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Here is an idea for a quick but fruitful Bible study: read “the Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew 6:9-13) alongside the Lord’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46). As commentators have noted, there are several verbal parallels between the two passages: “our/my Father” (6:9; 26:39, 42), “into temptation” (6:13; 26:41), and “your will be done” (6:10; 26:42). Thus, the Lord takes upon his own lips the prayer that he taught his disciples. He is the Son of God par excellence. Through agonizing prayer, Jesus’ human will was perfectly conformed to the Father’s will—-or, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:8).

But Jesus is more than a good example. He is also our representative. In Gethsemane, the disciples sleep while Jesus is praying their prayer (26:40, 44). He alone watches and prays. He alone is wholly committed to the petition, “Thy will be done.” He alone is the obedient Son of the Father. Thus, Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane is a dramatic enactment of his representative work. Adam disobeyed in a garden of paradise. The Last Adam obeyed in a garden of agony. Meanwhile, his disciples were sleeping in lieu of their eventual abandonment of Jesus. Just another reminder of the gospel: Jesus’ obedience to the Father is the only hope for weak, disobedient, and treacherous people like us.

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

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