This is a question that is asked by many people when they start reading the Bible. They want to know why there are these four different accounts of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. To most people, it would make more sense for there to be just one book and for it to be called the Life of Christ. Their thinking is that they are trying to apply the teachings contained in these four books and that it would be easier if there were just one book that they could then try to follow.

This study will show there is a purpose for there being four gospels. God does not make mistakes or do things without a purpose. There is a clear reason for there to be the four different accounts here.

It is also important to note that traditional thinking has also crept in and influenced a lot of people. There are warnings in the Bible about what tradition will do for people (Mark 7:1-13, Colossians 2:8). Tradition causes the Word of God to become of no effect. It is why we need to make sure we are using the principles the Word of God has for study:

The Bible talks about the principle of right division. This is where an individual (thyself) studies the Word of God for themselves in order to see what it says. When things line up the way the Bible clearly lies out, the believer then starts to experience the spiritual growth that comes from the study of God's Word.

These four gospels are given for a particular purpose. Each of the four gospels is going to show the life of the Lord Jesus Christ portrayed in a certain manner. These books all flow from the prophecy of the Old Testament and seem to read as if they are Old Testament books because they are. Hebrews 9:16-18 states there can be no testament without the death of the testator. Since the majority of the four gospels record the life of the Lord Jesus Christ before His death, they all are considered to be Old Testament books.

The first thing to look at is the reference to the coming Messiah. This individual is referred to in a particular manner:

The Messiah is referred to as the branch that was going to come. The name "the Branch" is something that will be used by several of the prophets in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.

This passage here describes the Branch as being the King of Israel. This is a direct reference to the prophecies given of the King coming to rule over them, as would be seen in the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7:5-16). One of the four gospel accounts will make a presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the King.

The second reference to the Branch is of a servant. This servant is referred to with the same name and is clearly the Lord Jesus Christ. Some struggle with the fact that He was ever called a servant. In Isaiah 42:1, the servant, who is called mine elect, is clearly the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a servant in the manner that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to carry out the work of the Godhead and present the kingdom to the nation of Israel. This is going to be seen in one of the gospel accounts.

This third reference to the issue of the Branch involves speaking of someone being called the man. For some individuals this is a struggle to consider when speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they do not understand how God could become a man, which is viewed as being too low for God to do. This is why they struggle with passages such as:

John here makes reference to something known as the Word. He begins his gospel by identifying that the Word was there in the beginning, all things were created by Him, and that the Word is God. This can also be seen in 1 John 5:7, where the three parts of the Godhead are listed out and all are identified as God. One of these is the Word, which is being made reference to here.

John also states that the Word has been made flesh. This is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ here on planet earth. This had been prophesied about several times, going all the way back to Genesis 3:15, the very first prophesy that is given in Scripture. This is what makes Him unique, as He was fully God and fully man during the time of the earthly ministry (for more information on this topic, see the article Jesus Christ, Fully God and Fully Man on our website).

One of the four gospels will discuss the Lord Jesus Christ as a man. It will show the frailties of the Lord Jesus Christ as man. It will also focus on other details related to His humanity that the other gospel writers would not focus on.

The last of these branch descriptions refers to the future event known as the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is when the kingdom will be established with the nation of Israel and all of the prophecy that had been given to them will fully be established. This is the time when He is known by all that see Him and they all understand that He is God. This is something that was never seen during any point in the four gospel accounts, as this was not the time for it to happen. They rejected what was going on at this time.

In order to get a good understanding of this from Scripture, we will need to go back to the calling out of Egypt to see an example of what is being made reference to:

In these passages, we see the problem Israel had. They had the sign gifts, because it was necessary for them to have the signs in order to believe (1 Corinthians 1:22). They were told in Exodus 19 that they should remember the salvation that had come when they were brought out of Egypt. This was a sign to them that they were doing things that were part of the program of God.

However, a study of the book of Exodus, along with the rest of the Old Testament books, shows that the nation of Israel did not heed the things spoken of. They rejected what God had done and would complain about the circumstances they were in, or would outright reject what God was doing. This was because it was said even before they left the land of Egypt that they would reject the first sign given to them and would only believe when they saw the second sign.

This type of thinking goes all the way to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to establish the kingdom upon the earth. The nation as a whole, would reject the first coming and would not see Him as the rightful King and Messiah until He comes back to the planet in the second coming. It does not take much study of the four gospel accounts to see this is how the nation of Israel was functioning at this time.

