and what his life meant is something central and imperative to living a life in relationship with God the Father, who is one with God the Son. I say all this to point out the need for us to be very careful when talking about theological truths, especially with non-believers (which composed about half of the class). People need to know that in Jesus, restoration and reconciliation can take place. God made humans to live in relationship with Him which was perverted, and through Jesus that relationship can again take place. Even the most adamant atheist can sense some sort of disconnection and tension in the world, and it is vital that they know a relationship with Jesus can alleviate the disconnection. The story did not start with Jesus’ human life, but through His life, the story was placed back on track.