Why Four Gospels?

I found this very interesting.

We encounter this man, Jesus Christ, through four separate portraits—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Many have asked, “Why is it necessary to have four Gospels instead of just one? Why couldn’t one of these writers have gotten all the facts together and presented them for us in one book?” Well, that would be like trying to use one photograph of a building to adequately represent the entire structure. One picture could not possibly show all four sides of the building at once.

The same is true of Jesus. His life, His character, and His ministry are so rich and multifaceted that a single view could not tell the whole story. God deliberately planned for four Gospels so that each could present our Lord in a unique way. Each Gospel presents a distinct aspect of Christ, and our understanding of who He truly is would be incalculably poorer if even one of these Gospels was lost to us.

The Old Testament is filled with pictures of the coming Messiah, and these pictures correspond with the portraits of Jesus, “painted” for us in the four Gospels. First, He is pictured in many prophecies—particularly those of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah—as the coming King of Isreal…

Second, Jesus the Messiah was portrayed in many parts of the Old Testament as the servant, the suffering one…

Third, we have frequent Old Testament picture of Christ’s coming as a man…

Finally, we have those Old Testament pictures that speak of the Messiah as God, as the Everlasting One…

So all the Old Testament prophecies and pictures of Christ can be placed under these four Gospel headings: king, servant, human being, and God…

In Matthew, the Gospel of the King, we see many evidences of his kingship: The book opens with Christ’s genealogy, tracing His royal line back to David, king of Israel, and to Abraham, father of the nation Israel…

Mark, the second Gospel, pictures Christ as the Servant, and as you would expect, Mark does not provide any genealogy for Christ. After all, who cares about the genealogy of a servant? Nobody. In Mark’s Gospel, our Lord simply appears on the scene…

Luke show us Christ as human. Here we see the perfection of His manhood—the glory, beauty, strength, and dignity of His humanity. As we would expect, Luke also contains a genealogy of Christ. If Jesus is to be presented as human, we want to know that He belongs to the human race…

John’s Gospel presents Christ as God. From the very first verse, this is John’s potent, unmistakable theme. Many people fail to realize that John’s Gospel, like Matthew’s and Luke’s, opens with a genealogy. The reason so many people miss the genealogy in John is that it is so short:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (1:1).

That’s it! That’s John’s entire genealogy of Christ—two people, the Father and Son.

Taken from Adventuring Through the Bible by Ray C. Stedman, chapter 48, pages 479-482