Before defining these four presentations as has been seen by the Branch statements, we will look at one more piece of evidence for these four presentations. There are four statements in the prophetic books speaking about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are known as the Behold statements:

The first of these statements is Behold thy King. Since the name King is capitalized here, we know this is speaking about the Godhead here. This is Lord Jesus Christ here being made reference to. This event occurs when he enters the city of Jerusalem prior to the crucifixion, setting up these events. This is the cutting off of the Messiah, which is the sign of the end of the 69^th week of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27), which should have been a clear sign to the nation of what was going on here.

This second statement here is speaking of the servant to come. He is identified as mine elect, which is one of the five things identified as elect or chosen of God (these being, the Lord Jesus Christ, the nation of Israel, the 12 apostles, the Body of Christ, and the Apostle Paul). This passage reinforces the fact that the nation of Israel should not have been surprised by how the Lord Jesus Christ came, as it was prophesied that He would come as the servant.

The third of these Behold statements is one that had been looked at before related to the branch. It refers to the man who is going to come, which is something that was not fully expected by them. They struggled with the fact that God could come in the form of man, even though the prophetic program was filled with references to this being the case (i.e., Isaiah 7:14, Genesis 3:15).

The last of these Behold statements shows that they were to behold their God. They were to be looking for God to come among them. All of this shows the stumbling block the nation of Israel had, as they could not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as God, because He did not fit what they thought God should be.

These four different presentations of the Lord Jesus Christ occur in the four gospel accounts. They are broken down in the following manner:

Matthew: The Righteous King

Mark: The Faithful Servant

Luke: The Lord Jesus Christ as a man (Humanity)

John: The Lord Jesus Christ as God (Deity)

This is the break down of how the four gospel accounts present the Lord Jesus Christ and why we have four different accounts presented. There are other pieces of information that help show this breakdown. One of the things that can be seen from the texts is how the gospel accounts record information related to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew starts the account related to David. This would show the faithful reader of this account who the Lord Jesus Christ was. The issue of David is the throne and the kingdom that had been promised (2 Samuel 7). It had been promised that there would be the seed of David sitting on the throne for all of eternity. This is what they were looking for, the King to come to free them and establish this Kingdom. Matthew 1:6 further clarifies this by mentioning David as the king, in case they did not understand what the significance of this was to be for them.

The gospel written by Mark does not record information about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not surprising, considering the presentation of this gospel. Since mark, is presenting the Lord Jesus Christ as the servant, He is being seen from this point of view. When someone considers a servant, there is no consideration given to where this person comes from, according to a genealogy. The only thing that is important is if the person has the capability to the job required, which the Lord Jesus Christ was clearly able to do.

Luke also provides a genealogy related to the Lord Jesus Christ. We see how far this goes back:

Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Luke goes all the way back to Adam, showing that the Lord Jesus Christ would be considered a man. This was important, because He needed to be linked with Adam. Where Adam failed in the temptations that were presented, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to succeed, which makes Him perfect to be the sacrifice for sin. The Bible links these two in many different passages because of this.

This passage here is an example of this. The Apostle Paul gives an important piece of information for those who are reading this epistle. He is pointing out to people what their eternal destiny is going to be. If a person is identified in Adam, the only thing that can result is death. If a person is identified with the lord Jesus Christ (the second Adam), they receive the gift of eternal life. This is why it is so important for us to put our trust in the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), so that we can be made partakers of this gift of eternal life being offered to us.

John takes a different approach when looking at the Lord Jesus Christ, which is appropriate considering the purpose of this gospel:

John starts looking at the beginning, which would be before Genesis 1:1 and the creation of the universe. He states that the Word was there from the beginning, identifying the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no beginning of God, but He is the Creator of the entire universe. It is easy to say that before everything was, there was God. John starts off here pointing out who God is, and removes any doubt with the following verse:

There are many different things that show the differences among these four gospel accounts. The following chart will help point out the unique characteristics, summarizing the ones listed above and also providing some new ones:

All of this information shows there is a reason there are four gospels. It all goes along with the plans of the Godhead. Even though there are individuals who claim there were other gospel accounts that were not included in the Bible for various reasons, such as the Gospel of Thomas, there is a clear reason. These false accounts do not line up with what the Bible says. The only accounts are the four given us to in Scripture: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are the accounts that actually show the nation of Israel their Messiah was there and give them the information they will need as they are going to enter into the kingdom.