Who is Jesus, really?

Jesus is called God in the Bible in numerous places. In fact, in many places He Himself claims to be God. Here are just a few: Colossians 1:9-23, 2:9; John 1:1-3; John 10:30; Titus 2:13; 1 John 5:20; and John 20:28. Yet, here is the amazing part: Jesus wasn’t just a disembodied spirit hovering around, but actually became a man and walked among us (John 1:14)! He went through all the growing pains we’ve gone through (Luke 2:52), and has even experienced the same temptations we have, yet He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). This means that Jesus is both God and Man! This means that He is the supreme Being in all the universe, its Creator and Sustainer, yet He can fully identify with us! He is 100% Man and 100% God, a mystery that we can’t fully comprehend. But why is this important?

Why do we need Jesus?

People think that they need Jesus because He will make them wealthy, healthy, and successful, like some kind of life coach or self-improvement guru. Despite what you may have heard, Jesus doesn’t actually promise those things. You actually have a bigger problem than a low bank account or less than optimal health. Your biggest problem is that you are a sinner!

What does it mean to be a sinner? What is sin? Well, sin is breaking God’s law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). Here is where we find out things we all do like lying, stealing, and even coveting (really wanting stuff we don’t have so bad it takes up all our thoughts) are serious offenses against God Himself. Jesus Himself preached on these commandments, and He tells us that even the ones we think we haven’t committed like adultery or murder can actually be committed in our minds as lust and hate (Matthew 5:21-30)! The Ten Commandments go all the way down to our heart level. What is more concerning still is that God doesn’t grade on a curve. It isn’t enough to just be better than other people. The standard for pleasing God is perfection (Matthew 5:48). Even if you only broke one commandment in your entire life, you’ve still broken the law in its entirety (James 2:10).

The penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23a), and it isn’t just physical death. Revelation 21:8 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 make clear that those who have sinned in a variety of ways (even as “little” as lying) will end up in hell forever. Jesus Himself says this, too, in Mark 9:44-48 and other places. We are all in this same boat as the Bible makes very clear (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 53:6, and Psalm 14:1). None of us, if we are honest, can say that we are without sin (1 John 1:8).

What did Jesus do?

So far, we have found out that Jesus is God Himself yet fully Man, and we are all sinners in His sight who deserve to be punished in hell forever. If that is where the story stopped, this would be a very depressing message. But the story doesn’t stop there! Jesus came to Earth to do something amazing!

Jesus lived as one of us not just to experience a human life, but He was living the perfect human life. He lived the way that God wants us to, never doing anything bad and always doing everything good. But Jesus did more than that.

Jesus not only lived the life we should have lived, but He went to the cross to die the death that we should have died. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and Jesus paid those wages. He was buried, and then three days later rose up from the grave! He paid off all the sin, so death had no more claim on Him!

How do we respond?

This is really good news, because that means you can have your sin debt paid off, too! The way you can have that happen is to simply put your faith in Jesus! What does that mean? Well, instead of trusting in yourself to be good enough to go to heaven (we’ve all failed on that already), you admit that you are such a sinner there is no way you get to heaven on your own. Then talk to God (you can do that right now!), tell Him that you need Him, and start trusting in Jesus and Jesus alone. You will turn from yourself and your sin to Jesus. In doing that, you will be united to Jesus! He will give Himself to you, His goodness, His record of perfection, and in exchange, He will take all of your sin onto Himself. You will be completely clean and perfectly good in God’s sight so that when you die, God will see your life as perfect and welcome you into heaven.

Does that mean that you will actually be perfect on earth from now on? No! Christians still sin and are far from perfect, but once you are united to Jesus, you will start the turn away from your sin. Those things that God said not to do, you’ll actually start wanting to avoid them and start wanting to do the things He says. This is called repentance, a fancy word that means turning from your sin. It will be a life-long process that starts the moment you trust Jesus and will be filled with ups and downs. Ultimately, it will be heading more and more towards living a righteous life. Being perfect in this is not how you get to heaven. Jesus is taking you to heaven. It is kind of like Jesus gives you His sweater of goodness. It covers you completely, but it doesn’t fit—it’s too big! But you will grow into it more and more. It will only completely fit once you get to heaven!

How will you respond?

Now you know Who Jesus is, but what are you going to do about it? You never know how long you have to live, so get right with God today!