Who Is Jesus To You?

Who Is Jesus To You?

For us, it is impossible to know conclusively ‘Does God exist?’ and ‘What kind of He is’ unless God Himself takes the initiative and reveals Himself.

We must look through the pages of history to find any clues to God’s revelation. It has a clear mark. Two thousand years ago, a baby boy was born in the stables of a chaotic village in Palestine. Today the whole world is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, and for the right reason – his life changed the course of history.

How Did People See Jesus?

We are told that “the common man listened with delight to what Jesus said.” And “he was teaching them not as leaders of Judaism, but as officials.” 1

However, it soon became clear that he made very startling and wondrous statements about himself. He said he was a great teacher who was more than a prophet. He clearly said that He is God, and he made his identity the main issue in his education.

To his followers, Jesus asked the most important question, “And who do you say I am?” Then Simon Peter replied, “That you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 2 Jesus Christ was not surprised to hear this, nor did he rebuke Peter. On the contrary, Jesus commanded him!

Jesus Christ often addressed God as “my Father,” and his words completely impacted his listeners. We’re told, “For the same reason, Jews attempted to kill him. it was not just that he violated the Sabbath (sabbath day) law, but also believed in a god-like relationship with God, Calling God the father of his children.” He said, “My father and I are one on another occasion. Then at the same time, Jews were threatening to stone him. Jesus Christ asked them, for what good deeds encouraged them to throw him to the ground (Jesus)? They answered, “We do not stone you for good work, but because of blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God.

Also Know About: Was Jesus 33 Years Old When He Died?

Jesus Said This About Himself

Jesus claimed powers that only God has. When a man who was paralyzed was lowered from the roof so that Jesus could cure his condition, Jesus said, “Son, You have been cleansed of your mistakes.” Hearing this, the theologians immediately reacted, “Why is this person talking like this? He is insulting God! Who can forgive sins except for God?” Then Jesus told them, “Which is simpler: tell this man who is paralyzed. “Your sins have been forgiven,” and “Get out and go”?

Jesus also added, “But so that you know that I hold power to forgive sins throughout the world. Jesus spoke to the person suffering from paralysis. “I tell you, stand up, get up, and take a seat, and put your bed in the morning and head back home. “He got up and immediately took the cot and left in front of everyone; Everyone was amazed at this.

Jesus also spoke of things like these: “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” And “I am the light of the world.” 6 Then he said Many times, whoever trusts in Jesus, Jesus will give them the gift of eternal life. “And there is no punishment for him, but he has passed from death and entered life.” “And I will give them eternal life. 7 “And I will grant them the eternal life. “And I give them eternal life. They will never perish.”

In those crucial moments when Jesus’ life was at stake, to make such a claim, the high priest directly asked him: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Most Blessed?”

“Yes, I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Almighty and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

Then, the high priest took off his clothing and asked, “What do we mean by witnesses today? He was heard saying these offensive things.”

Jesus Christ’s relationship to God was so deep that he equated a man’s feelings to him and their feelings toward God. So, to know him was to know the Lord.10 To see him was to see the Lord.11 To believe in him was to believe in the Lord.12 To receive him was to receive the Lord.13 To hate him was to hate the Lord.14 To honor him To do was to honor the Lord.

Possible Explanation

The question is, was he telling the truth?

Maybe Jesus lied when he called himself God. Maybe he knew that he was not God, and he deliberately deceived his listeners to give authority to his teaching. Some people think so. But there’s an issue with this argument. Those who deny His divineness even believe that Jesus was a great moral teacher. But they fail to understand that both the statements are contradictory. How would Jesus Christ be a great moral teacher if he had deliberately lied about the most important subject of his teaching – his identity?

The second possibility is that Jesus Christ was honest but was deceiving himself. Nowadays, a person who thinks he/she is God/God is called by one name- mentally handicapped. But when we look to the life of Jesus Christ, we find no evidence of the abnormality and imbalance that occurs in a mentally ill person. Rather, we see infinite patience in Jesus, even in times of deep pressure.

A third option is that, in the third and fourth centuries, Jesus’ ardent followers exaggerated what he had said and would have been shocked if Jesus heard them. And if he had come back, he would have immediately rejected them.

This is not true because modern archeology confirms that the four biographies of Christ were written during the lifetime of those who saw, heard, and followed Jesus. These gospel accounts describe specific facts and features confirmed by those direct witnesses of Jesus.

William F. Albright, a world-renowned archaeologist with Johns Hopkins University in the United States, said there is no reason to think that any Gospels can be traced back to 70 A.D. (after A.D.) was written. Since Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John had written well initially, it had a greater circulation and influence.

Jesus Christ was not a liar, nor was he mentally handicapped, created beyond historical truth. The only other option might be that Jesus Christ was true when he said that he was God.

What Is The Proof That Jesus Christ Is God?

