Jesus
Jesus
In the days of Caesar Augustus, people were required to return to the
town of their birth to register for the purpose of being taxed. When
Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to register, they were fulfilling
prophecy concerning the birth of the Messiah of Israel: “But
you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler
in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”
(Micah 5:2)
God was constantly encouraging His people with the promise of a Redeemer.
This promise was recorded by Micah more than 800 years before the
birth of Jesus Christ. The Israelites were understanding the
prophecies of God to say that His Redeemer would be a mighty warrior
who would come in glory and power to save them from oppression.
There were only very few who remembered the prophecies in Isaiah1
when Jesus was crucified in humiliation.
Jesus.
What a wonderful Name.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.” (John 1:14)
That’s what Christmas is all about. It is a remembrance of the birth of the
Savior of all mankind. Jesus Christ – fully human and fully divine.
He is God, Who came to this earth in the form of man in order to save
us from our sins by His own shed blood. He gave up His rightful
place at the right hand of the Father in order to save us2
from separation from God. And as if that were not enough, when
He returned to the Father, He sent us the Blessed Holy Spirit!
The Nature and Work of Jesus
“You are my Son, today I have begotten You.” (Heb. 1:5)
According to the book of Hebrews, God spoke to mankind through His only
Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, through Whom the worlds were made. Jesus
is not only the image of the Father, He is the actual glory of
God in human form. Everything that the Father is, Jesus personified
for us. He gave His human life as an atonement for all humankind’s
sins. After sacrificing Himself on the cross, and because of His
sacrifice, Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father — He is
the heir of God the Father. He is, therefore, higher than the angels
because of His eternal Sonship.
Hebrews contains numerous Old Testament references to the Son’s eternal
Being or Personhood. Jesus was more than a mere prophet, He was God
in the flesh (Hebrews 1). He is the Captain of our salvation. He
lived, suffered, and died and He has shown us the path that we must
follow in order to reach our heavenly Father. Jesus overcame our
greatest enemies, the devil and death (Hebrews 2).
The book of I John tells us exactly who Jesus is and what the nature of
His work was. “That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon, and our hands have handled . . .” (1:1) Jesus was a real
flesh and blood person. John knew Him, lived with Him, ate with Him,
prayed with Him. John tells us that if we will walk in the Way of
the Light that we will have fellowship with Him.
The shed blood of Christ on the cross cleanses everyone (who claims it)
from their sins (1:5-7). Jesus made amends for us, He is our
compensation, our Redeemer, He is the propitiation for our sins
(2:2). The only way that Christ could achieve this was to be fully
human and also be sinless — and, praise God, He was! (3:5). Because
of His sinlessness, He was able to overcome the work of the enemy.
“For this purpose was the Son of God manifest, that He might
destroy the works of the devil.” (3:8)
We are admonished by John not to believe every spirit, but to check out
whether or not they are holy and from God. “By this you know
the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess .
. . is not of God,” but rather, the spirit of the antichrist
(4:1-3). This is very plain, and a very simple way to determine
whether or not a person or group is really Christian. Also, there
must be the confession that Jesus Christ is the only way to
heaven (5:11-12).
In the Book of Revelation, John saw “One like the Son of Man”
who stated, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the
Last . . . I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive
forevermore.” (1:11, 13, 17-18) In chapter 5 of Revelation,
John saw a scroll in God’s hand and he wept because he thought
that there was no one who was worthy to open the scroll. An elder
tells him not to weep because “The Lion of Judah, the root of
David, has prevailed to open the scroll . . .” These names are
titles for Jesus and the word “prevailed” here is making
reference to His death and resurrection — He prevailed over death
and the grave — on behalf of all of the redeemed. The fact that the
Father is giving the scroll to Jesus to open shows that Christ has
been given the power and the right to judge the earth because
of His sacrificial death on the cross. Also, the angels, living
creatures, and the elders (tens thousand times ten thousand of them!)
all worshipped Jesus and proclaimed that He was indeed worthy to be
praised. (5:1-14)
As long as a person believes that the Bible is true, these scriptures
make the person and the work of Jesus Christ very clear. However,
without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, these things can be hidden
from the eyes, hearts, and minds of some people.
1
“He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was
despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by
God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, He
was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was
upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. “All we like
sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers
is silent, so He opened not His mouth . . . And He bore the sin of
many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” vv 3 – 7,
12
2
” . . . Who, being in the form of God, did not consider
it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation,
taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and
became obedient tot he point of death, even the death of the cross.”
Phil. 2:5-8
by Susan Renier