pastorway: Who is Jesus?

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Daily Scripture Reading - Matthew 1

Puritan Catechism
Question #16 - Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
Answer - The fall brought mankind into a state of sin and misery (Rom. 5:18).

Devotional Thoughts

We saw in the last devotional that Jesus Christ is to be the OBJECT of our faith. We, in order to be saved, must believe in Jesus. We must place our trust in Him. If we are to do that, we need to know Who Jesus is! This then is a basic introduction and reminder for us about Who this Jesus is.

(Verses to support these statements will be included in the links provided for further study.)

Who is Jesus?

Jesus is identified by many names and titles in Scripture, including the Word, the Way, the Messiah (Christ), the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Truth, Immanuel (God with us), the Savior, the Redeemer, the Lord, the Life, the Lamb of God, the Mediator between God and men, and others. So let us see what a few of these names and titles tell us about Who He is.

Immanuel - God with Us

Jesus is God. That is where we must start as we look at Who He is. Contrary to liberal and non-Trinitarian claims, Jesus absolutely identified Himself to His disciples and to the crowds to which He preached as God in human flesh.

We understand that the Bible presents us with the doctrine of the Trinity, and while the word trinity never occurs in the Scripture we do know that it is a good word used to explain the truth that Scripture clearly presents. The One Almighty Living God exists as Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As such, Jesus is the Second Person of the Trinity.

Second London Confession on God:
1. The Lord our God is the one and only living and true God; Whose subsistence is in and of Himself
- Who is infinite in being and perfection; Whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself;
- Who is a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions
- Who only has immortality
- Who dwells in the light which no man can approach, Who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, in every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute;
- Who works all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory;
- Who is most loving, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;
- Who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin;
- Who is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him;
- and Who, at the same time, is most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin and Who will by no means clear the guilty.
2. God, having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and from Himself, is unique in being all- sufficient, both in Himself and to Himself, not standing in need of any creature which He has made, nor deriving any glory from such.
- On the contrary, it is God Who manifests His own glory in them, through them, to them and upon them. He is the only fountain of all being; from Whom, through Whom, and to Whom all things exist and move.
- He has completely sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do through them, for them, or to them whatever He pleases.
- In His sight all things are open and manifest; His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and not dependant on the creature.
- Therefore, nothing is for Him contingent or uncertain.
- He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands.
- To Him is due from angels and men whatever worship, service, or obedience, they owe as creatures to the Creator, and whatever else He is pleased to require from them.
3. In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and the Holy Spirit. All are one in substance, power, and eternity; each having the whole divine essence, yet this essence being undivided.
The Father was not derived from any other being; He was neither brought into being by, nor did He issue from any other being.
- The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.
- The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
- All three are infinite, without beginning, and are therefore only one God, Who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties, and also their personal relations.
- This doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and our comfortable dependence on Him.

In God's plan of redemption, it is Jesus who came to be born as a man through the virgin Mary. He had no earthly father in the sense of genetics or conception. God is His Father. Being born of a virgin, He has not inherited the sin nature and the curse upon all mankind descending by natural means from Adam. He is thus fully human yet without a sinful fallen nature.

Jesus then is truly God in human flesh, Immanuel, God with us. He became a man in order to pay the penalty for mankind - we are conceived sinners, born sinners, and will die sinners, and the wages of sin is death. So Jesus came to be a man and therefore pay man's penalty - death.

As fully God and as fully man at the same time, Jesus is One Person but has two natures. Therefore He was tempted as we all are, yet He did not sin. This allowed Him to serve as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He did not die for His own sin, but for ours. As since He was righteous and sinless, He gave to us His obedience while taking the penalty for our sin upon Himself. What a glorious transaction this is!!

So we start by understanding that the Bible plainly tells us that Jesus is God.

Son of God

By using this term to describe Himself, Jesus was saying to his audience that He was equal with God. In other words, He was God. So as we have already seen the Bible establish, He is God, fully divine. He chose to limit His divinity while incarnate as a man, but is nonetheless still fully God and fully man.

When He used this title the crowd on one occassion they took up stones to stone Him for blasphemy - the crime of claiming to be God - punishable by death. When He was crucified it was because the religious leaders accused Him of making Himself to be God.

Son of Man

This was Jesus' favorite name for Himself. He used it to describe Himself more than any other name or title, using it 83 times in the Gospels. What does it mean to be the Son of Man? It is a title that only the Messiah could claim (Dan. 7:13-14). This title specifically speaks about His suffering as a man. Suffering hunger and thirst, tiredness (physical needs), pain, torment, and eventually death on the cross. It speaks of how He had to humble Himself to become a man in order to be our substitute upon the cross.

The Lord

Jesus is Lord. We do not make Him Lord. We do not crown Him King. He is Lord. This is the plain testimony of Scripture. Jesus is Lord (master) over all of Creation. As such we are His slaves, purchased with His blood, and we owe Him perfect obedience and love and honor! At that final day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess what is true - Jesus Christ is Lord. But only those who confess it NOW, in this life, will have the hope of salvation in the life to come.

Messiah - the Christ

The term Messiah means literally the "annointed one" and is translated as Christ in teh New Testament. He is the Messiah, the one appointed and annointed to save His people. He is the One who was promised all through the Old Testament. In fact, the OT points to Christ, showing us in shadows and types Who this Messiah would be and what He would accomplish. The crowd on the day of the Triumphal Entry professed that He was the Messiah! And a few days later that same crowd cried out "Crucify Him!"

