Who is Jesus? Jesus is the central figure of Christianity and its founder. He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and three days later, He rose from the dead. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me,” (John 14:6). Also, He claimed to be God in flesh. If you compare what God said to Moses in Exodus 3:14 (“And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’) with what Jesus said in John 8:58, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am,” then you quickly see that He was claiming to be God. So, we say that Jesus has two natures, divine and human. We call this the hypostatic union. So, when we say that Jesus is God, we are speaking of His divine nature. In fact, others in the Bible testified that He was divine as well:
- John 20:28, “Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!'”
- Col. 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”
- Heb. 1:8, “But of the Son, He [the Father] says, ‘Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever…’
As you can see, his disciples believed Jesus was divine, too.
Jesus and the Trinity
Jesus is the second person of the Trinity which is the Christian teaching that there is only one God in existence and he is comprised of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Biblically, Jesus is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God… 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth,” (John 1:1-2,14).
Jesus and the Hypostatic Union
Because the word was with God and was God and became flesh (John 1:1, 14), we then state that Jesus has two natures: divine and human. This is called the hypostatic union. Therefore, Jesus is both God and man at the same time. Within His person, He has both divinity and humanity. So, in the one person of Jesus are two distinct natures: God and man.
The reason that He is God in flesh is that only God can atone for our sins. We can’t do it on our own because we are finite, sinful beings, and we cannot please an infinitely holy God. Also, Jesus had to be a man to be able to die for humanity. So, Jesus bore our sins on the cross ((1 Pet. 2:24) and suffered the penalty due to sin, which is death (Rom. 6:23). He died there. But, three days later, He rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:1-4), proving that what He did on the cross was acceptable to God the Father. So, if you trust in what Christ has done, and receive Him by faith (John 1:12-13; Rom. 5:1), then God will forgive your sins. You will be saved from the righteous judgment of God, and you’ll go to heaven.
Jesus is still a man
Right now, in heaven, Jesus is still in the form of a man: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Tim. 2:5). Furthermore, He rose from the dead in the same body He died in just as He predicted he would
John 2:19-22, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews, therefore, said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’ 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken,”
Also, Jesus retained the wounds of His crucifixion after He rose from the dead:
John 20:27, “Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.”
Forty days after His resurrection He ascended into heaven bodily:
Acts 1:9, “And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
He will return again from the heavens, and will judge the world and all people:
Acts 1:11, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
Yet, at the same time, He is still divine,
Col. 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”
Jesus never sinned
The Bible claims that Jesus never did anything wrong (1 Peter 2:22). He also performed many miracles such as healing, casting out demons, walking on water, calming a storm with the command, raising people from the dead, and rising from the dead himself. Though there have been many great teachers throughout history, none of them have performed such miracles and claimed to be divine as Jesus claimed. This is why we can believe Him when He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me,” (John 14:6).
More about Jesus
The Bible tells us a great deal about Jesus. Following is a list of some of what Scripture teaches about Him.
- He is prayed to, Acts 7:55-60; 1 Cor. 1:2 with Psalm 116:4; John 14:14
- He is worshipped, Matt. 2:2,11; 14:33; John 9:35-38; Heb. 1:6
- He cleanses from sin, 1 John 1:9
- He forgives sins, Matt. 9:1-7; Luke 5:20; 7:48
- He is the image of the invisible God, Heb. 1:3
- He gives eternal life, John 10:28
- He has all authority, Matthew 28:18
- He is the light of the world, John 8:12
- He came to save, John 3:17
- He came to die and destroy Satan’s power, Heb. 2:14
