Why Jesus?
The prophet Isaiah wrote many hundreds of years before Jesus came, “he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins” and “his life was made an offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:5, 10). Hundreds of years before this was even written, around 1000BC King David had wrote, “they have pierced my hands and feet” and “they divided my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing” (Psalm 22:16, 18). David was not referring to himself because crucifixion was not implemented by Romans until hundreds of years later. Isaiah wrote what he did about roughly 700 years before Jesus even came. Yet Jesus fulfilled what they said according to Matthew, "after they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice” (Matthew 27:35).
Jesus had even predicted his own death on a cross to Nicodemus “as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Jesus also told his disciples “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying” (John 11:25). For John the Baptist testified that Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus was Jewish and his death on occurred at the time of Passover, which is why Paul wrote “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Before the law, Abraham trusted God and was made righteous not by works, but because he had faith in God. Abraham obeyed God's command to sacrifice his son, Isaac (Genesis 22:1–2). This story of Abraham is a reflection and portrait of Jesus Christ. God intervened to prevent Isaac from being sacrificed and provided a substitute, which was a ram (Genesis 22:11–13). Abraham commemorated the place by naming the mountain "The Lord will provide." (Genesis 22:14).
Christ was sacrificed on a mountain just outside the city of Jerusalem. And just as the story of Abraham looked forward to the coming sacrifice of Christ for us, God also later commanded the Jews to sacrifice a lamb at Passover every year, which preceded Christ. They were told to put the blood of the sacrifice on the door posts of their dwellings, and the top of the door too. This was done so the death angel would pass over them, and God would have mercy and save them who believed the message and did what was commanded them.
So, from the time of Abraham, and hundreds of years after at Passover, both events looked forward to the coming sacrifice and substitute for us through Jesus Christ. Even the animal sacrifice for sin offerings and other various offerings during the old covenant in the Jewish Temple pointed to Christ being an innocent blood atonement for our sins. But Christ “died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God” (Romans 6:10) So, we do not have to keep repeating ritual sacrifices for blood atonement of sin because after Christ died and rose again, it was written God is “so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins” (Ephesians 1:7).
Jesus died because we broke God’s holy law, and Jesus voluntarily came to pay the fine. Just as in times before, the sacrifice had to be unblemished (i.e. sinless), so “God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood” (Romans 3:25). For it is written that “the wages of sin is death…” and “just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment” (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 6:27). Because God is holy, there will be judgment, which is why it says, “anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). The Scriptures also warn us in the following passage:
“Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves.
Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality,
or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9).
What Jesus did, he did it for all people because “everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). For instance, have you ever told a lie, or stolen anything before? Have you taken God’s name in vain? Have you committed adultery? Jesus said, “anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5). Jesus also warned “…unless you believe that I Am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). You must understand that when Jesus said, “I am” he was referring to himself as God. For God revealed Himself to Moses thousands of years before when “God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14).
Therefore, the gospel is the “good news” that “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). After Jesus died, he rose from the dead on the third day, and he told his disciples that, “there is forgiveness of sins for all who repent” (Luke 24:47). Where you go after dying depends on repenting of sin now and putting faith in Jesus Christ today. God’s mercy is extended to us only through the finished work of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, whose famous last words were “It is finished" (John 19:30). In other words, the sin debt has been paid for you if you simply trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Jesus did the work, not us, so “…you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Ephesians 2:8b).
No amount of good works can get you into heaven because “God saved you by his grace when you believed…” (Ephesians 2:8a). Grace is not something that can be earned, but it is received when you have faith in Christ for your eternal salvation. Therefore, you cannot bribe God, who created all things, and He gave you your very body to live in. For “when we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags” before a Holy Creator (Isaiah 64:6). However, good works are not a bad thing when they are the result of faith that is made alive by Christ. As it is written, “faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless” (James 2:17). So, we need atonement for our sin, and good works don’t get us into heaven because we cannot get into heaven through our own personal merit. The Scriptures clearly tell us, “according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). Just like when centuries ago the Jews substituted an animal sacrifice in the Temple for blood atonement, now Christ is our better substitute. So, it is written:
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
The apostle Paul gave testimony to the early church succinctly in a letter to the believers in Corinth…
He said the following:
“Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place”.
“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him”.
(1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is the Son of God, but also the promised Messiah came to us in the flesh to save us from our sins. For it is written, “in the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). And in the same chapter it says, “so the word became human [i.e. flesh] and made his home among us” (John 1:14). The “Word” clearly is Jesus as it goes on to recount in the same passage that “John testified about him when he shouted to crowds…someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me” (John 1:15). Moreover, in the book of Revelation it talks about Jesus’ second coming to earth for judgment, and says that “he wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God” (Revelation 19:13).
He was miraculously born of a virgin. That is, when Mary gave birth to Jesus, she never had sexual intercourse yet. This was written about many hundreds of years before Jesus was born. For the prophet Isaiah said, “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us’” (Matthew 1:23). Even Mary had questions about it when visited by an angel who told her what would happen before it did. As it written, Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin” (Luke 1:34). And she was answered when the angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Moreover, the angel also spoke of Jesus saying, “He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David” (Luke 1:32).
In fact, Mary’s husband Joseph (Luke 1:27) and Mary herself (Luke 3:23-38) were both descendants from the line of David. For the Messiah was promised to come through the line of David and that promise was fulfilled when Jesus was born. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot— yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root” (Isaiah 11:1). The prophet Jeremiah also testified the same thing, “For the time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will be a King who rules with wisdom. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. And this will be his name: ‘The LORD Is Our Righteousness.’ In that day Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety” (Jeremiah 23:5-6). Indeed, the first gospel account in The New Testament of the Holy Bible says, “this is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).
