Who is Jesus Christ?

If you asked a randomly selected group of people who Jesus Christ is, you would receive a variety of answers. Some would say that Jesus was a great moral teacher. Some would consider him a prophet. Others would equate him with religious founders like Buddha, Muhammad or Confucius.

Jesus is God

Jesus himself once asked his disciples this question. We find the story in Matthäus 16.
"Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi and asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is? They said, Some say you are John the Baptist, some say you are Elijah, some say you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He asked them: Who do you say I am? Then Simon Peter answered and said: You are Christ, the Son of the living God!"

Throughout the New Testament, we find evidence of Jesus' identity. He healed lepers, the lame, and the blind. He raised the dead. In Johannes 8,58 When questioned about how he could possibly have special knowledge about Abraham, he replied: “Before Abraham was, I am.” With this, he invoked and applied to himself the personal name of God, “I am,” which is in 2. Mose 3,14 This is mentioned. In the next verse, we see that his listeners understood exactly what he was saying about himself. “Then they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” (Joh 8,59). In Johannes 20,28Thomas fell down before Jesus and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” The Greek text literally reads: “The Lord from me and the God from me!”

In Philipper 2,6 Paul tells us that Jesus Christ was "in divine form". Yet for our sake, he chose to be born a man. This makes Jesus unique. He is both God and man. He bridges the vast, impossible gap between the divine and the human and welds God and humanity together.The Creator bound himself to creatures in a bond of love which no human logic can explain.

When Jesus asked the question of his identity to his disciples, Peter replied: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven.” (Mt 16,16-17).

Jesus was not just human for a short period of time between his birth and his death. He rose from death and left at the right hand of the Father, where he is today our Redeemer and our lawyer - as a man with [God] - still one of us, God in the flesh, now glorified for our sake, as well he was crucified for our sake.

Immanuel - God with us - is still with us and will be with us forever.

by Joseph Tkach