Who is Jesus and will you ever know who He is?

Who is Jesus? Do you think you know who He is? Will you ever know who He is? Until you have really contemplated Him and looked at the recorded history of Him, you will never know.

Paul’s friend and companion wrote precise details about his life. That would be one place to go and read if you want the history. Read it as history. Ignore the supernatural if you like for the moment and just find out what happened in his life. You owe it to yourself. What have you got to loose? Get an opinion or belief about him based on fact.

If He, Jesus is God-Incarnate, the God-Man, then, He is superior to all!!! No other man on earth claimed deity–that is, no other sane man. No other man/prophet on earth proved or backed up the claim to deity. We, followers of Jesus, simply believe that He is who He claimed to be and that He backed that up in the most forceful way by His life on earth. The largest proof is His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven.

Who is Jesus? — The Incarnation-Implications for you

Actually, the incarnation points to a truth that the cross will make clear, namely, that our salvation is by sheeeeeer grace. I can’t stress that enough. In every other religion the founder is a human being sent by God to show us what to do to be saved. But Jesus is God come Himself. Now if God only needed to inform us what to do for salvation, he could have sent a prophet!!!!!! His personal coming means He will not just tell us what we have to do to be saved, but will do for us all that we cannot do ourselves. He will live the obedient life we should have lived but did not. He will die to pay the penalty for the disobedient life we shouldn’t have lived but did. He came himself to accomplish our salvation for us.

If Jesus is God, there is endless hope for the world and for you! The Bible tells us that Jesus brought “the kingdom of God.” That means that Jesus, the true King, has returned and has begun to put the world right with His power. Right now, that healing is only partial but some day all deformity, decay, sin, disease and imperfection will be complete taken away from here. This means we live with infallible hope (Romans 8:18-25) Whatever problem we face-whether disease or injustice or some other suffering-eventually God’s power will triumph over it. Weeping may remain for the night but Joy comes with the morning (Ps 30:5) Jesus is God. That means God has landed!!! The ideal has penetrated the real and is transforming it into his likeness. The world is destined for joy sooner or later.

I savor these thought and will for my lifetime. Whatever your state today, I hope and pray you have a wonderful day and are overcome by joy in Him.

Who is Jesus? — The Incarnation-Implications for Followers

I have looked at the specific passages in the Greek New Testament which outline the circumstances in Jesus’ life and have implications for all who will listen to Him. He is still speaking today and to those who follow His voice.

This video is designed primarily for those who already follow Him and have a relationship with Him or those actively seeking Him.

If Jesus is God, he is not simply to be admired and respected but to be worshipped and adored. The purpose of our lives is to behold his glory and beauty and that certainly means more than to believe in Him or even to obey him. He is the ultimate object of worship (II Corinthians 3:18). He is to be reveled in, savored and rejoiced in. Jesus is God. Therefore, he should be the ultimate beauty and satisfaction for our hearts.

If Jesus is God, he is to be absolutely obeyed and given the central priority of our lives. Jesus’ claim to be God polarizes the only possible response to him. No one can respond to him casually or moderately. If he is not who he said he is, he should be hated or utterly ignored. If he is who he said he is then he should be adored completely. We should center our lives entirely on Him. Jesus is the Creator and the Almighty God. He is not someone you can ask into your life as an assistant or consultant-he must be Lord. Jesus is God-and therefore he should be the pre-eminent concern of our choices, the ultimate Lord over our wills.

If Jesus is God, his salvation is of infinite value. His sufferings were of infinite value. His blood was shed as a ransom ( Mark 10:45) to pay for our sins. But his blood was the blood of God (Acts 20:28)! Imagine how valuable that is!

He was forsaken by the Father ( Matthew 27:46) as a way to take the penalty we deserved (II Corinthians 5:21; II Thesalonians 2:9). But the Father and Son knew one another from all eternity and have perfect love for each other. So the loss that Jesus experienced on the cross was infinitely greater the loss any other being would have experienced. The deity of Christ means that his salvation is super-abundantly sufficient for us. He is able to save “to the max, to the uttermost” (Heb. 7:25). No sin is too great to be forgiven; no corruption is too great to be healed. Jesus is God-and therefore he should bring complete rest and assurance to our consciences.

I will pause here to say if you are seeking Him or have come to know Him and do not have that rest and assurance—by all means get in touch. We can help in that way.

Who is Jesus? — The Incarnation, a Retake

I realized after getting into the Incarnation of Jesus, the God-Man,  I had left much on the table that was said in the passages I used in the previous blog.  So,  I want to review them again and go much deeper.

John 1:1-3, 14

Here John challenges the pagan and the jewish views with these statements about the incarnation.   How does the incarnation challenge your world view?

The Incarnation in Jesus challenges the empiricist view.  This view denies that there is any eternal, supernatural world, or that the supernatural can ever break into and violate natural laws in the form of miracles.  The Incarnation, is THE Great Miracle of all time!

