Our Twenty-fifth 4th Day

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Who is Jesus?

There are several things I want to talk about, but I came across something I wrote a while ago when my wife and I were taking the Alpha course. I believe the first lesson asked the question, "Who is Jesus?" We saw a video (I believe--isn't there always a video in small group discussions?) and we followed the lesson guide, but I don't think we really serious pondered the question. So later, I thought about it and decided to write some things down. (By the way, I am only a layman and may have made some incorrect assumptions and welcome any criticism.) Here is what I wrote.

However, we have yet to fully answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” We need to answer that question before we can begin to honestly address the question, “Why did Jesus die?” “Who is Jesus?” is a question not about the historical identity of Jesus, but one that seeks to know the role and position Jesus holds in our lives. To answer that question, we must go to the Bible as the inspired, inerrant and authoritative Word of God for our answer.

John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus is the Creator of the universe. Anything that is was created by and through Him. Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth. Therefore, Jesus is God and one of the three persons of the Godhead. (This is beyond my finite human understanding to fully comprehend, so I accept it on faith and move on.) When Moses asks God in the burning bush to tell him His name, God says that He is YHWH (YAHWEH), I AM THAT I AM. Jesus in Revelation says that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. The verb “to be” in the first person present is “am”. I AM is the Beginning and the End—Jesus is irrefutably God!

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our great High Priest, in the order of Melchizedek, Priest King of the Righteous, King of Peace. Melchizedek was a priest of an order set apart by God in which Abraham paid tribute to when returning from rescuing his nephew Lot. A priest is a mediator and the medium through which we may approach God the Father. Ancient Judaism allowed that only the priest may talk to or approach God. The people could only approach God through the priest. Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel that “no one comes to the Father, but through Him.” That is why we pray though Jesus to the Father.

Jesus is our Teacher, putting God’s commandments into practice and teaching us through example and real-world analogies the nature of God’s law. God gave us the 10 Commandments, which very specifically told us what we can and cannot do. Jesus summarized those Commandments in telling us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength (that pretty much covers the first four Commandments) and to love our neighbor as ourselves (that covers the last six). (The tenth Commandment covers both. We cannot love God wholly if we are covetous of our neighbor’s possessions.) Jesus also told us that God’s law is in our heart, so that if we are angry with our neighbor, we have committed murder, and that if we lust, we have committed adultery. This reinforces Old Testament teaching that we must be circumcised in the heart and not the body to be true children of God.

Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. (This gets into the question, “Why did Jesus die?”) God establish the practice of sacrifice for the removal of sin at the beginning of time, and that a blood sacrifice was the only way to remove sin. The Bible tells us that wages of sin is death, and only through death is sin removed. When Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices to God, Abel’s was acceptable, but Cain’s was not. Able offered a blood sacrifice of a perfect lamb; Cain offered produce. For sacrifice to have meaning, it must be something of value and permanence. Produce is not living, it does not contain blood, and its “sacrifice” is not permanent—in other words, it is worthless as a sin offering. A living creature, however, is permanently given when it is sacrificed. Something of value, which is not replenish-able, is given up. Therefore, the sins of the world could only be permanently removed through the blood of a perfect Sacrifice, without stain or blemish.

Jesus is the Judge of the World. The Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. Paul says that Jesus, on judgment day, will separate the sheep from the goats. Jesus will judge those who will spend eternity in the presence of God and those who will not. (May no mistake, eternal life will be experienced by all; the question is where it will be experienced.)

Finally, but certainly not least, Jesus is our Lord and King. The king rules over his people and provides for their needs and protection. But the king also directs his subjects to do his will. Our perfect Lord and King is the provider and director of our lives, whether we want to believe it or not. We must seek our Lord and treat Him as our King.

De Colores,

Bill