I Believe… in Jesus
Who is Jesus? That topic has occupied men’s minds for 2,000 plus years. Thousands upon thousands of books have been written to explore the subject. Even the apostle John was overwhelmed by the reality of Jesus. He wrote, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25). So what meaningful contribution can we make in this article? Truthfully, we can’t, so let’s just touch on three important highlights: 1) Without Jesus, no Christianity; 2) Jesus is fully God; 3) Jesus is fully human
What is Christianity without Jesus Christ?
In Paul Little’s book Know What You Believe, he explains
Buddha is not essential to the teaching of Buddhism, or Muhammad to Islam, but everything about Christianity is determined by the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christianity owes its life, substance and character in every detail to Christ.[2]
Jesus is fully God
A few of the verses that claim Jesus is God are:
John 1:1, 14 – “The Word [Jesus] was God,… The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Titus 2:13 – “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
1 John 5:20 – “his son Jesus Christ… the true God and eternal life.”
[Before the High Priest at His trial] – “Tell us if you are the Messiah [Christ], the Son of God.” “You have said it,” Jesus told him. (Matthew 26:63-64)
Jesus had authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:10), something only God can do.
Jesus said, “I am, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). “I am” is the name God called Himself when He spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:14. “Right hand of God is a figure of speech that represents God’s ultimate Power and authority.”[3]
Jesus was fully human
Michael Bird explains,
The New Testament speaks to the full humanity of Jesus. He has a human birth, childhood, adulthood, and death. He has a fully orbed existence at the emotional level with grief, sorrow, joy, frustration, love, and anger, as well as a complete physical existence with tiredness, hunger, and thirst. Jesus comes as bone to our bone and flesh to our flesh. Jesus bleeds and breathes like us since he is truly one with us. He speaks with a human voice, he prays with human needs, he laughs as one among friends, he cries human tears, and he walks in human sandals. In the story of Jesus we see divine majesty clothed in human frailty.[4]
To learn more about Jesus, we recommend that you take a weekend and simply read through the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each looks at Jesus from slightly different angles, but together they reveal this One who is “Immanuel, God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
[2] Paul E. Little, Paul, Know What You Believe (InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition), p. 54.
[3] Dictionary of Bible Themes, at biblegateway.com
[4] Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe (Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition), p. 77
