Who is Jesus? A question asked by many, yet only truthfully answered by One. I sit and write this article, and still struggle to explain the center of my life. Who was He? What did He do? This answer to who Jesus is can be diluted by human opinion and a broken perception created by the fall of man. Unfortunately, you will hear many things about who Jesus is not. The only one who can truly answer the question of who He truly is, is God himself. Thankfully, He gave us heavenly-breathed Scriptures to give us insight into what the answer is.
Let’s look at four points to figure out who He was.
1. Jesus is the Messiah.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
Jesus was extraordinary. His birth alone was full of signs that could not be categorized as anything but holy. An angel spoke to His mother, He was born of a virgin, His parents traveled to Egypt before birth, and He was born in a stable; all had been spoken of before the birth of Jesus. His birth fulfilled many prophecies from the Hebrew scriptures of the coming Messiah (https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog/old-testament-prophecies/). The Jewish people of Jesus’ time knew these Scriptures like the back of their hands. Yet, many didn’t see them coming to be through Jesus. And still, Jesus fulfilled all of them by the end of His life.
Peter Stoner, Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena College, speaks on the chance of Jesus fulfilling all the prophecies:
“Let us try to visualize this chance. If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all of the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 100,000,000 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state.
Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.”
What greater miracle is there than for a human babe to be born of all these wonderful signs, and still end up having no sin?
2. Jesus was human.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
Jesus was born just like us. Jesus was a living breathing human; born of a human mother, but a divine Father. He lived and breathed as a child running and playing on this earth, but there was something different about Him. People noticed it right away. When Jesus was brought to the temple to be dedicated by a devout man, Simeon saw Jesus and proclaimed:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”
Luke 2:29-32
Records show that there was a man by the name of Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Early scholars such as Flavius Josephus and Tacitus document Jesus in their works. So, Jesus was at least a human being we can prove existed with documentation. Scriptures tell us Jesus grew up to have a normal job as a carpenter. However, His main job was His public ministry which he began around the age of twelve.
His humanness was shown through the simplest of things. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus expressed human emotions such as anger, fear, disappointment, and even hunger and thirst during his thirty years of life. He felt all the emotions you and I can feel on a daily basis.
Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.
Matthew 21:18
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept.
John 11:33-35
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
John 19:28
To read more ancient sources on Jesus of Nazareth:
https://www.logos.com/product/210738/who-is-jesus-of-nazareth/
https://www.history.com/news/was-jesus-real-historical-evidence/
3. Jesus is the Son of God.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
Colossians 2:9-10
During His years of ministry, Jesus preached the words of God to those around Him. One of the many things He talked about was getting to the Father. But how could this man know the answer? Many doubted and called Him crazy. And if you are like me, I would have seen this man and done the same. They couldn’t see the Son of God right in front of them.
God claimed Him and said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus performed many miracles to give the people signs to portray he was who he said he was:
After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
John 9:6-7
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Acts 9:17-19
During His ministry, Jesus claimed He would judge this world, forgive sin, and people could spend eternal life with Him and His Father. Jesus said to know Him was to know the Father, yet people still didn’t understand. John 1:14 says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…”
Who alone is better than the Son of God to know God Himself?
But for human Jesus to claim that he was the Son of God, and to freely forgive sin, in the eyes of the Pharisees, was blasphemy. This thought process from the Pharisees led them down a path to kill the Son of God.
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
John 5:18
Soon before his death, “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders… that he must be killed and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). Jesus was a sinless man, who entered this world to die for the sins of others.
4. Jesus continues to be Lord.
For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.
Romans 11:36
The pinnacle point of Christianity lies within three days. From the death to the resurrection of Jesus, this was the moment that changed the world forever. Scripture talks about the capture and betrayal Jesus experienced when Judas, one of His disciples, turned Him in for thirty pieces of silver (about $300 today). Jesus cried out to God to take this burden and pain away from Him. That pain was physical and emotional, and He endured it on the way to and on the cross.
And the question is: Why?
Why did Jesus, who is over all things, let His best friend betray Him? Why did Jesus, who can perform miracles, die on the cross? Why didn’t He stop all of it?
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
He did it for you and me. He did it so we can live a life free from bondage, brokenness, and eternal death. He did it so you and I may be in relationship with the One True Father.
Jesus continues to pursue us and our hearts even after His resurrection. Today, He does so with the power of ruling from Heaven as an invisible God. When He was here on earth, He was seen by the people doing physical miracles for the people. And now, today that looks different with the miracles and presence of God being invisible or not seen.
However, when the second coming of Christ comes, He will no longer be invisible but stand forth and be present on the earth as King of all kings. But, be reminded, Christ rules over the Church by His Word and His Spirit today and forevermore.
Cover photo by Wim Van't Einde on Unsplash
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