Who is Jesus?
Our digital age is overflowing with information. Lies, opinions, and facts stand side-by-side. There is still one fundamental question that stands above all other inquiries and considerations: “Who do you say that I [Jesus] am?” (Matt. 16:15)
Have you ever been asked this question? Jesus asks you. Most likely, you‘ve heard of him, but he wants you to know him.
When he asked that question originally, Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). “Christ” isn’t Jesus’s last name. “Christ” (from the Greek, christos) is the translation of “Messiah” (from the Hebrew, mashiach). This identifies him as the “anointed one” or Messiah promised throughout the Old Testament whom God would send to saves his people once-and-for-all. From as far back as the first book of the Bible—Genesis—and the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God made a promise to send a son of Eve to conquer sin. Throughout all the stories of Noah and the Flood, Abraham and the patriarchs of Israel, Moses and Israel in Egypt and the wilderness, and Israel in the Promised Land under leaders like Joshua and King David, God made promises to send a final Savior for his people Israel as well as the whole world.
Not only is it astonishing to read how Old Testament prophecies given hundreds and even thousands of years before came true in the life of Jesus, but as Peter said, he was also “the Son of the living God.” Not only is Jesus human like you, he’s also God. Not to go too far afield, but if the Old Testament teaches there is only one God, but Peter—a Jew—called Jesus “the Son,” this means there’s something about that one God that is mysterious. He is the Son of the Father and as other Scriptures teach, there is also a Holy Spirit. In other words, the one God exists as three and Jesus is the Son.
What did Jesus do? The New Testament gives us the trustworthy record of God’s love for the world in giving his Son, Jesus. He was born of his virgin mother, protecting him from being born sinful like you. He lived a sinless life in his thoughts, words, and deeds loving God and his neighbor as God requires in his law. He taught that he was the Savior and his miracles confirmed this teaching. Yet, despite being perfect he died on a Roman cross. Why? It was not for his own sins or crimes, but he willingly allowed himself to be crucified on behalf of sinners like us. You see, sin deserves the condemnation of death unless it is satisfied. Jesus satisfied the demands of death for you. As one who is both a sinless human and God, death could not hold him down so he was raised to life to demonstrate that his sacrifice was acceptable to God. He ascended back to heaven where he ever lives to make intercession for sinners like us. On a day only God knows, he will return to make all things new.
“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus is true God and true man in one. He is the eternal Son of God. He is the promised Savior of the world. He saves sinners like you by his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and soon coming again.
Who does Jesus say you are? Jesus once told a “parable” (illustration) to some people “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9). Here’s what he said to them. Consider which one you are:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee [the most “religious” of the ancient Jews] and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10–14)
Humble yourself as a sinner before Jesus and cry out to him to receive him and his salvation: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38) If you prayed that, reach out to our pastor today! [Call to action: need a contact for me]
Here are some Scriptures about Jesus for you to read and contemplate:
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).
Matthew 1:18–23
“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. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … 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.”
John 1:1–5, 14
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:5–11
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
Colossians 1:13–20
Here is an encouraging question and answer from our Heidelberg Catechism:
What is your only comfort in life and in death?
That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has delivered me from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven;
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
also assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him. Q&A 1