The Bible clearly states that Jesus Christ is God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1 and John 1:14)
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. (Colossians 2:9)
Jesus existed before the world was created. In fact, He created the world.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3)
Jesus exists in the spiritual realm where He dwells as and with God.
Jesus took the form of a human and entered into humanity. He was conceived supernaturally, born of human parents into the Jewish community, part of a human family, was a carpenter – He was human in all ways as we are, except He was not born sinful and did not sin.
From the age of 12, Jesus started challenging the temple leaders about their teachings and understanding of God, as well as their elite mindset. At the age of about 30, He selected 12 men who would become His disciples, learning from Him and then tasked with continuing His work after He left earth.
Jesus taught about the kingdom of God, challenged the beliefs and values of the people, and taught about a better way. He healed people of physical sickness, raised people to life who were dead and performed many miracles. But His focus was not on what He could do physically, He reached into the heart and soul of people, to challenge them to believe in the One who sent Him to earth, God the Father, and invite them to enter into eternal life – a relationship with God.
Jesus came to earth for one reason – to redeem us. As we saw in a previous blog post, our sin separates us from God and we are sentenced to death as a result of our sin.
Before God created the world, God planned a way for us to know Him and be holy and blameless in His sight. It involved sending His Son, Jesus Christ, who is God, to this earth to take our place in death, to deal with the penalty of our sin and replace it with His righteousness so we can be acceptable to God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Why would He do this? Why would God, in the form of a man, enter earth to die the most painful way possible, burdened with the sin of humanity?
Because God loves us and wants us to have a relationship with us.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Jesus was wrongfully accused and sentenced to death by crucifixion. His charge was for claiming to be the King of the Jews. Jesus died on a cross and was buried in a tomb (with a large heavy stone blocking the entrance and guards guarding it). While this is the physical explanation of what happened to Jesus, at a spiritual level, on the cross Jesus took on himself all of our sin and paid the penalty set by God, death, so the penalty would be paid and we wouldn’t have to pay it – we could be free from death and enter into a relationship with God as the barrier between us and God was removed.
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
After 3 days, Jesus was resurrected to life again and appeared to more than 500 people.
After 40 days, in the sight of his disciples, Jesus ascended from earth into heaven, with the promise that one day He would return to earth in the same way He left it.
The person of Jesus Christ, His life on earth and what it accomplished at a spiritual level is very significant.
Jesus’ teachings as recorded in the Bible are a good place to start to understand more about who Jesus is and how his death in your place enables you to have eternal life and relationship with God.
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