Who was Jesus?
“And you are to give him the name JESUS; because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21, capitalization added). Thus the angel of the Lord informs Joseph about Jesus, His name and His mission. Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name “Joshua” meaning “Jehovah is salvation.” Jesus means “Savior,” aptly describing His work of saving men from their sins (Luke 19:10).
The title Christ or Messiah means “anointed one.” It designates Jesus as the fulfilment of the Messianic hopes of the Jews in the Old Testament. The name Jesus Christ means that He is the Messiah who came to earth to save lost mankind.
I. Jesus, the Son of God
The logical question that follows is, Who is this Jesus, this Messiah? Many answers have been given. Some of the Jews thought Him to be Mary and Joseph’s son (Mark 6:3; Matt. 13:55). Others called Him a “deceiver” (Matt. 27:63). Still others thought Him to be a prophet (John 6:14). Some people today say that He is just a man except that He lived a better life than other men.
What does the Bible say? What did Jesus say? What did the apostles who knew Him best say?
JOHN THE BAPTIZER SAID JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34).
MARK SAID JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1).
PETER SAID JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ ” (Matt. 16:16).
PAUL SAID JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4).
THE ANGEL GABRIEL SAID JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. “… the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
THE DEMONS SAID JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. “What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God …?” (Matt. 8:29, KJV).
JESUS SAID HE WAS THE SON OF GOD. “Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ ‘I am,’ said Jesus” (Mark 14:61–62a; cf. Matt. 26:64; John 10:36).
The crowning testimony came from the FATHER who said: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17, NASB; cf. Matt. 17:5).
Divine powers and honours ascribed to Jesus. In addition to the above testimony to Christ’s deity, He is said to possess powers and honours that belong only to Deity.
1. Christ has the power to create. Throughout the Bible, the power to create is attributed to God (Gen. 1:1; Isa. 48:12–13). Yet in many passages of Scripture, the same power is ascribed to Jesus (John 1:1–3; Eph. 3:8–11; Col. 1:16–17).
2. Christ has the power to forgive sins. This is an exclusive power of God. Yet in Luke 5:20–25, Jesus states that He has the power to forgive sins and demonstrates it by healing the paralytic.
3. Christ is a proper object of worship. God alone is to be worshipped. Nevertheless, this honour is given to Jesus by the Father. “Moreover, the Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him” (John 5:22–23).
These powers and honours are Christ’s because He is “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father …” (John 1:18, ASV). When Jesus spoke to the people about God, He never used the term “Our Father.” He never classed Himself with other men to indicate equality. (In Matthew 6:9 Jesus uses the term “Our Father,” but this was in giving a prayer for the disciples to pray.)
Jesus is not a mere man. He is the only begotten Son of God. He came to earth and lived as a man for a few years. But He is and always has been in a unique sense—God’s Son.
II. Titles that Indicate His Work and Position
One man has said that he counted two hundred and fifty-four different titles for Jesus in the Bible. A diamond has many facets, yet each one will reflect some new and beautiful side of the gem. Like a diamond, one may look at Jesus from any angle or facet of His life and see some new beauty reflecting His greatness and love for man.
A. Jesus, Our Savior. Webster defines Savior as “one who saves or delivers.” This facet of Jesus’ life perhaps shines the brightest of all.
The angel told Joseph, “You are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The angel of the Lord told the shepherds on the Judean hillside, “there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11, ASV). Jesus summarized concisely His mission to earth when He said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Romans 5:6–8 states that while the man was weak, unable to save himself; while he was a sinner not deserving salvation, by the grace and love of God, Christ died to save Him. First Peter 1:18–19 relates that man has been redeemed, bought back and rescued from slavery not with silver or gold, “But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
Willis R. Hotchkiss, a missionary to Africa, searched for many months for a native word that would express the idea of a Savior. One day there was a great commotion in the village. When Mr Hotchkiss joined the crowd assembled in the square, he found a native, torn and bleeding. He was excitedly telling of his escape from the claws of a tiger. He used a word to describe the one who had saved him.
Immediately Mr Hotchkiss wrote this word down. The next Sunday he preached about Jesus as Savior and used this word. As the people crowded around him after the service, they said, “Now we understand that Jesus died to save us from sin and Satan. That’s what you’ve been trying to tell us for so many moons.”
Mr Hotchkiss says, “I have dwelt four years practically alone in Africa. I’ve been 30 times stricken with the fever, three times attacked by lions and several times by rhinoceroses; a number of times ambushed by the natives; for fourteen months I never saw a piece of bread. But let me say to you, I would gladly go through the whole thing again if I could have the joy of again bringing that word ‘Savior’ and flashing it into the darkness that enveloped another tribe in Central Africa.”
