WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?

In Matthew 16:15, Jesus asked His disciples, “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16).

Jesus Christ is the most important person in the history of the world. He is the Messiah of Israel and the Saviour of His Church. What does His Name mean? “Jesus” means “Saviour,” and “Christ” means “the Anointed One.” He is our promised Redeemer (Gen 3:15). According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the Eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person forever” (Q21).

It is vital in Christian theology that the historical person of Jesus Christ be none other than the Eternal Son of God, equal in essence and same in substance with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Like the other two persons of the Holy Trinity—the Father and the Spirit, the Son is also without beginning and without ending. He is just as truly God as the Father is God and the Holy Spirit is God. And when He became man, He was just as truly man as we are.

Jesus was born into this world through the virgin Mary. The Son of God was conceived and born supernaturally and miraculously in fulfilment of prophecy, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa 7:14, Matt 1:23). It was a unique conception and birth. The angel told Mary, “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son” (Luke 1:31), and so it happened that “before they [i.e. Joseph and Mary] came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (Matt 1:18). Mary remained a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus: “And [Joseph] knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS” (Matt 1:25).

The supernatural phenomenon of God becoming man is a mystery. This mystery can only be understood by the logic of faith—“Through faith we understand …” (Heb 11:3). The virgin birth must be explained scripturally, not scientifically. Any attempt at a scientific explanation is sacrilegious.

He Is Both God and Man

In John 10, we find the enemies of Christ rejecting Jesus’ declaration that He is God. In verse 30, Jesus said, “I and My Father are one.” This led to a violent response: they “took up stones again to stone him” (v31). Jesus responded to their violence by asking, “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?” (v32). They replied, “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God” (v33).

Can the people be blamed for rejecting Jesus as God? Here stands Jesus, obviously a man—He speaks, He breathes, He walks, He exhibits all the common characteristics of humanity. Yet He says, “I and my Father are one.” Jesus had already declared “that God was his Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). He had even said “that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” And He had added, “He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him” (John 5:23). In the minds of His adversaries, for one who is obviously a man to claim to be God, equal with God the Father, could not possibly be true; and therefore such a claim was the height of blasphemy.

Jesus’ reply on this occasion is of the greatest significance. It is in connection with the doctrine of the image of God in man. Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods” (John 10:34). Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6, and reasoned, “If he called them [i.e. these men] gods, unto whom the Word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:35–36).

From Psalm 82:6, Jesus sought to point out that the incarnation (ie, the fact that God can become man) was not a concept so difficult to accept. The fact that man is capable of receiving the Word of God when it comes to him is one proof that there is a corresponding nature between man and God. Being made in God’s image, man resembles God in a spiritual sense. That God can become a human being is thus not something impossible. And so, Jesus’ declaration that He is God Himself need not necessarily be blasphemous. By virtue of the fact that He had done the works that only God can do, His claim to deity was precisely true!

Jesus can never be questioned, He must be believed.

He Is a God of Love

Christ’s love for us is like superglue. We are forever stuck to Him.

It was God’s love that sent Jesus Christ to save man from their sins. The coming of Christ to save the world from sin shows the love of God. This manifestation of love is seen in Philippians 2:1–5 where Paul pleads, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

The people were commanded to manifest the same love for one another as was exhibited by Christ (vv2–4). Jesus was in very essence God Himself (“being in the form of God”). When He became man and lived on earth, He did not cease to be God, but remained fully God—all-present, all-knowing, and all-powerful.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines the attributes of God as follows: “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth” (Q4). When Jesus Christ took on human flesh, He retained all these divine attributes as indicated by the words “being in the form of God.”

It is written in Colossians 2:9–10, “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” It is written again in another place, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim 3:16).

There is no question that Jesus Christ was very God and very Man in one Person when He was on earth.

He Is King and Yet Servant

The Son of God became a human being entirely out of His own choosing. He willingly became a man in order that He might save mankind. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil 2:7–8).

Jesus already possessed equality with God before He became man. His equality with God was not something that He needed to strive for. It was His from time eternal. And when He became man, He did not give up being God.

If that be the case, then what did Jesus leave behind to take on human flesh? Well, He took upon Himself “the form of a servant” (ie, all the essential attributes of a servant), and was made in “the likeness of men” (ie, all the essential attributes of a human being).

What Jesus gave up was not His deity, but His kingship. He left His throne in heaven to become a servant on earth. He did so in order that He might die upon the cross on the sinner’s behalf. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Pet 3:18).

Upon the successful completion of His redemptive mission, Jesus returned to His heavenly and glorified state as both God and Man. Now, all who wish to enter into heaven must kowtow to Him. The eternal Son of God is man’s only Saviour. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).

Only Jesus Saves! Believe on Him today! JK