What we believe – Who is Jesus?

In this ongoing series I am publishing slightly edited versions of short papers I wrote for my church’s elder pipeline class. The prompt for this paper was, “What is your view of Jesus Christ?”

The question “what is your view of Jesus” could receive so broad an answer that literally, many books exist just to tackle it. I want to address this by answering three specific questions that serve as the foundation upon which Christology is built.

Is Jesus man? 

There can be no doubt that the answer is yes. Scripture testifies that Jesus was a person who was born in a particular time, at a particular place, under known historical circumstances. Contemporary Roman sources such as Josephus testify that Jesus existed as a real human being. Furthermore, his friends, his disciples, testified that He didn’t simply exist, but that He was fully human in His needs and actions. He got hungry, and He ate. He got tired, and He slept. He felt emotions, and expressed them. Unlike other humans He did not carry the stain of sin and so He was able to do all these things in the way that truly honored God and gave Him glory as we ought to, but He still did them just as any of us would. 

Because Jesus was a man, He was and is able to sympathize with us in our weakness – our bodies’  needs and failures and pains, and our hearts’ yearnings for completeness and intimacy with God. Because Jesus was not just any man, but the God-man, He was able to stand in our place as our federal head, the representative of His people, and place His sacrifice before the Father as perfect and holy, totally paying for the sins of all who look to Christ and draw near to Him. Those who do not, who stand instead with Adam as their federal head, will have no such hope before God. As Paul wrote in Romans 5, in Adam all die, but in Christ all live, not just in their physical lifetimes but forever, in God’s presence.

Is Jesus God? 

Again, the answer is a firm yes. Precisely because Jesus is God, all that was accomplished as a man was possible. Any other man, born of man and woman, would have walked with the same stain of sin and had only his own sin to bear before God. But because Jesus is God, He was born without sin, both in the sense that He did not carry the curse and in that He was able to do all things in true freedom. His will was not bound to human iniquity – to the bent towards selfish and God-dishonoring desires – but instead, was bound to His holy love for God and His desire to complete His role in the Trinitarian work of salvation for mankind.

Jesus expressed His emotions in a way that pointed directly to God. It is occasionally said, wrongly, that “God in the Old Testament was angry and wrathful, but in the New Testament with Jesus He’s suddenly loving.” But there is no division, because while Jesus expresses His love in ways that are direct and palpable, He also expresses anger and wrath in the same way God does. 

When He faces the hard hearts and unbelief of the Jewish leaders, and their cynical love for power even as they believe they are doing God’s will, He shows His holy anger towards them, and calls them exactly what they are: followers of the enemy, and not of God. They claimed to worship and give glory to God but use the methods of the world, including lying and manipulating to bring about the death of Jesus. God was said to “burn with anger” in the face of the hard hearts of the Israelites, who would often follow God’s provision with griping and idolatry, and yet He still showed great mercy to them. How much different can we consider Jesus’ driving those who were changing money out of the temple? This was not sinful human anger, but holy wrath against unholy, cynical, God-dishonoring sin.

Is Jesus a prophet?

A prophet in the Bible is someone who brings God’s word to His people. Certainly, Jesus fits this bill. Some mistakenly believe that to say that Jesus is a prophet, is to say that Jesus is merely a prophet, as though it relegates him to a lower class than being God. 

But Jesus was a prophet, and a truer and more thorough prophet we could not ask for. Firstly, because He did speak and teach so much, to his apostles and to anyone who would listen. Secondly, because as Hebrews 1 says, He was not simply a man, or a demi-god as Greco-Roman culture might have tried to render such a concept, but “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” He does not simply talk about God but He is, in ways that can hardly be expressed in words, the perfect and full revelation of who God is before our eyes. 

In the gospels, we often see the Pharisees hearing about Jesus and wanting to understand Him, but when they saw Him, they did not hold him in any regard, because He was not anything like what they expected of the Messiah – He held no promise of power for them, no restoration of the kingdom of David in the way they conceived of. In Revelation 5, John hears of the Lion of Judah, who “has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” But when he turns to look, he sees a lamb that looks like it has been slain. Jesus did not come in a way that sinful humanity would expect one of such immense power to come, because He was not coming to establish another kingdom competing for the limited power and resources humanity wrestles over on earth. 

Jesus comes bringing total victory and inaugurating His kingdom, one that will only grow and sustain all who live in it more and more throughout eternity.  In this kingdom what was broken will be healed, and humanity will finally be able to live as we were meant to, as the image of God, with Jesus our King as the perfect image we will all reflect. But this kingdom is not simply a future hope. It is also now, inaugurated in the coming of Christ over 2000 years ago.

Who He is matters

Jesus is King is not simply a theoretical construct, nor solely a future hope for believers. His role as great high priest is not just incidental to our moment of conversion. Jesus the God-man, Jesus the King, He is the head of His body the church. And the church lives out the kingdom of God in this world now.

We do this as we live as disciples of Christ in all aspects of our lives. This image of a worship-filled life was intended to be displayed through the lives of the Israelites, through the feasts and celebrations that gave rhythm to their year. But despite God’s constant pleadings with HIs people through His prophets, despite His provision for their needs, His people failed again and again. They continued to worship other gods, to rebel and chafe against Him, and to mistreat and abuse one another. 

We see this today, even among those who call themselves Christians – a love of money driving those in ministry to sin in myriad ways, sexual abuse and lies to cover it, and a belief that worldly power is needed to defend that which is founded on God’s sovereign grace. This should not be, and especially it should not be because of who and what Jesus is.

Jesus as the God-man means that we have hope, and our words, our actions, our money and property, our work, everything we do ought to reflect the joy of knowing – we have intimacy with God! We can truly know Him! We can speak with Him, and He hears us and answers us! And this means that we can live through any circumstance knowing that it will find its redemption and fullest purpose in Him. 

So when we look at Jesus we are seeing God, and we are seeing our future fulfillment and redemption. In his book Saturate Jeff Vanderstelt writes on Jesus’ miracle at the wedding at Cana of turning water into wine and how it is a picture of how Jesus brings true purpose to human celebration:

Jesus is giving us a picture of what God is like. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh to bring the life of God into our wineless (worshipless) party. The holy Word became human flesh. The holy God became holy man. The holy shows up in the mundane when the mundane is set apart for God’s work in the world. God became flesh and dwelt among us. Water became wine and satisfied the thirsty at the party. 

I’m often tempted to think “I want to delight in Jesus, but first I have to accomplish X” – achieve something with my job, or achieve a victory over a certain sin struggle in my life, for example. But what I have learned is that delighting in Jesus, in trusting Him and seeking after Him in all areas of my life – even and especially the areas where uncertainty reigns – I am able to better endure the questions, the fears and doubts, and even the failures. I’m able to respond in a more God-honoring way when things don’t go my way at my job, and when the do go my way, I’m able to celebrate Jesus’ provision rather than rue my own doubt. 

Jesus being fully God and fully man is not simply an incidental fact we memorize. It is a truth that ought to cause us to celebrate and to rest fully in Him – in His person, and in His work. That work will be addressed next time more fully, but for now, we can say truly – Jesus is my King, my rest, and my purpose in every part of life.