Christ
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. There is one true and living God. In the Old Testament He was the God of the Jews. In the New Testament He is the God of the Christians. He is the same God but we are living in a different dispensation. The God we serve is the one and only true and living God both in the Old and New Testaments. As Christians we believe that He is who He says He is, because He has revealed Himself to us. The truth is there to be found for anyone who will seek it and is willing to believe it. There are many proofs for this truth from the biblical creation, to many fulfilled prophecies given in the Bible. As well as this, many Christians and Jews have experienced God and His power first hand in their lives, and have been witnesses of His marvellous acts.
The Jews of the Old Testament were awaiting a promised messiah to come who would relieve them from bondage and be to them everything a messiah ought to be. Jesus Christ was that Messiah who fulfilled all the Old Testament Scriptures predicted about Him. Everything from His birth to His life, death, and ministry were foretold in the Scriptures. The prophecies were fulfilled accurately and many people were witnesses of these things. However, the Jews at large did not embrace Him as their Messiah for various reasons. Jesus also revealed that a false messiah would come and would be received by them:
“I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”
(John 5:43 King James Version)
This is a controversy between God and His people to this very day. However, the matter is not closed and there will be a great reconciliation and restoration between God and Israel, in the not-too-distant future.
Some Israelites did believe that Jesus was the true Christ (Christ means messiah or anointed one), making up the beginnings of the Christian church. From the city of Jerusalem two thousand years ago, the Gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ went out into the Gentile (non-Jewish) nations. As a result, the Christian or Christ-following church has been established world-wide and remains to this very day all over the world.
The Christian church centres around Christ’s life, death, ministry and teachings. Christ Himself remains a highly controversial figure as He made some very extraordinary claims. He claimed that while being a man that He was the Son of God manifested in the flesh. The Jews already believed in one true God but did not take kindly the claim that the man they were looking at was His Son, and equal to God in the sense that He was divine.
However, there is overwhelming evidence that proves that Jesus Christ was the Son of the true and living God. His life and ministry were flawless and outstanding, packed with miracles, astounding teachings, and phenomenal prophecies regarding the future. He was graceful in His manner; He spoke with authority and had a great ability to handle the most difficult of people. He was fearless, no man could stand against Him, and He bravely challenged the status quo and the corrupt religious establishment of His day. His life and ministry fitted perfectly everything the prophets had foretold regarding Him. He showed great love and compassion for people but also stern rebukes for those in God’s disfavour.
He was perfect in every way, gave himself upon the cross, a powerful act of love, fulfilling many Old Testament prophecies, but the greatest proof of all was His resurrection from the dead.
The Work’s Sake
His messiahship was proved by the many mighty works which he did:
“Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.”
(John 10:25)
“Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”
(John 14:11)
“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”
(John 21:25)
He was very fearful in the things that He said and prophesied, He warned of eternal torment in hell and preached such a high standard of righteousness that many (even religious) people were astounded. Though Israel at large rejected Jesus’ message, many believed that He was indeed the Christ:
“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
(Matthew 16:13-16)
Jesus declared that He was the way and the only way to God the Father:
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
(John 14:6)
If you are looking for the religious or spiritual way, look no further, for Jesus Christ is that way.
He Was Born of a Virgin
“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
(Matthew 1:22-23)
More Than a Prophet: He Was Divine
Some acknowledge Jesus Christ as a prophet, and some even more than a prophet, but Christ was the Son of God manifested in the flesh. This means that He is fully divine and equal to God the Father in essence and existence. He is no less divine than God the Father, but only lesser in the matter of subordination (order of command).
Christ was always in submission to God the Father and took orders from Him, and only Him.
“For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”
(John 12:49-50)
Perhaps two of the most outstanding aspects to His life and ministry was His sinlessly perfect life and His unparalled display of divine power in the miracles that He did. No man has ever been able to live a sinlessly perfect life except Jesus. Jesus said Himself that no one could accuse Him of sin:
“Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?”
(John 8:46)
He came to take away the sins of the whole world and to give His life a ransom for many:
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
(John 1:29)
“Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
(Matthew 20:28)
His Death on the Cross
He died on the cross to save mankind from their sins and then declared that the redemptive work was finished:
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
(John 19:30)
The centurion and others also were convinced that Jesus was the Son of God when they saw how he died:
“Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.”
(Matthew 27:50-54)
His Resurrection
Christ died and rose from the dead giving undeniable evidence to His divinity:
“To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
(Acts 1:3)
“Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
(Acts 17:31)
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.”
(1 Corinthians 15:3-7)
The account of Jesus the pure spotless Lamb of God brutally dying on the cross is heart-wrenching to say the least and should melt and capture the heart of any sinner. He did this all because of His love toward us. He did what no other man of God did or ever claimed to do.
He gave His life even for those who reviled Him, and He taught His disciples to love their enemies. Here is a man showing more love, divinity, power, purity than any other human being that ever lived by far.
There has never been anyone like this man, and He is the true Christ, the Son of the living God!
Repent and believe the Gospel today!
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
(Romans 10:9)
He is now exalted in heaven at the right hand of God:
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
(Hebrews 12:2)
I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that He is Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, the only true Saviour and He is coming back soon!
He is real and wants you to come to know Him!
