With God, all things do add up

Have you ever heard the expression, “That just doesn’t add up”? I have counseled people who tell me their side of a story and suddenly, somehow, what they are saying becomes a little inconsistent. I start to think, “This just does not add up.”

I looked up what this phrase means: A sense of inconsistency, puzzlement, something that defies logic, to cause confusion, or where you get an unexpected outcome. From the world’s perspective, that describes Jesus to a tee. The world will always believe that the Bible just doesn’t add up, that it is just a legend, a good story, a myth, a fairy tale. Believe me, the Bible does not start out, “Once upon a time,” and it certainly does not end with, “And they all lived happily ever after.”

When Nicodemus came to Jesus and asked him who he was and how he did what he did, Jesus simply told him that he needed to be born again. I can just hear good old Nicodemus saying, “How is that possible? How can I enter a second time into my mother’s womb? Come on Jesus, that just doesn’t add up.”

When you repent and ask Jesus into your life, you are born again. When that happened to this man, I never questioned the Bible again. Before that time, I had a lot of WHAT moments. Let me share a couple of WHAT moments in the Bible.

Remember the three boys in Daniel, chapter 3 — Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego? They wouldn’t bow down to the golden image Nebuchadnezzar had erected. He ended up binding them up and throwing them into a fiery furnace heated up seven times. Daniel 3:23: “And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’ They answered and said to the king, ‘True, O king.’ ‘Look, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’”

Then they walked out, not even smelling like smoke. Wouldn’t you have loved to have been a witness to that? Can you just hear good old Nebby saying, “WHAT in the world is going on here? This just doesn’t add up!” Remember my definition of this phrase.

Then we have the story of Jesus healing the man born blind in chapter 9 of John. This healing drove the religious Pharisees crazy. Over and over, they questioned the man and his parents. How could anyone possibly do that? Can you hear them say, “WHAT is going on here? How does this man now see? This just doesn’t add up!” Refer again to the definition of this phrase.

I could go on and on, with the parting of the Red Sea, the walls of Jericho falling, Daniel in the lion’s den, Elijah calling fire down from heaven, Jesus walking on water, Jesus calling Lazarus out from the grave. Jesus did a lot of things that just didn’t add up. Here is how John put it in John 21:25: “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

In closing, let me share with you the greatest event in the history of mankind. The resurrection of Jesus!

Talk about confusing, talk about something puzzling, talk about something that defies logic, talk about something totally unexpected, talk about something that just doesn’t add up!

But for Christians, the resurrection of Jesus does indeed “add up.” Let me tell you what it adds up to! Get ready to jump up and shout hallelujah! Jesus’ resurrection adds up to SALVATION! That is the Good News of the gospel that this evangelist will share until he takes his last breath!

Hasselstrom is an evangelist with Cross Tied Ministries.