Many false religions offer their followers some hope of salvation through abuse of the body and personal torture. Others by keeping certain moral maxims. Even then the hope is faint. The grand assurance of Christianity is that God in His love toward man saved us, not by works of righteousness which we do, “but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:5–6, ASV).
Christianity alone has a Savior! One more reason why we believe it to be the only true religion.
B. Jesus, Our Lord. No term is more expressive of the faith of the early believers than the term “Lord.” Peter proclaimed on Pentecost that the Jews had crucified Jesus but that God had made Him both LORD and Christ” (Acts 2:36, emphasis added). In Acts 10:36, Peter says He is the “Lord of all.”
Paul declares that we are to confess with the mouth “Jesus is LORD” (Rom. 10:9). The believer confesses Jesus as his Savior, as his Messiah or Christ, but especially as his Lord!! In Philippians 2:9–11, Paul explains that “God exalted him [Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father”!
The term “Lord” indicates the sovereignty of Christ over His followers—the church (Col. 1:18). He is the Master, the Christian is His servant. The term “Savior” indicates what Christ has done and is doing for the believer. The term “Lord” reflects what the believer should DO for Christ his Savior. Many people love to read and hear of what Jesus has done for them. But often they are unconcerned about what Christ expects and requires of them in return. If Christ is not Lord of all, He will not be our Lord at all! Jesus said, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). This facet of our relationship with Jesus needs emphasizing today.
C. Jesus, Our Mediator. The term “mediator” suggests one that is a “go-between” for two parties. It implies that the two parties are hostile to or at variance with each other and this mediator is endeavouring to bring them into harmony and agreement. The Scriptures teach that a man in sin is at enmity with God, alienated from Him, without hope.
Christ came and died that He might make peace between God and man, whether Jew or Gentile, “and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Eph. 2:16).
Christ died on the cross in order to remove the great barrier between God and man—SIN. By accepting Jesus’ offered forgiveness through the Gospel, a man may be reconciled and be at one with God.
Christ alone was qualified to remove this barrier since He alone was without sin. No one could die for another’s sins, while he had sins of his own. It is also true that Jesus alone can be a Mediator between God and man. Paul says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5, emphasis added). Jesus states, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, emphasis added).
A mediator should have knowledge of both sides and be concerned for the welfare of each party. Jesus “existing in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6, ASV) before He came to earth fully understood God’s side. He came to earth so that He might know and understand man’s side. (Read Heb. 2:17–18; 4:15–16.)
Now He is the perfect and only Mediator between God and man.
D. Jesus, Our Prophet. When the work of Jesus is viewed in its broad sweep it divides itself generally into three offices which He fulfils—prophet, priest, and king.
The prophet in the Old Testament was a man who spoke forth for God. Amos said he was not a prophet by training, or the son of one, but was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees. But “Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now, therefore, hear thou the word of Jehovah (Amos 7:14–16, ASV, emphasis added). The prophets were foretellers, speaking God’s message for the present time and need. They were also foretellers, predicting events yet to come.
The Old Testament points unmistakably to one great prophet who would come to be God’s spokesman on earth. In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses revealed that “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” Peter informs us that this prophet was Jesus (Acts 3:19–26).
Hebrews 1:1–2 states that God had in other times communicated His message to man through many channels, but “in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” Jesus came to be the divine Teacher and revealer of God’s will for man.
As God’s prophet, Jesus spoke authoritatively so that the people might know that He spoke for God. “The multitudes were astonished at His teaching: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28–29, ASV). Yet He spoke simply and clearly that all men might understand. “The common people heard Him gladly” (Mark 12:37b, KJV). All agreed, even His enemies, “Never man so spake!” (John 7:46, ASV).
The prophetic ministry of Jesus was carried on by the Holy Spirit whom He sent, after He returned to heaven. Jesus told His disciples the night before He died, “But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you” (John 14:26, ASV, emphasis added).
When we read the New Testament, we can accept it with faith and full assurance that it is God’s message for us. Jesus, God’s great prophet, has said, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me” (John 7:16). “I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence” (John 8:38).
E. Jesus, Our High Priest. A priest was a minister or leader of any religion, whether heathen (Acts 14:13) or Biblical (Matt. 8:4). The high priest was the leader among the priests. In Hebrews Jesus is referred to ten times as our High Priest. Christ is pictured as the True High Priest of which Aaron was a type. All Christians are priests (1 Pet. 2:9).