Anyone can make any claims. Many people claim to be God. I can claim to be God. You can also claim to be God. But if we do, we all have to answer the question, “What concrete evidence or certificate can we bring to substantiate our claim?” If you ask about me, it won’t take you five minutes to refute my claim. It may not take much longer to refute your claim. But when it comes to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, it is not easy to refute his claim. He had a certificate of fulfillment of his claim. He said, “…even if [you] do not believe in me, but believe in those works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 16

The Quality of Life of Jesus – His Unique Moral Character

His unique moral character matched his claim. His lifestyle was such that he could challenge his enemies with his questions, “Which one of you can judge me a sinner?” 17 He found silence (no one could say anything) as he addressed them. Who tried to find fault in his character.

We read that Satan tempted Jesus Christ, but we’ve never heard him confess to sin, and he never apologized, although he asked his followers to do so.

The feeling of no moral failure in Jesus is astonishing, especially when it is in stark contrast to the experiences that saints and sages have experienced throughout the ages. The closer men and women come to God, the more they are overwhelmed by their failure/failure, corruption, and shortcomings. The closer one goes to a shining light. The more one realizes the need to clean oneself. For ordinary humans, this is true in the moral realm.

It is also noteworthy that John, Paul, and Peter, who had been trained to believe in the sovereignty of sin from an early age, all spoke of Jesus Christ’s sinlessness. No deceit came out of his mouth.”

Even Pilate, who executed Jesus Christ, asked, “What sin has he committed?” After listening to the crowd, Pilate concluded, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous one; You guys know.” The crowd mercilessly demanded that Jesus be crucified (for blasphemy, for claiming to be God). The Roman army leader, who helped Jesus crucify, said, “Truly this was the Son of God.

Jesus Christ Healed The Sick

Jesus continued to demonstrate his strength/power, and compassion. He led the lame, summoned the dumb, showed the blind, and healed many sick people. For example, a beggar, blind from birth and recognized by all, used to sit outside the synagogue. After receiving healing from Jesus Christ, the religious authorities questioned the beggar about Jesus. Then he said, “I know one thing. I was blind, but now I can see!” he declared. He wondered how the authorities of these religions did not recognize this healer as the son of God. “It has never been heard from the beginning of the world that anyone has opened the eyes of a born blind,” he said.20 To him, this evidence was clear.

Their Ability To Control Nature

Jesus Christ demonstrated a supernatural power over nature. He merely words. He calmed the storm of strong winds and ripples on the Sea of ​​Galilee. Those who were on the boats marveled and asked among themselves, “Who is it that even the storm and the water obey him? 21 In marriage, they turned the water into wine. He fed a crowd of 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. He was raised from the dead, the only son of a grieving widow.

Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, had died and was in the tomb for four days. Yet Jesus called to him, “Lazarus, come out!” and raised him back from death, and many people were witnesses of this. Most importantly, his enemies did not deny this miracle but decided to kill him. “If we just leave him like that,” they said, “all will believe in him.”

Is Jesus God, As He Claimed?

The supreme proof that Jesus Christ is God is his resurrection (the resurrection from the dead). Five times during his lifetime, Jesus explicitly predicted the specific way he would be killed and confirmed that he would leave the dead body and rise again three days later.

It was a big test. It was a claim that was easy to substantiate. Either it would happen, or it wouldn’t. It would either prove their stated identity to be true or destroy it. And, what’s important for you and me is this – the resurrection of Jesus would either confirm these things or make these statements ridicule:

“I am the way and the truth and the life; No one can reach the Father except through me.” “I am the light of the world; He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will find the light of life.” And whoever believes in me, “I give them eternal life…”

So, thus giving this proof in his own words, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; And he will rise three days after his death.”

Who is Jesus Christ?

If Jesus rose from the dead, He could accomplish what He said He had to offer us. This means that He can no doubt forgive sins, give us eternal life, and guide us in this life. He is God, so now we know what God is like, and we can accept His invitation – to know Him personally and His love for us.

On the other hand, if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity would have no validity or reality. It means all these lies, and Jesus was just a layman who is dead. And those who died for the Christian faith, and the contemporary missionaries who lost their lives in conveying their message to others, were delusional fools.

Did Jesus Prove That He Is God?

Let’s take a look at the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection –

Given all the miracles that Jesus performed, it can be said that he could have easily saved himself from the cross, but he chose not to do so.

Before he was taken prisoner, Jesus said, “No one can take away my life from me; I dedicate myself to him. I have the right to lay down my life and receive it again.”

While taking him captive, Jesus’ friend Peter tried to save them. But, Jesus said to Peter, “Sheathe your sword… don’t you know that I can plead with my Father, and he will bring me more than twelve legions of angels now?” 28 Heaven and Earth, in both, had this type of power. Jesus Christ willingly accepted his death.

The Crucifixion And Consecration Of Jesus

Jesus was killed by crucifixion in front of the crowd. This was a common method of death by torture, followed by the Roman government for many centuries. Jesus said it was to pay for our sins. The charge against Jesus was blasphemy (of claiming to be God).

Jesus was struck with a heavy whip made of several ropes studded with broken pieces of metal and bone. A crown made of long thorns was placed on his head to ridicule him. They forced Jesus Christ to walk outside Jerusalem to the Mount of Death, where He was crucified on a wooden cross, and His feet and hands were nailed to the cross. He hung on that cross until he died. To know whether he was dead or not, his side was pierced with a spear.

