WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?
He is the fulfillment of prophecies that were given by God to Old Testament prophets and written down in the Holy Scriptures. The prophets spoke of a Savior who would be coming into the world to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind … even to the exact time in history and the place of His birth.
The genealogy of Jesus Christ is found in Matthew 1:1-17. It begins with Abraham, who became the father of a new race through which the Son of Man would be born. Matthew recorded that there would be 14 generations from Abraham to David; 14 generations from David to when the Jews were taken into captivity in Babylon; and 14 generations from the captivity to Christ. (Matthew 1:17)
In Isaiah 7:114, God’s prophet Isaiah recorded God’s message to king Ahaz, the 10th king of Judah who was in the line of Christ: “The Lord Himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’.” Why was it so important that the child be born of a virgin? In that way He could be born without a sin nature. The rest of mankind is born with a sin nature that is passed down from Adam because he willfully disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Therefore, Jesus had no human father … God the Holy Spirit was the father of Jesus’ humanity.
Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, just as prophesied in Micah. (Micah 5:2) At the time Jesus was born, a man known as ‘Herod the Great’ was king in Judea. Some wise men from the East saw a new star in the heavens, and they knew from scripture that the star appeared to announce the birth of the Savior. They followed the star to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is He that is born king of the Jews? We have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him. (Matthew 2:1, 2)
Herod was troubled when he heard about it, and he sent for all the Jewish chief priests and scribes and demanded that they tell him where the predicted Christ was to be born. They said, “In Bethlehem of Judea.”
Immediately, Herod sent for the wise men and asked when they first saw the star that led them to Jerusalem, and they said it had been about two years since the star first appeared. Then Herod sent them to Bethlehem saying, “Go and search diligently for the young child, and when you find him, let me know so I may also go and worship him.”
The star led them to a house in Bethlehem where they found the young child with Joseph and Mary. They fell down and worshipped Him and gave gifts of gold, and frankincense and myrrh to Him. Afterward they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they traveled another way back to their own country.
As soon as the wise men left the house, the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream saying, “Get up and take the young child and His mother and flee into Egypt. Stay there until you hear from me again, because Herod the king is going to try to kill the child.” (going to Egypt was the fulfillment of Hosea 11:1)
When Herod realized that he was mocked by the wise men, he was furious, and he ordered the slaughter of all children in Bethlehem that were two years old and under.
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Jesus and Mary back to Israel. Joseph obeyed, and they settled down in the city of Nazareth. When Jesus was 12 years old, His parents took Him to Jerusalem to celebrate the yearly Feast of the Passover with other members of their relation and friends. When the days of celebration had ended, they left for home, but they did not realize that Jesus was missing until they had gone a whole day’s journey. They looked for Jesus among those traveling with them, but were unable to find the boy, so they returned to Jerusalem to search for Him. Three days later, they found Jesus in the temple, sitting among the scribes and listening to them and also asking questions of those learned men who were truly amazed at His understanding of the scriptures and His answers to their questions.
Jesus’ mother said to Jesus: ”Son … why have you worried us this way? Your father and I have been searching for you the past three days!” Jesus replied, “Why were you so concerned? Didn’t you know I must be about My Father’s business?” Mary and Joseph did not fully understand what Jesus meant by that, but when they returned to Nazareth, Jesus subjected Himself to their authority. During the next eighteen years, Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Jesus’ ministry on earth began when He was 30 years old. He went to the Jordan River where John the baptizer was identifying people with the Kingdom of God, and when John saw Jesus, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Why would John call Jesus ‘the lamb of God’? Because John knew that in the Old Testament scriptures God required the people to offer a lamb as a teaching aid so that they could learn about the Messiah who would one day come into the world to pay the penalty for all the sins of mankind. This was clearly taught to the people by Moses after he led them out of Egyptian bondage, and they observed the first Passover in recognition of what the Lord had done for them. Jesus coming to John for baptism marked the identification of Jesus with the Father’s plan for His life.
The word ‘baptism’ ALWAYS refers to identification, so let’s take a close look at the seven baptisms as recorded in the scriptures. Four of them are dry baptisms and 3 involve water:
Real baptisms … actual identifications:
Baptism of Moses: The Children of Israel were identified with Moses and the cloud as they passed through the Red Sea. (1 Corinthians 10:1,2
Baptism of the cross or cup: Jesus Christ drank the cup filled with our sins. He was identified with our sins and bore them on the cross. (1 Peter 2:24)
Baptism of the Holy Spirit for the believer only: At the pointy of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior, every Church Age believer is placed into the body of Christ. He is identified as a Christian in 1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 1:5; Romans 6:3,4; Ephesians 4:5 and Colossians 2:12.
Baptism of fire for unbelievers only: This one identifies all unbelievers with God’s judgment upon their human good. (Revelation 20:11-15)
Ritual baptisms … representative identification:
Baptism of John: Water baptism was used by John to represent the Kingdom of God. In Acts 19:4, the apostle Paul records the message preached by John. Those who came to John for baptism were saying in effect, “I have believed in Christ and am now being identified with His future kingdom.”
Baptism of Jesus … a unique baptism: Jesus Christ was not a sinner; therefore, water baptism was used to identify Him with His Father’s plan to provide salvation for all men. You cannot follow the Lord in baptism!