His duties as expressed in Hebrews 5:1 were: “Every high priest is selected from among men, and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” The function of the high priest under the Mosaic period was to lead in the Temple worship of Jehovah and to offer sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. Aaron, being human and therefore a sinful high priest, had to first offer a sacrifice for his own sins and that of his family (Lev. 16). Then he would a second time into the Holy of Holies, sprinkling blood on the Mercy Seat for the sins of Israel. By this act, the sins of Israel were rolled forward year by year until Christ should come, “The Lamb of God” to completely take away the sins of the people (Heb. 10:1–4).
1. Jesus was commissioned as the High Priest. In Hebrews 5:4–6, the writer records that Jesus was made a High Priest by God Himself: “No one takes this honour upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ And he says in another place, ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’ ”
David had known this and stated it in Psalm 110:4. We have already stated that Jesus is our Prophet, High Priest, and King. It is interesting to note that Jesus is not a High Priest after the order of Aaron. Aaron was from the tribe of Levi—the priestly tribe. The New Testament writers make much of the fact that Jesus was “of the house and lineage of David” (Luke 2:4; cf. Mark 11:10; Matt. 21:9). How could Jesus be a High Priest and come from the tribe of Judah which was the kingly tribe? The answer is to be found in the fact that Jesus is a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 6:20; 7:15–17). Melchizedek was the superior of Abraham and both King of Salem and Priest of God Most High (Heb. 7:1–4).
2. His Preparation. Jesus’ preparation or training to be our great High Priest began when He left the glories of Heaven and came to earth to become one with those He represents (Phil. 2:5–8).
Hebrews 2:14 reveals that Jesus was a partaker or sharer in “flesh and blood” in the same manner that we are. In Hebrews 4:15, His preparation continues as He is tempted in all points just as we are and yet without sin. A part of His training for this great office is seen in Hebrews 5:8 where we read that He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, thus being made perfect or complete as our High Priest. In order to properly mediate between God and Man, Jesus had “to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 2:17, 18).
Apart from having sinned, there is nothing in human experience that is unknown to Him. Today as our faithful and merciful High Priest, He ministers before God on behalf of His people who are compassed by sin and infirmity (Heb. 4:15–16; Rom. 8:33–34).
3. His Offering. When Aaron made atonement for the sins of Israel under the Old Covenant, he used the blood of bulls and goats for a sacrifice. But when Jesus our High Priest offered His sacrifice to God, He offered Himself (Heb. 9:11–12). “When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but by his own blood, he entered the Most Holy Place once for all having obtained eternal redemption.”
From the Scriptures we note these facts:
a. The Tabernacle in which Christ offered His sacrifice was not a tent in the wilderness or a Temple in Jerusalem. The Atonement was made not in the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem but in Heaven itself before the presence of God (Heb. 9:24).
b. His altar of sacrifice was not the brazen one in the Temple court, but a rude cross on Golgotha’s Hill.
c. His sacrifice was not the blood of goats and calves but rather His own “precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Pet. 1:19). He is the sacrifice and the sacrificer (John 10:17–18).
d. The effect of His sacrifice. The effect of Aaron’s sacrifice on the Day of Atonement merely made a remembrance year by year—it did not take away sin (Heb. 10:4).
However, when Jesus offered His sacrifice, He did not need to offer Himself year by year, or he “would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26, emphasis added). Jesus offered once and for all the perfect sacrifice that brought to an end animal sacrifice and put away sin forever, having made possible eternal redemption through His blood.
F. Jesus, Our King
1. Jesus was predicted to be a king. The third great office of Christ, that of being King, was prophesied by Jeremiah, “ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land” (Jer. 23:5; cf. Zech. 6:13).
His kingship came from God but through the lineage of King David. Gabriel tells Mary, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32). God had promised David that one would come from his seed that would establish a kingdom that would last forever (2 Sam. 7:12–13). This is fulfilled in Jesus.
2. Christ claimed to be a King. After His baptism, He began preaching that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. In Matthew 16:28, Jesus predicted, “some who are standing here will not taste of death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” When Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He said, “Yes, it is as you say” (Luke 23:3).
3. Nature of His kingdom. Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world. In John 18:36 Jesus informs Pilate “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
Jesus’ kingdom is a spiritual kingdom (cf. Rom. 14:17; Heb. 1:8, 9). Christ is indeed a King. He is the King of truth; King of salvation; King of peace; King of righteousness. His rule is over the hearts of men for the great purpose of saving their souls.
4. The length of His rule. Gabriel told Mary, “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:33). Peter urges all Christians to be diligent in making their calling and election sure. “… you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:11). Christ is in His mediatorial reign now as He seeks to redeem lost mankind. He shall continue to reign in eternity. Then we shall see the many diadems upon His head, and shall know that He is truly “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Rev. 19:12, 16).
Sizemore, D. (1987). 13 Lessons on Christian Doctrine (pp. 22–34). College Press Publishing Company.
