If four well-known authors were to produce independently of each other a biography of some world-wide celebrity, we should be immensely surprised, did we not find discrepancies, and even contradictions, as we compared one author’s account with those of the other three. They would doubtless obtain their information from the same sources, and would present their subject in a more or less different light, which may not be fully true. A well-known author recently wrote, “No man can sit down to write without bringing to the task the preconceptions, which spring out of his own character and experience.” This is invariably the case, when we examine the writings of men.
But when we come to the Scriptures of Truth how different everything is. David said, “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:2). Again he testified, “The Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me” (1 Chr. 28:19). The Apostle Peter wrote, “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21): the Apostle Paul testified, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16).
We see this very markedly in the writings of the four evangelists: each having the Lord Jesus Christ as their Subject—His birth, life, public ministry, atoning death, glorious resurrection, and triumphant ascension to God’s right hand. Nothing short of a miracle could have preserved them from discrepancies and contradictions. That they were thus preserved, leads us to the only possible conclusion, that the writers were Divinely inspired, and that the real Author was GOD HIMSELF. It has been said very truly, and that by a man, who was no friend to the Christian faith, that it would have been impossible for these four men to have invented such a wonderful life, if our Lord had never lived it.
And further, when we remember who these four writers of the Gospels were, we are the more amazed. The Apostles, as they stood before the Jewish Sanhedrim, were described as, “unlearned and ignorant men” (Acts 4:13). They had been to no seats of learning. They were by no means well-known authors. Matthew was a “publican,” one of the hated officials who gathered in taxes under the Romans. Mark, the nephew of Barnabas, whose mother opened her house for prayer, as recorded in Acts 12, and later with Peter, as mentioned at the end of his second epistle. Luke called, “the beloved physician,” the only Gentile writer in the New Testament, and with Paul at the end of his days, as recorded in 2 Timothy 4:11. John, a simple fisherman of Galilee.
These were the men, chosen by God to indite the Gospels, in which the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, the unveiling of facts and doctrines, the knowledge of which could only come by Divine revelation, is all made known in perfection. They write without discrepancy or contradiction. The Person they report never withdrew an error, never corrected a faulty remark, never apologised for any statement made. In any incidents, mentioned by two or even three of the writers, any differences noted are always found to be complementary and not contradictory. These are features utterly unknown in all the literature of all the ages, and can only be accounted for by their production under the full inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.
Each Gospel has its own distinctive character, as often pointed out. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus was presented to Israel as their promised King. In the Sermon on the Mount, He stated the principles of conduct that should mark His subjects, though He anticipated His rejection. The parables of the kingdom of heaven give a prophetic outline of what will happen during the ages; while finally the establishment of the kingdom at the end is indicated, with the King Himself on the throne, judging the nations.
Mark presents the Lord Jesus as the devoted Servant of God, doing His will during His sojourn on earth, though His glory as the Son of God is carefully guarded, both at the beginning and at the end, (1:1, and 15:39). Consequently in this Gospel the acts of our Lord are the prominent feature, rather than His words.
Luke emphasizes the Manhood of our Lord, and the grace of God displayed in action and in word. So we have the preaching of grace in the synagogue at Nazareth, followed by the gracious acts of chapter 5, by the parable of the Samaritan, and those of chapter 1, as also the incident of the Pharisee and the publican and the conversion of the dying thief.
John wrote his Gospel at a later date, when the Christian faith had become widely spread, and when the enemy was sowing evil doctrines about the Person of our Lord. The Gnostics asserted, for instance, that the Lord was never a real Man upon earth, but only an apparition. Hence we get the magnificent opening of his Gospel, asserting the Godhead glory of the Word—“The Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and also that, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Thus our Lord became a true Man, yet never ceasing to be what He ever was from all eternity. So at the close, when Thomas who doubted was finally convinced of His resurrection, be exclaimed in holy rapture, “My Lord and my GOD.”
So in conclusion we emphasize again the fact that the four Gospels in themselves provide us with an indisputable proof of the inspiration by God Himself of the Holy Scriptures—in one word, their perfection, in striking contrast to all that emanates from the minds of men, however learned and able they may be.
It is surely not to be wondered at that God should supply us not only with this fourfold record of the life of the Lord Jesus, but also with the revelation of His counsels in Christ for His own eternal glory, and for the blessing of men of Christ’s present Headship of His body, while it is still on earth, and of what will be established when the hour arrives for His coming again.