The incarnation challenges the post-modern view of the world.  What I hear from post- moderns is more mood than a coherent philosophy, but the post-modern view is that all depictions of reality are social constructs to serve the purpose of the dominant group, that there is no such thing as Truth with a capital T.

The incarnation, teaches that there is an absolute Truth and that Truth has become a human being.  Also, the incarnation challenges the modernized versions of religion which consist almost entirely of ethical behavior rather than focusing on the being, that is, what is inside a person.

The focus on ethical behavior puts in the background what is believed or the bases of that belief by saying “All religions basically believe in the same God. What really matters is that you are a good, loving and honest person.”

This pervasive view makes God a very vague and impersonal being.  God becomes a mysterious life-force and not a person we can know and relate to.  God is referred to in a very generic way.  Due to influence of eastern thought, many focus on meditation rather than verbal prayer-communication in order to “touch the divine.”

The incarnation, however, tells us that we have a palpable God—one who can be known, talked to, listened to, served, and loved.  The Incarnation gives us the most personal God in the face of modern efforts to depersonalize Deity.

John 14: 6,  I Timothy 2:5
How does the incarnation of God lead one to understand Jesus as the only mediator, the only way to reach God?

There is very strong opposition to the idea that Jesus is the only way to know and reach God.   This is seen as extreme narrow-mindedness.

This one aspect of the incarnation could take hours and hours of devotion and discussion.  Here I will only give a very brief summary.

If He, Jesus is God-Incarnate, the God-Man, then, He is superior to all!!!   No other man on earth claimed deity—that is, no other sane man.  No other man/prophet on earth proved or backed up the claim to deity.  We, followers of Jesus, simply believe that He is who He claimed to be and that He backed that up on the most forceful way by His life on earth.  The largest proof is His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven.

You must understand that Christians who accept the Word of God, do not choose to believe that Jesus is the unique way to God.  Once we believe He is God in the flesh, we simply have to see Him as the only way to know and serve God truly.  Once that is understood—nothing else–no other prophet, no other religion, compares to His life and revelation.

Matthew 9:2-3

Here Jesus takes the authority to forgive sins.  The teachers of the law very correctly believed He was claiming a right that only God has.  When Jesus forgives this man’s sin,  he is saying that all sins are AGAINST HIM.  How can He say that if He is not God?  He can’t.  Only God can claim that all sins are against Him, since He made the world and everything in it and all sins are against His creation.  This scene makes it clear who Jesus claims to be.  He claims are radical as demonstrated by the reaction He got from Jewish leaders.

Matthew 11:27

“All things have been committed to me”   Wow!!  That is a staggering claim that he has the right and power to control everything that exists.

“No one knows the Father but the Son”  He claims to have complete knowledge of the Father in a way that no one else in the universe does.

“…no one  knows the Father”    He cannot mean that no one has any knowledge or any relationship to God.  Many know God in a limited way, so Jesus must be claiming absolute knowledge of God.  He is saying, “Compared to the exhaustive way I know the Father, no one knows him at all.”    But that raises a question—how could any mortal human claim to completely know the infinite God?

“…no one knows the Son but the Father.”  This may be more startling that all the statements he made here.  He is saying that He alone is capable of knowing the Father, so, the Father alone is capable of knowing him!!!  This is a flabbergasting claim that the Son, Jesus, is at an equal level and standing with the Father.

John 8:52-59
He claims to have existed well before Abraham was on earth.

John 20:28-29
Jesus accepts Thomas’ worship of Himself as God here.  Did you know that John repeatedly falls at the feet of an angel in worship in the book of Revelation??   The angel forbids it each time he does.  Jesus never forbids worship of Himself.

Mark 1:2-3
(Isaiah 40: 3-5)

Mark is saying that John the Baptist is the messenger predicted in Is 40:3-5.  There Isaiah says that the messenger is paving the way for YAHWEH ie, the LORD of glory!!!!!!   Therefore,  Mark is saying in the most unmistakable terms that in Jesus is the Lord God Himself.

Acts 20:28

Luke recorded Paul speaking about the church which “God…bought with his own blood.”  Think about that–the only person who shed blood, on the cross, was Jesus.  This means that Jesus was God and that His blood was God’s blood.  This shows that Luke and Paul believed that Jesus was full deity by the way this is recorded.

Colossians 2:9-10

This is unmistakable:  “All the fullness of the Deity (the only Deity) dwells in bodily form.”   Who was that?  It was and is Jesus.  Paul could have used a greek word that simply means divine qualities or godlike-ness.   Instead he uses the actual word for God   Theos.  Which means that God in all his fullness is in Jesus.  We can’t say that Jesus has part of the divine nature, but that all of it is in Him.

Hebrews 1:1-3

I said this before but I will say it again.  Jesus is the “exact” representation of God’s glory and being.  He is a mirror image, an absolute equal to the reflected object in every way—shape, brightness, clarity, etc.   Jesus holds the entire universe together;  he sustains it with the “word of his power.”

