WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?

     Some people will argue that it makes no difference what position we ascribe to Jesus as long as we follow his teachings. But that isn't what Jesus said. Jesus was deeply concerned to know the views people held about him. He asked the Pharisees of his day, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matthew 22:42). He asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Mat¬thew 16:13). He wanted to keep his status as God's chosen Messiah clearly in view.

 

Conflicting answers were given in Jesus' day as to who he was. Conflicting answers are still being given today. Turn to the Gospels and the Epistles of the New Testament to see what they really teach concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Whose son is he?

 

Jesus Christ is a fact. He entered history. Our calendar recognizes this fact by dividing all history into B.C. ("before Christ") and A.D. (anno Domini, "in the year of the Lord"). He was born a baby to the virgin Mary in a Bethlehem stable. He was like us in every way except one. He was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus grew just as any other child grows. He grew mentally and physically, socially and spiritually. “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). He was tender and compassionate in his human¬ity. He shed tears at the tomb of his beloved friend Lazarus. He was moved with compassion toward the multitudes who were dis¬tressed like sheep without a shepherd.

 

But Jesus is more than a fact of history. He is unique. He is the grand supernatural fact of history. He was not just a child of time. He is timeless—the eternal Christ. He was the eternal God made visible in a human nature. The birth of Christ doesn't mark the time when Jesus came into existence. He always was. He said, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58). The birth of Christ simply means that he who always was took on a human nature. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....The Word became flesh and made his dwell¬ing among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). Jesus declared of himself, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). He boldly stated, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Christ testified under oath that he was the Son of God. He sealed that testimony with his blood. “Are you then the Son of God?” demanded the High Priest. He replied, “You are right in saying I am” (Luke 22:70).

 

His Sinless Life

 

Louis Pasteur, the noted French scientist, once stated: “I would not know how to account for the life of Jesus if he were not the Son of God.” The sinless life of Jesus is one of the most convincing proofs that he is God's only begotten Son. The life of Jesus is beyond reproach. No one can accuse him of wrong. His enemies tried. They accused him of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God; and they demanded his crucifixion. But as he died, the centurion exclaimed, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” Blasphemers don't pray for their enemies in the act of torturing and killing them, as Jesus did: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

 

His Supernatural Works

 

The miracles of Jesus are a further evidence of his deity. Some 33 of Jesus' miracles are recorded in the gospel narratives. For example, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised” (Matthew 11:4, 5). His miracles are proofs that He is the Messiah, the Son of the living and all-powerful God. When his right to forgive sins was questioned, Jesus confirmed his claim to be God by a miracle: “But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins – He said to the paralytic, I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go home. He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all” (Mark 2:10-12).

 

His Resurrection from the Dead

 

The crowning proof that Christ is the Son of the living God is his physical resurrection. The third day he rose from the dead with the same body that he took into the tomb. Christ told doubting Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27). He told his doubting disciples, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39).

 

The empty tomb bears silent but eloquent testimony to the fact of the bodily resurrection of our Lord. On at least 12 different occa¬sions Jesus appeared physically to witnesses.

 

Added to this is compelling circumstantial evidence. A radical change occurred in the disciples. All except John had forsaken Christ before his crucifixion and fled like cowards. Peter even de¬nied that he knew the Lord in order to save his own life. But suddenly there was a complete change in their conduct. With great boldness they began to testify of Christ. According to Christian tradition every apostle except John lost his life because he pro¬claimed Christ as risen from the dead. How do you account for such a sudden and complete change? There is only one satisfactory explanation: they saw the risen Christ.

 

What are the alternatives to accepting Christ as the Son of God? There are only two. One is to say that Christ was insane; he was deluded and deceived about himself. He really thought he was divine but actually he was wrong. The other alternative is to say with the Pharisees that Jesus is a devil, an impostor. He knew he wasn't God's Son; he deliberately deceived people. Each person must make up their mind: Who is Jesus Christ? The only reasonable thing to do is to take Christ as he is revealed in Scripture and say in simple faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

 

What Did Christ Come to Do?

 

The birth of Christ didn't just happen. Nothing in this God-planned universe just happens, least of all the coming of God's only begotten Son. God has a plan for this earth, a plan of salvation. From all eternity God purposed to save a people for himself. Christ came into the world for the salvation of those whom the Father had in love chosen to be his own.

