Who Is Jesus?
Jesus (God) is the most remarkable example of Love because He took our place and died to reconcile us back to Him. That’s who Jesus is.
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” Isaiah 53:4-6
“…His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.” Isaiah 52:14. These two passages were written at the same time. All of this is prophecy – things are written down before they happen.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”. John 15:13 John recorded these words of Jesus. John was one of Jesus’s disciples and personally knew Him. Jesus laid His life down for all of us.
Did you know? Those passages in Isaiah were prophesied between 740 and 700 BCE. That’s more than 700 years before Jesus was born. It would be an amazing coincidence if there weren’t 600 other prophecies about Jesus that came to pass. That’s the amazing thing. When that many things come to pass in one person, it stops being a coincidence, and we start thinking this is possibly the truth.
Before You Keep Reading This Page
If you are not acquainted with who Jesus is or what Christianity is, we recommend you first read these pages:
A View From God’s Perspective
World’s Major Religions
Why Christianity?
God IS Love
Why Would Jesus Need to Die For Us?
Imagine this: God Almighty created the Heavens and the Earth and created life teaming on the earth. That includes man and woman. He thought it through. And then, He allowed Himself to be born of a woman. The Creator of the universe didn’t just teleport in as a 30-year-old man to accomplish some mission. He spent nine months gestating in a woman’s womb. Jesus, God, was born a baby, completely helpless and reliant on His mother for His needs. He grew into a man. And in that whole time, He did not sin. Then, He spent three years telling the world who He was and why He was here. And then He willfully went to be executed on a wooden cross. Why would He do that?
God Incarnate (In Human Form)
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”
John 14:10
In John 14:10 above, Jesus is saying that He is God. That’s why the Pharisees charged Him with blasphemy. Blasphemy is “the act of claiming the attributes of a deity“. The Pharisees, who studied Scripture extensively and knew the prophecies about the Messiah, misinterpreted those prophecies and expected the Messiah to be a military leader who would free them from Roman occupation and oppression. So they didn’t believe Jesus when He told them He was the Messiah.
The Pharisees knew, as all Jews would have understood, that when He said what He did in John 14:10, Jesus was saying He was God. If you need convincing proof about a historical claim, consider the testimony of skeptics. In this case, the skeptics testify that Jesus claimed to be God.
But there is more evidence.
Skeptical Witnesses
Josephus
A Jewish historian, Josephus, a contemporary of Jesus, was not interested in proving that Jesus was God. He was a historian and wrote about many historical figures, including his contemporaries.
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man; if it be lawful to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works; a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross;7 those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. For he appeared to them alive again, the third day:8 as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” Writings of Josephus, book 18, Chapter 3, section 3.
Tacitius
Tacitus was a Roman historian. He was not interested in supporting the idea that Jesus was God. However, he also recorded Jesus’s existence as a historical figure.
“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.” Senator Tacitus, Roman Historian, Book 15 Chapter 44
“Christus” is the name given by the Romans to Jesus. The above passage reveals that they crucified Jesus.
Jesus Was A Real Historical Figure
Imagine it! An actual sane man who said He was God! And all His words had such profound meaning that they still shape the world. If He weren’t sane, His words would not have such importance throughout history.
But if God is God and He created this universe, why did He show up on earth as a man? Why when He appeared? Why was He called “The Son of Man” if He was God?
Actually, He was also known as “The Son of God“.
That sounds confusing. Which was He?
How Sin Was Eliminated For All Time
Remember, we are all spirits temporarily living in physical bodies while on this physical plane. Our purpose for being here is to build a testimony based on what is in our hearts.
So, it makes sense that if God were to step down to our level, He would step into a physical body. In fact, that was His plan from the beginning. He came “in the fullness of time” and took care of sin for us all. He couldn’t just wave His arm, and sin would disappear. We needed an example that would stick with us.
But there is another reason He came as a man. It involves sin and reconciliation – and dying on a cross.
Think of it. The creator of the universe and all that exists in this physical plane submitted Himself to the womb of a woman to gestate there for nine whole months. Then, He depended on His earthly parents to care for His needs while He grew into a man. That is very humble for God Almighty, who created it all. He did it for Grace, and what Amazing Grace it was!
How Did Hanging on the Cross and Dying Take Care of Our Sins?
Jesus came as a man and was the only human being who never sinned the entire time He was on the earth. He was subject to the full spectrum of human thought and temptations. You could say, “Yes, but He was God”. That’s true, but He was a human, just like we all are. He had God’s Spirit in Him. We have our spirits in us, and even when we have God’s Spirit in us, we can mess up. There is no denying that Jesus had the same challenges we all have as humans.
Why was the fact that Jesus never sinned important?
It took a sinless man to pay the cost of sin for all of humanity so that we could be reconciled in our relationships with God. Jesus did that for us joyfully and voluntarily. Yes, men nailed him to a cross after treating Him like a criminal, scourging Him, and beating Him until He was unrecognizable. But they didn’t take His life because He gave it up willingly. Either wounding could have killed Him. Yet He was nailed to that cross and suffered so much that He died within hours of hanging there.
A sinful human might find it in themselves to pay that penalty, but there is another aspect to this. In dying, a sinful human would have stayed dead because that’s the penalty for sin. And if the one paying the penalty was dead, how would they rise having conquered sin and also death? Jesus was sinless, so He didn’t die, though He was separated from God for a time. But being alive after physical death, He conquered death. And paying the cost of sin for all of us, He also conquered sin.
How Does That Help Human Beings?
Christian Scripture tells us that salvation is a free gift from God. We can be saved from sin because Jesus died on the cross. Jesus paid the penalty for sin; we can receive that as Grace and Mercy from Jesus if we want to. To obtain it, we pay a price. We enter into a covenant with Jesus. A covenant isn’t like an agreement because to break a covenant, someone has to die – it is a life-long, solemn arrangement. To enter a covenant, there is an exchange of lives. We give Jesus our life, which He already paid for. And we take His life unto ourselves. When we take His life, we get the benefits of His life. He is victorious over sin and death, which means if we are in covenant with Jesus, we are also victorious over sin and death. We live eternally!
But wait…if we’re eternal beings, don’t we live eternally already? Yes, we all live eternally, but in the spirit realm, since we are all eternal, the distinction between life and death isn’t the end of life or living it. Spiritual life is living eternally with the giver of life. Spiritual death is living apart from the giver of life.
God is light. He is the source of light in heaven. When we are spiritually dead and living apart from God, we are in eternal darkness. Those who live in that darkness of their own choice see what eternal life living with the giver of life is like and being kept from that life; some weep, and those who gnash their teeth in anger at God. It’s a terrible place, and God does not wish to send anyone there.
The Best Choice We Can Make
Obviously, the best choice we can make is to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But receiving His free gift of Mercy and Grace is just the beginning. We are called to lay down our lives, take up OUR cross, and follow Him. If you believed and were transformed by this beautiful sacrifice, this is easy. If you aren’t transformed, this won’t be easy. But don’t be discouraged because God gives us every chance. Take it seriously and pursue God. Leave your old life behind and follow Him.
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