I believe there is only one conclusion we can take away from these scriptures.  Jesus is the supreme, the Majesty. He is to be honored, reverenced and worshiped because He is God.

I’d love to discuss with you further.

Who is Jesus? — The Incarnation

John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, (Greek: Logos)  and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.     He was with God in the beginning.    Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,  who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Greeks understood logos to be the rational principle by which everything exists, and which is the essence of the rational human soul.  In the Greek mind,  there was no god other than logos.  But there is Old Testament background to the term logos.   It could be argued that John is referring to the Torah.  Is so,  logos would be rich in meaning for Jewish readers, and also it would resonate in the minds of readers with entirely pagan backgrounds.   Whatever their thoughts about the meaning of logos,  the writer is trying to force new thought here.    – DA Carson  The Gospel according to John

We move to verse 14 and we see that this eternal uncreated Word of God becomes flesh.  What!!! Yes.   John articulates this phenomenon in the boldest way.

If he had said “adopted the form of a body” the readers steeped in the popular dualism of the Hellenistic world might have missed the point.  No, John is unambiguous,  almost shocking in the expressions he uses:  THE Word became flesh he says!!!!

This is supreme revelation.  Like none other ever read or heard.  If we are to know God, neither rationalism or mysticism will suffice.  Even the former Hebrew scriptures cannot match this (revelation).  – DA Carson

What is mysticism?  What is rationalism?

Mysticism:   (Merriam Webster): the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience (as intuition or insight)
Rationalism:  (Merriam Webster)  1: reliance on reason as the basis for establishment of religious truth 2  a: a theory that reason is in itself a source of knowledge superior to and independent of sense perceptions   b: a view that reason and experience rather than the nonrational are the fundamental criteria in the solution of problems

Don’t get me wrong here as I am quoting, there is a place for reason, but not to the  exclusion of faith.

The book of Hebrews says:  In the past God spoke through the prophets…but in these days he has spoken to us by his son.”  Hebrews 1:2-3  The Word, God’s very Self-expression, who was both with God and was God,  became flesh:  He donned humanity,  save only our sin.  God chose to make himself known, finally and ultimately, in a real, historic man.      –  D. A. Carson

How does the incarnation shed light on claims that Jesus is the only mediator,  the only way to reach God?

He said while here on earth:  I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me!!  Then Paul reaffirms this concept.   If He is God in flesh, He has the right and authority to say this.

Now here are just a few Greek verses which expound on what John has told us in his prologue to his gospel.
Matt 9: 2-3

He knew the Old Testament says that only God forgives sins…. Yet, He forgave this man’s sins and stated it this way.  He is claiming her power to forgive sins and indirectly that He is God.

Matthew 11:27

It is as if Jesus here is claiming to be the exclusive conduit of the Father’s will and the Father’s work on the earth!!  We can’t know God except by knowing Jesus.

Matthew 28:20

He will continue His presence on the earth after he physically leaves the earth.  He is saying this after His resurrection.  He knows He is about to leave, but says “I will be with you always (forever).”  We know He is present with us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

John 5: 21-23

Jesus is the source of life, ie, eternal life.  The Son is entrusted by the Father with judgment.  This is judgment of sin.  If we honor Him, we are honoring the Father.  This would not be true if He were only a man.  Those who do not honor the Son do not honor God or the Father.

John 8:52-59

Jesus claims many things here and in the last uses the Exodus phrase that God used naming Himself to the Jews:  I AM.  The Jews believe He is blaspheming because He claims to know God and that they do not know God.  He also said that Abraham knew Him while Abraham lived several hundred years earlier.  The Jews do not understand that.

John 20:28-29

Here is one of the most explicit statements about His godhood.  Here Thomas calls Him Lord and God.  Jesus does not correct him.  In fact, He encourages/congratulates Thomas and future believers for the same recognition of Him.

Mark 1:2-3  (reference Isaiah 40:3-5)

The Messiah will have many messengers sent before to prepare the way.  Mark believes him to be the Messiah.

Colossians 2:9-10

God dwelt on earth in bodily form.  Jesus has control over all powers and authorities on the earth.  These powers would be spiritual and governmental.  The spiritual now and the from an earthly throne in the future.

Hebrews 1:1-3

Jesus is the spokesperson (the Word) for the Godhead.  All that is significant in human history will be accomplished for Him and in His name.  The Son of God is the radiant expression of God’s glory.  He reigns now at the right hand of  Majesty.

The Greek New Testament is as long as the Qur’an and it is all about the person of Jesus Christ. So, you know there are many more wonderful things about Him there.  I encourage you to pick up the New Testament and begin reading in the Gospel of John, the fourth gospel.  This will start you on a great adventure—the greatest adventure you can experience on earth.

I AM

My objective is to glorify Jesus Christ.  I invite you to see this video which glorifies the Great I AM, the One and the Only from the Father full of grace and truth.  It also lists some of the names which the Holy Scriptures attribute to Him.  Please enjoy this video and glorify Him as you do.