I have been thinking a lot about James, the brother of Jesus lately. His testimony should remove all doubt for the unbeliever about Jesus' claim to be the Son of God, the Messiah. Why is this? Let's just stop and think about it for a minute. If you yourself have grown up with a sibling, you will acknowledge that you see everything! People are quite different in the public and private eye, and your siblings (and parents) know the good and the bad. That is why it is so hard to shake a bad reputation! So, add to this that Jesus was most likely the favorite son. I don't know about you, but if an angel announced the birth of one of your children and you knew he was the son of God, my guess is you would treat him quite differently than the rest of your kids! So, here it is - James, the son of Mary and Joseph, brother of Jesus, raised in a traditional Jewish home in the shadow of his perfect brother. I know people try to make the apostles and disciples out to be these holy saints who can do no wrong, but in reality they are human like we are! If we were in James' shoes, we'd likely view things skeptically. In fact, in John 7:5 it says that Jesus' brothers didn't believe him. James, I'm assuming, was among them. However, he had a change of heart after he saw the resurrected Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:7). We can be assured of his belief because James is then referred to in Galatians 1:19 as an apostle of Jesus (as well as brother). It is also generally accepted that James was the writer of the book of James in the Bible....where he refers to himself as "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1). Finally, Josephus, a non Christian reference documents that James (brother of Jesus) was martyred in AD 62.
I don't know about you, but that really is mind blowing! Can you imagine, dying for the belief that your brother was God? To do so, he must have believed it were true, and if he believed it were true - he would also be able to attest that Jesus' teachings were both true and that he indeed lived a sinless life. How can we know Jesus lived without sin? James is a testimony to that. Although he did not say it specifically, his life and death speak that truth loud and clear. I'm sorry, but I would not die for a lie. He would not have died a martyr if he did not come to accept that Jesus was who He said He was - the Messiah, the Son of God, the savior that was sacrificed for our sins. If James' testimony were not enough, Jude, another brother was also a believer after the resurrection and wrote the book of Jude. It seems that God wanted to make it abundantly clear that from any angle even a skeptic 2,000 years later could see the truth. That is why He made a way for multiple accounts to testify to the truth of Jesus' divinity and power to save us from our sins - because the multiple gospels, the testimony of Jesus' brothers, and even secular accounts all line up. Most of these books were written close to the time of Jesus' death and resurrection so if it were false then these people would have been put down and there would not have been a mass spreading of the Gospel. Whether or not you choose to believe is up to you, but "seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you!" (Matthew 7:7)
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