The written accounts about Jesus’ ministry recount many miracles. Indeed, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah records about God that “…when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf” (Isaiah 35:5). The miracles of Jesus included, but are not limited to healing the lame, deaf, the blind and the sick. He healed the deaf at least 5-6 times as recorded in The New Testament writings, and some of which were deaf and/or mute. He also casted out all sorts of demons, curing diseases, and doing many other miracles like raising Lazarus from the dead, including about 37 or more other documented miracles listed here. God worked through Moses and told him to turn water to blood in Egypt as a sign of judgment (Exodus 7:14-25). In contrast, when Jesus did his first miracle he turned water to wine in Cana (John 2:1-11).
The key difference is Moses was a man that God instructed and worked through while Jesus simply did the miracle without explanation in the text. The Bible says Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9) and that means Jesus is God, even though he lived in a man’s body on earth for a time. Therefore, turning water to wine at an earthly wedding feast looks forward to salvation instead of judgement. For it portrays God’s saving grace for eternity at the final wedding feast that Jesus mentioned later (Matthew 22:1-14). And only God can save from sin, so Jesus in this one miracle demonstrates who he is. Furthermore, In the Old Testament it is written about God in the book of Job that “He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8). In other words, only God walks on the water. See, that is exactly what Jesus did as his disciples looked upon the stormy sea of Galilee and they saw Jesus walking on water to their boat (Mark 6:47-50).
Who Jesus really was got questioned many times because the religious priests had never seen such signs and wonders. They asked of Jesus, “by what right and power are you doing these things?” (Luke 20:2). Jesus forgave the sins of a sick man before he healed him, so "the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” (Luke 5:21). And yet another time the religious authorities threatened to kill Jesus by saying, “we’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33). Therefore, the religious priests at the time were well aware of what Jesus was doing and saying, and they recognized Jesus was claiming to be God incarnate, which is why they sought to kill him. They were well aware that he was claiming to be something more than a man…
Furthermore, Jesus told one of his disciples, “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” and elsewhere he said, "The Father and I are one” (John 14:9; 10:30). For the Scriptures also testify about Jesus in the following verses:
“Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.
(Philippians 2:6-11)
For it was Jesus himself who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This means eternal life comes through Jesus Christ alone, and there is no other way. The Bible explicitly says, “there is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Still in another place it is written that God “has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). So, the question becomes was Jesus just a man, or was he something more? Let’s examine the other claims Jesus made about himself that we find documented in The Scriptures.
Jesus referred to himself often as the Son of man, and that is used by Jesus 80 times. For example, Jesus said it 32 times in Matthew, another 14 times in Mark, and 26 times in Luke. Jesus does this 10 different ways in the Gospel of John as well. In all these texts no one ever addresses him as Son of man, except for Jesus referring to himself. In the Old Testament, Daniel the prophet wrote, “as my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14). Sounds like Daniel was describing Jesus many hundreds of years before he came, the one who called himself “the son of man”.
Again, reference to the son of man is made after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. We have Stephen a witness for Christ and preacher in the book of Acts refer to Jesus as the son of man as well. He testified that he saw Jesus when he “gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand” (Acts 7:55-56)!
Even so, if all of these things do not make it obvious to you, then you may fall into the category of some that might claim Jesus never directly said that he was actually God. However, a careful reading of both the Old and New Testaments will make this clear to the reader. For example, Isaiah the prophet records a conversation God had with him by writing “this is what the Lord says - Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: ‘I am the First and the Last; there is no other God’.” (Isaiah 44:6). Hundreds of years later, the apostle John saw Jesus again after he had ascended to heaven. Jesus told him “don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave” (Revelation 1:17b-18). Also, in the same chapter of the book of Revelation God is speaking saying, “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega - the beginning and the end, says the Lord God’.” (Revelation 1:8). The Alpha and Omega refers to the first and last by making specific reference of the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet, which the entire New Testament was written originally in Greek.
The Old Testament speaks of God talking to the prophet Jeremiah on another occasion. It is recorded that God told Jeremiah, “…I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve” (Jeremiah 17:10). So, here we see the use of the word “the LORD” is used in this passage. This is the sacred name of God revealed to Moses and Israel known as “Yahweh” (i.e. “YHWH” - see Exodus 3:15-16) when translated from the original Hebrew to English. Later in The New Testament we read about Jesus talking to the apostle John in the book of Revelation. Jesus says, “…all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve” (Revelation 2:23). We know it is Jesus because a few verses earlier in the same chapter he says to John, “this is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze” (Revelation 2:18).
Moreover, if Jesus was not God then why did he accept worship both before and after he rose from the dead? He never chastised anyone for worship, but it was the priests of the time that accused him of blasphemy saying, “we’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33). After he rose from the dead it is written “the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him there, they worshiped him…”(Matthew 28:16-17). Jesus would then teach his followers to go and make other disciples saying, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). It is clear that Jesus is equating himself with God to his disciples by including his name with The Father and The Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, one of his disciples named Thomas doubted that Jesus came back from death. When Jesus appeared to him and told Thomas to put his hand in his side where the spear wound was, it was recorded that Thomas worshipped him saying, “My Lord and My God” (John 20:28). Jesus answered him saying, “you believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me” (John 20:29). Another person that Jesus healed of blindness worshipped him after seeing again, and yet Jesus did no rebuke him for it and received the worship. When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ”The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.” “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you”(John 9:35-37)! This man, who miraculously had his vision restored by Jesus, said back to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus (John 9:38).