Who Is Jesus?
The answer to this question is one of eternal importance. Do you know the Truth of this God-Man?
God makes Himself known through the Scriptures through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a story of the world’s creation, God’s loving promises to His people, and the fulfillment of His promises in Christ Jesus. Jesus is the golden thread throughout its story.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
We see John’s proclamation of Christ before all things and in all things affirmed when we go back to the beginning of the Word of God. The Bible begins this way:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
When God created man on the sixth day, it states,
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’”
Creation & Sin
That ‘us’ in verse 26? It refers to the three persons in the one God of the Bible; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus indeed is the Son of God within that trinity! He was with His Father before creation and as seen in John 1:3, all things were made through Him.
With the creation of man and woman, humanity entered into the world in order to glorify God and be unified with Him. But sin also entered in when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, leaving everything He created corrupted and condemned to death. How did God respond to this sin? He made a promise: one would come from Eve that would defeat this sin and death (Genesis 3:15).
As the story unfolds, we see man after man born into corruption and destined to death. But God reveals Himself to those He chooses, and out of His great love, provides pictures and promises of the Christ Savior to satisfy His righteous judgment (Ephesians 2:4-10). Notably, in Genesis, God promises Abraham a land, an offspring, and blessings (Genesis 17). When His offspring become enslaved in Egypt (book of Exodus), God delivers them from the hand of Pharaoh, providing a picture of the ultimate deliverance He will provide in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.
Yet, as the Lord delivers His people over and over again throughout the Old Testament, the payment for sin had to be continually given with blood sacrifices, specifically that of a pure lamb. Promises had been given, but not yet fulfilled.
The prophets foretold the coming of a final Deliverer, one who would take on the full punishment for man’s sin once and for all:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
The Promised Lamb
We see this echoed in Daniel, proclaiming the holiness and royal reign Jesus deserves as King, Lion of Judah, and High Priest:
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
These prophets gave hope to a people stricken, suffering, and dying. God proclaimed a Messiah to come, one that would wipe away the tears and death drowning them. But would they know this Savior when he arrived?
Following the prophets, we enter into the New Testament, where the four gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) proclaim that the fulfillment of all God’s promises has come!
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
The Cross
Jesus came – but not as the people had expected. He was of humble birth, the son of a carpenter born in a small town, entering Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. But when He spoke, He spoke with authority. And He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, commanded demons to flee. This man displayed power, and as some came to believe Him to be the long-awaited Messiah, others grew threatened and hostile.
The people He came to save demanded His death. The Christ Jesus was crucified so that the people would be satisfied.
Born of a virgin, living a perfect life, suffering and dying on the cross, but not staying dead; He rose from the dead, ascending to be with His Father in full glory and power. As Peter later writes,
“Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”
Out of God’s indescribable love for us, while we were yet sinners, he sent His Son, Jesus, to die on our behalf (Romans 8:1)!
At the close of the Bible, the book of Revelation proclaims the final union God’s chosen people will experience with God for all eternity; however, it also provides a glimpse of the eternal damnation for those who reject the Christ Jesus. It is one or the other. Eternity is no option.
Once again, we meet John as he travels through a vision of what is to come:
“After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’ Once more they cried out, ‘Hallelujah!’”
Can you imagine? Spending eternity united with God Himself? And all the saints He has won for Himself? Sharing in His glory? On a new earth absent of any death and corruption? This is what He has promised us. This is what He has already provided through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, with whom He is well pleased, Jesus the Christ!
Heaven
What now?
Knowing who Jesus is can not be the end of the road. In order to be saved, you must believe he is in fact the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world. You must recognize your own sinful nature and desperate need for a Savior. As John 3:16 proclaims,
Believe in Him
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Additionally:
“While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”
“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’”
At the end of the gospel account of John, the book written by the one whom Jesus loved, John declares the purpose of his book to be:
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God! Believe He is the ultimate Sustainer and Satisfier, overflowing with living bread and water. He is the light, casting out darkness. He is the Liberator, the Deliver, the Savior. The Messiah!
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