Redeemer

Jesus as the Redeemer has paid the price to buy us for Himself. Many have stated that He paid the devil, but this is not true. If we examine the Scriptures we understand that God does not owe the devil anything. The question must be asked, what did Jesus save us from? As we have discussed here before, Jesus saved us from sin, self, death and hell - but above all, He saved us from God! Yes, it's true. He suffered the wrath of God for our sin. Wrath that we would have suffered had He not died for us! Wrath that the lost man will bear for eternity if he dies without trusting Christ. So Jesus redeemed us, He paid the price God's justice, holiness and wrath demanded! He bought us and we are His.

Savior

Jesus is our Savior. He has saved us from our sin. He has offered Himself once for all as the sacrifice that the Father's holiness and justice demanded and He has become our Savior. In fact, as we study later why Jesus came, we will examine the fact that He came to "seek and save that which was lost." He has SAVED us from sin, self, death, and judgment. We could not save ourselves, so He saved us!

Mediator

Jesus also is the Mediator of the New Covenant, the Covenant in His shed blood. He is the only Mediator between God and men - the only One who could stand between the two and make peace with the sacrifice of Himself. He intercedes for those for whom He has died. He Mediates the Covenant of God's Everlasting Grace. Where we would have stood on our own condemned to death for our sin, He now stands as a substitute, giving His own life to atone for ours and presenting that to God the Judge, who declares us right with Him (justified) when we trust Christ to save us.

Prophet, Priest, and King

Jesus is a prophet, declaring to us the Word of God as He presents Himself to us, the very living Word of God. Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, a new and everlasting High Priest who offered Himself as the supreme sacrifice for His people in order to reconcile them to God. And He is the King of Kings, the ruler of all Creation, in Whom the whole world and creation consists! He is above all and everything was created by Him for His good pleasure.

Rabbi

The disciples referred to Jesus as "Rabbi", a phrase which means teacher. They were His "disciples", learners or followers. He was the teacher. Thus He teaches us from the Word about our need for Him and our only hope of salvation.

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Jesus is the only Way to God. The early church in fact was known as "those of the Way." I kinda wish that had stuck! He is also the Truth. God cannot lie, there is no deceit in Him, He is light, pure, holy, spotless, and immutable. He is also the Life. To know Him is to have eternal life. Without Him there exists but death and judgment. With Him there is life eternal.

Confessing our Faith

The Confession of Faith states this in summary about Jesus, telling us Who He is:

1. It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, in accordance with the covenant made between them both, to be the Mediator between God and man; to be Prophet, Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of His Church, the Heir of all things, and the Judge of all the world. To the Lord Jesus He gave, from all eternity, a people to be His seed. These, in time, would be redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified by the Lord Jesus.

2. The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being true and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of the same substance and equal with Him;

- Who made the world, and Who upholds and governs all things which He has made,

- did, when the fullness of time had come, take upon Himself man's nature, with all its essential properties and common infirmities, with the exception of sin.

- He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, so that He was born to a woman from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Abraham and David, in accordance with the Scriptures.

- Thus two whole, perfect and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion;

- So that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man, yet He is one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.

3. The Lord Jesus, His human nature thus united to the divine, once in the person of the Son, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure, having in Himself all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell in Him so that, being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, He might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a Mediator and Surety, a position and duty which He did not take upon Himself, but was called to perform by His Father. And the Father also put all power and judgment in His hand, and gave Him commandment to exercise the same.

4. This office and duty of Mediator and Surety the Lord Jesus undertook most willingly. To discharge it, He was made under the law, and perfectly fulfilled it, and He underwent the punishment due to us, which we should have borne and suffered. He was made sin and was made a curse for us; enduring the most grievous sorrows in His Soul with the most painful sufferings in His duty. He was crucified, and died, and remained in the state of the dead, but His body did not undergo any decomposition. On the third day He rose from the dead with the same body in which He had suffered, with which He also ascended into Heaven, and there sits at the right hand of His Father making intercession, and shall return to judge men and angels at the end of the world.

5. The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself which He, through the eternal Spirit, once offered up to God, has fully satisfied the justice of God, has procured reconciliation, and has purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of Heaven for all those whom the Father has given to Him.

6. Although the price of redemption was not actually paid by Christ until after His incarnation yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit arising from His payment were communicated to the elect in all ages from the beginning of the world through those promises, types, and sacrifices in which He was revealed and signified as the seed which should bruise the serpent's head, and also the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, for He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

7. Christ, in His work of Mediator, acts according to both natures, each nature doing that which is proper to itself. Yet, because of the unity of His person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.

8. To all those for whom Christ has obtained eternal redemption, He certainly and effectually applies and communicates this redemption, making intercession for them, uniting them to Himself by His Spirit, revealing to them in the Word and by the Word the mystery of salvation. He persuades them to believe and obey, governing their hearts by His Word and Spirit, and overcome all their enemies by His almighty power and wisdom. This is achieved in such a manner and by such ways as are most consonant to His wonderful and unsearchable dispensation, and it is all by free and absolute grace, without any condition foreseen in them to procure it.

9. This office of Mediator between God and man is proper only to Christ, Who is the Prophet, Priest, and King of the Church. Free Will of God, and this office may not be transferred from Him to any other, either in whole or in part.

10. This number and order of offices is essential. Because of our ignorance we need His prophetic office. Because of our alienation from God and the imperfection of the best of our service, we need His priestly office to reconcile us and present us to God as acceptable. Because of our aversion to, and utter inability to return to God, and for our rescue and keeping from spiritual enemies, we need His kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and preserve us until we reach His heavenly kingdom.

And the Chalcedonian Creed of A.D. 451 affirms:

We then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers handed down to us.

Links for Further Study
This week I will be providing links that you can use to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time!

Who Do You Think I Am?
Charles Spurgeon on Jesus Our Lord
Charles Hodge on The Divinity of Christ
The Monergism.com page on Christology
The First (1646) and Second (1689)London Baptist Confession of Faith

Bible Reading For Further Study