The body of Jesus was brought down from the cross, and it was wrapped in linen with incense. Their bodies were placed in a tomb dug into the rock, and then a large stone was rolled over the tomb entrance to secure the door.

Everyone knew that Jesus had said that he would rise from the dead after three days. So trained Roman military guards were stationed at his grave, and he put a Roman government seal on the outside of the tomb to declare that it was government property.

Three days later, that grave was empty.

Despite all this, three days later, the stone that was sealing the tomb was found on a slope some distance from the tomb. Jesus’ body was not there, and only the sheet was lying in the grave, without the dead body.

It is important to note that both critics and followers of Jesus believe that the tomb was empty and missing his body.

Initially, the explanation was circulated that his disciples had stolen his body while the guards were sleeping. But this seems unfounded because the falling asleep of trained guards of the Roman army in this way, while on guard, was nothing short of a crime of capital punishment.

In addition, each disciple was tortured and martyred (individually and in various geographical locations) for the claim that Jesus was alive and rose from the dead. But they did not back down from their claims. Any human being is prepared to die for the truth, which he believes to be true, even if it is a lie. But, he doesn’t want to die for what he knows is a lie. If there is a time when a human being speaks the truth, it is at the close of his death. Every disciple continued to preach the resurrection of Jesus until the end.

Maybe the authorities removed the body of Jesus from there? But this is also a weak possibility. They crucified Jesus to prevent people from believing in him. If they had the body of Jesus, they would parade it in the city of Jerusalem. In a single turn, they would have successfully succeeded in suppressing Christianity. That they did not, it is a great testimony that they did not have the dead body of Jesus.

Another theory is that the women (who first saw the empty tomb of Jesus) were distraught and overwhelmed with grief, having forgotten their way in the misty of the morning and gone to the wrong tomb. In their agony, they imagined that Jesus had risen because the tomb was empty. But this is also in doubt because if the women went to the wrong tomb, why didn’t the high priests and other enemies of religion go to the right tomb and show the body of Jesus?

Another possibility, according to some, is the “theory of the unconscious.” According to this theory, Jesus did not die. He was mistakenly presumed dead, and in fact, he fainted from fatigue, pain, and blood loss, and the coolness in the grave brought him back to consciousness. (Accordingly, you have to ignore the fact that his side was pierced with a spear to prove that he was dead.)

However, let us assume for a moment that Jesus was buried alive and was unconscious. So is it possible to believe that he would have survived three days in a damp grave without food or water or any kind of care? Were they strong enough to pull themselves out of the tomb’s cloak, lift the heavy stone from the mouth of the tomb, overcome the Roman guards, and walk miles on foot that nails had pierced? This does not make sense.

Yet, the mere empty tomb did not lead followers to believe that Jesus was indeed God.

Not Just Empty Graves

Only the empty tomb did not make them believe that Jesus rose from the dead, that He was alive, and that He was God. All these things also convinced them – Jesus appeared many times, as a man of living flesh, and he ate with him, talked to him – he talked to different places, different times, with different types of people. Luke, one of the gospel writers, said of Jesus, “He revealed himself to them with many convincing proofs that he is alive. He appeared to them for forty days and told them about the kingdom of God.”

Is Jesus Christ God?

The four gospel writers state that Jesus was physically visible to them after he was buried. Once he appeared to the disciples, Thomas (a disciple) was not there. When the other disciples told Thomas about him, Thomas did not believe him, and he simply said, “I will not believe it until I see the nail holes in his hands and put my fingers in the nail holes, and put my hand in his side.”

A week later, Jesus appeared to them again. Thomas was also with them at that time. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger and look at my hands, and bring your hands and put them by my side. Quit doubting and believe.” Hearing this, Thomas replied, “My lord, my God.”

Jesus said to him, “You have believed in me, seeing me. Blessed are those who believed without seeing.”

What Does Jesus Offer You?

Christ gives purpose and direction to life. “I am the light of the world,” he says. “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will find the light of life.”

Many people are in the dark about the purpose of life in general and their own lives in particular. It feels as if they are searching for the switch to turn on the lights in their life. Anyone who has been in the dark or an unfamiliar room is well aware of the feeling of insecurity. But, there is a sense of security when the lights are on. It’s exactly what it is like to emerge from the darkness to the illumination that is Jesus Christ.

The late analytical psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung, said, “The most pressing problem of our times is emptiness. We think that our experiences, knowledge, relationships, money, success, and fame will give us the joy we seek. But there is always emptiness. All this does not satisfy them completely. We are made for God, and we will find fulfillment only in Him.”

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life: he who comes to me will never be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

You can establish a close relationship with Jesus right now, and you can know God personally on earth, in this life, and eternity after you die. Here is the promise God made to us:

Because God has so loved us that he offered his only begotten son that anyone who trusts in him would not die but enjoy eternal life.

Jesus was crucified and took all our sins on Him while on the cross. He accepted the punishment for our sins so that our sins would not become a wall between Him and us. Because He paid for our sins in full, He offers us complete forgiveness and a relationship with Himself.