Baptism of believers entering the Church Age, before the canon of Scripture was completed: That identification was given to identify believers with the indwelling ministry of God the Holy Spirit which had never taken place before. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon prophets and certain kings, and could be taken away.
Immediately following His identification with His Father’s plan, Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. After 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry, so the tempter suggested that He turn the stones into bread. In answer to him, Jesus quoted the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took Jesus up on a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and offered them all, including the glory of them, to Jesus if He would fall down and worship him. Again Jesus replied with scripture: “Get away from Me, Satan … for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and set Him on the highest peak of the temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, go ahead and jump, because it is written that the angels will protect you.” Then Jesus answered, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God!” Finally, the devil left Jesus for awhile.
Jesus returned to Galilee where He began teaching in the synagogues. Then He went out and began to teach the Word of God to the common people, healing their sick and showing many signs and miracles to them to prove He was God in flesh.
During His three-year ministry on earth, Jesus had many disciples (learners) who followed Him to hear Him teach the Word of God, but He also chose 12 special men who were to accompany Him during those years. Some of those men were fishermen, one was a tax collector, and one whom He knew from eternity past would betray Him. All twelve would become apostles to Israel, and were given miracle gifts as their credit cards so the Jews would believe and accept their words as from God. After Judas committed suicide, the other eleven became apostles to the Church and were given miracle gifts to show their authority to present the Word of God until the canon of scripture was completed in 90 AD.
Jesus is God and Man in one Person forever. In theology that union is called the Hypo-Static Union. Everything Jesus said or did was from either His deity, His humanity, or His Hypo-Static Union. For instance, He spoke from His deity when He raised Lazarus from the dead and stood outside the tomb and shouted, “Lazarus, come forth!” When He was on the cross, Jesus spoke from His humanity when He said, “I thirst.” When He announced, “Come unto Me all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” He was speaking to the people as the God-Man.
In John 1:1, Jesus Christ is called THE WORD OF GOD. 1 Corinthians 2:16 tells us that the scriptures are the MIND (thinking) OF CHRIST. He is the creator of everything in the universe: “All things were made by Him and for Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:3) Hebrews 1:10 tells us the Jesus Christ laid the foundation of the earth, and that the heavens are the work of His hands. Paul said in Colossians 1:16 that all things in heaven and in earth, whether visible or invisible, thrones or angelic rulers … all were created by Him and for His glory.
One day, Jesus took three of His disciples … Peter, James and John, up on a high mountain and gave them a preview of what the future Kingdom would be like. (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:1-7; and Luke 9:28-36) Jesus was then identified by God the Father who said to them, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased ,,, listen to Him!”
The greatest enemies of Jesus were the religious Pharisees, Scribes, Chief Priests and elders of the people, and Jesus warned His disciples on various occasions that they should not listen to their false teaching. However, there were some rulers who believed Jesus was the Messiah, but they did not confess their faith to anyone, because if they did, they knew the Pharisees would put them out of the synagogue, and they loved being praised by men rather than by God. (John 12:42, 43.
After Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemene, His eleven disciples ran away for fear they also would be arrested. According to the Gospel written by John, he apparently was the only one of the 12 who stood beneath the cross along with Mary, the mother of Jesus; her sister Mary, the wife of Cleopas; and Mary Magdalene. Before Jesus died, He placed His mother in John’s care. (John 19:25-27) Several times in his gospel account, John modestly referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, so it would not be unusual to identify him as the disciple who was known by Caiaphas and was permitted to enter the palace of the High Priest. (John 18:15) While Jesus was being interrogated, John knew that Peter was standing outside, so he spoke to the young maiden who guarded the door, and Peter was permitted to enter. (John 18:16) Three times Peter was asked if he was one of Jesus’ close companions, and he denied those charges all three times, just as Jesus had predicted he would. (Matthew 26:33, 34; Mark 14:30; Luke22:34). However, the Lord knew Peter’s potential, because on the Day of Pentecost, Peter and the other 10 apostles were given the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and through his declaration of the Gospel that day, more than 5,000 became believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
During Jesus’ first three hours on the cross, He was ridiculed and mocked by the religious Jews, but during the last three hours, He bore the sins of all mankind. At the end of those six hours, Jesus said, “IT IS FINISHED!” and He gave up His human spirit and died spiritually. After that, He died physically. Three days later, Jesus arose from the dead, and before ascending into heaven fifty days later, He appeared in His resurrection body a number of times to His disciples. He will return in the clouds to pick up His bride, the Church, at a time known only by the Father, and He will take all Church-Age believers into heaven.
Following that event which is called THE RAPTURE or resurrection of the Church, God will again deal with the Jews during a 7-year period called THE TRIBULATION PERIOD. At the end of those seven years, Jesus Christ will return to the Mount of Olives from which He ascended, put down all His enemies and set up His 1,000 year reign upon this earth.
When the 1,000 years are ended, all unbelievers of all the ages of history will be raised from the dead and given a body in which they will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment to be judged for their human good works. Why? Because during their lifetime they rejected the only acceptable work of God’s provision for salvation … Jesus dying on the cross as their substitute for sin … they will be cast into the Lake of Fire along with the devil and his angels and be tormented throughout eternity. (Revelation 20:11-15)
WHO IS JESUS CHRIST? He is the ONLY Savior of mankind!
‘NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER: FOR THERE IS NO OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN WHEREBY WE MUST BE SAVED.” (Acts 4:12)
Writen by Lois Delnay
12/11/06
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