 

Some hold that Christ's purpose was to teach. Christ, they say, was a master teacher, a great philosopher. Others hold that his chief purpose was to show us how to live. But Jesus regarded neither of these as his primary purpose in coming into the world. Christ came to be the Savior. The angel of the Lord announced at his birth, “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus himself said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). He also declared, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

 

Many people think it makes no difference what we think about Jesus as long as we follow His teachings? The problem with this view is that we are not saved by trying to follow Jesus’ teachings. We are saved by His death on the cross for our sins. Following His teachings does not pay for our sins. Only His death pays for our sins. If you do not believe that He is the Son of God, then you do not believe in God who so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for our sins (John 3:16)!

 

To understand and appreciate this saving purpose for which Christ came into the world, we must first understand man's condition and destiny, and then God's character and purpose.

 

Man's Need

 

We are sinful, fallen creatures. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10). Sin is unspeakably hor¬rible. It is breaking the law of God. Sin is rebellion against God. It is lawlessness. Unless we see ourselves in all our utter sinful misery we will never begin to understand why Christ came into the world. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). That was Paul's testimony. It must also be our testimony if we are to know the Savior's grace. Do you think and say of yourself, “I'm not so bad,” “I keep the Ten Command¬ments,” “I live by the golden rule,” or “I never hurt anybody”? Then you are far from the kingdom of God. Christ said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).

 

No one is farther from the kingdom of God than the self-righ¬teous person. If this is you, then you need to pray fervently, “Lord, show me myself; show me myself as you see me.” Only when the Spirit of God causes you to cry out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” can you be sure that God's grace has changed your heart.

 

Not only must you see your sin, you must also see that your sin has terrifying results. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). We are spiritually dead; we have no fellowship with the Father. Our future includes not only physical death but eternal death—eternal separation from the presence of the living God.

 

Christ, who spoke such tender words of grace, is the one who above all others warned of the terrors of hell: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). “Then will he say to those on his left, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). These are the words of Christ, the Son of God. We must face them, not ignore them; accept them, not reject them. Only then will we have hope.

 

God speaks loving words of grace. But only when we admit our needy condition can we begin to appreciate the mysterious and matchless love of God in sending his Son to save us. Then the life and death of Christ for our salvation will have meaning for us, a truly glorious meaning.

 

God's Provision

 

To understand the meaning of Christ's coming we must also know that God is holy—infinitely, eternally and unchangeably holy. He cannot, he will not, treat sin lightly. His justice demands full punishment for sin. His holiness requires that the demands of the law be met in full. He would not be a God we could respect if he required anything less. Should we expect less justice from God than from a human judge? The earthly judge who lets a criminal go free without punishment is despised as unjust.

 

God is too pure to regard evil without executing justice. To know that the Lord is just should shake you to the very core of your being! But the same God who is strong in justice is also rich in mercy: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). In his eternal plan, God in love chose to redeem a people for himself as the object of his infinite and unchangeable love. Why he loved us, we will never know. This is the unfathom¬able mystery of God's divine grace. But that he loved us in Christ we can never doubt: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip¬tures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

 

Christ did two very important things for us. First, he died for us. The penalty for sin had to be paid, either by us or by someone else. Jesus paid the penalty in full. He died in our place. He himself said that he came to “give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). He was our substitute. He “loved me and gave himself for me,” said Paul (Galatians 2:20).

 

Second, Christ lived for us; he obeyed the law in our place. Christ performed the perfect righteousness required by a holy God. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). But who of us is perfect? How can we sinners stand before a holy God? The answer is—through the perfect righteousness of Christ. As Paul wrote, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Christ] the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19); “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:9). We are accepted as righteous in God's sight only for the righteous¬ness of Christ credited to our account and received by faith alone. See Heidelberg Question 60.

 

When you have faith in Jesus Christ, not only did he die on the cross for your sin, but his righteousness is credited to your account. You are declared righteous in God's sight, not because of your own record, but because of Christ's perfect record credited to you (Ro¬mans 3:10-28).

 

This great truth of justification by faith was rediscovered by the Protestant reformers. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Do you have that peace? Have you found Christ as your Savior?