Jesus

Who is Jesus? It is the central question. The crucial question. The all-defining question. The question every person must first find an answer to. Is He the One Who He claimed to be? Is He the Origin, the Bearer, and the Destiny of the universe? Or is He an impostor? In the first case, every person should embrace Him immediately. In the second case, His followers should be eradicated root and branch. He claimed to be eternal life, the eternal "I Am," the only way to God.

 

Strangely enough, few draw either conclusion. At Christmas, the world commemorates the birth of the Christ Child, who descended to us from heaven. But from January onward, everything returns to normal. Don't we know what pretensions the Christ Child had as an adult?

 

Is He God, revealed in the flesh, who died for our sins and rose again for our justification? Then every person should flee into His arms to escape eternal judgment. That this judgment is very real is evident from the enormous sacrifice He Himself made to save us from it. Apparently, it was necessary; otherwise, He would not have had to take that almost impossible path.

 

However, if He were merely a deceiver, then millions in this world are on the wrong track, wasting their time and energy and dragging others into their deception. Then the deception should be demonstrated once and for all.

 

Many propose a middle way as an escape between these two extremes: Jesus, like many other sages, was a great teacher, and we can learn much from Him: not to worry about tomorrow, to love our enemies, to treat others as we would like to be treated, and so on. But was that His intention? To show the world the right path with wise words?

 

Undoubtedly, He gave the world the opportunity to choose the right path. But the world was unwilling. "He was in the world, and the world knew Him not. He came to His own, and His own received Him not." It was precisely those who had all the information about his coming in their scriptures, the Jews, who rejected him and had him executed by crucifixion.

 

Therefore, Jesus' message goes far beyond simply "the right path for the world." If Jesus' words contain any wisdom—and everyone who knows these words fully agrees about that—then Jesus convincingly demonstrated that the world is lost. The cross to which the world condemned Him means that the world itself has been judged and that no human being is capable of following "the right path."

 

But humanity's despicable act, which irrefutably demonstrated its total loss, was used by Him to save that same humanity, or at least, those who place their trust in him. And that last point is the core. The message of an incorrigibly evil world and a Creator Who descended to it to save it is unique to Christianity. Jesus is the core of that message.

 

Jesus compared Himself to “the stone the builders rejected” that “had become the cornerstone.” The rejected Jesus claims to be the foundation of something entirely new, which God has been building for two thousand years and of which everyone who believes in Him is a part.

 

Isn't it of great importance to discover whether Jesus and His message are truth or a lie?

 

Son of God

Anyone who searches the Gospels for words from Jesus in which He calls Himself the Son of God will only find them in very veiled terms. Even in the Gospel of John, which portrays Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus' declaration that He is the Son of God is extremely rare. Almost everywhere He calls Himself “Son of Man,” almost nowhere “Son of God.” What can we learn from this?

 

This shows us the character of God. He doesn't force Himself to the forefront. He doesn't demand attention. He doesn't lay it on thick. Any need for self-assertion is foreign to Him. Look at creation. Beautiful, perfectly balanced, and infinitely complex. But nowhere in creation is there a single signature, explicit proof, document, or unambiguous reference to the Maker. On the contrary, the universe seems to be designed to hide the very hand that made it. But looking at the endless ingenuity inherent in the universe, our solar system, and all nature on Earth, it is inevitable that the Architect of our universe possesses infinite powers. So it is with Jesus in the Gospels. Several times in the Gospel of John, we hear Him say that they must believe Him for the works He does, if they cannot take Him at His word.

Only a few realized this. Occasionally, we hear people draw the only possible conclusion. When Jesus asks His disciples who they say He is, He is given the answer, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets." When He then asks Peter who he says that Jesus is, then, for the one of the very few times in all the Gospels, Peter explicitly confesses: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Furthermore, Jesus only hints at Who He is with a simple question. When the rich young man comes to Jesus, calling Him: 'Good Master', Jesus answers: 'why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." In this answer, he left it to the rich young man to draw his conclusion.

 

In one of David's Psalms, David calls the Messiah, who would one day succeed him and occupy his throne forever, “Lord.” And then Jesus asks the religious elite of his day: “If David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be his Son?”

Ultimately, the religious elite seizes on this to have Him condemned to death on the cross. But Jesus never overtly makes these claims. When they ask Him in the final morning trial, “But are you the Son of God?” the answer is simply: “You said it.”

When the Roman centurion witnessed Jesus' death, the last loud cry coming from an emaciated body and the ensuing natural disaster, he says: “Truly, this man was the Son of God.” Jesus is none other than the essence of the universe, Who is, Who was, and Who is to come, from Whom, through Whom, and to Whom all things are. He left it up to us to draw that conclusion, with the words: 'Seek and you will find'.

God and Man

Mankind is the steward of God's creation. He received the commandment from God:

"Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth!" (Gen.1:28)

 

However, humanity quickly squandered everything. This happened because they placed their trust in the wrong party, the devil, who poses as an angel of light but, on the contrary, seeks the total destruction of humanity. For thousands of years, humanity has been in the grip of sin and death. Was there anyone who could deliver them from it?

 

Regarding the dominion of sin and death, the apostle Paul writes:

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." (Rom.5:12)

The consequences of humanity's wrong choice extend to all creation:

"For we know that the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now." (Rom.8:22)

Creation had to be redeemed and freed from all misery. Who could do this? Who is worthy to redeem creation from sin and death?

 

In the last book of the Bible, the question resounds:

"Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" (Rev.5:2)

The scroll is the deed of purchase for creation and the cleansing program of heaven and earth. No one in heaven, on earth, or under the earth is worthy to accomplish this task except the Lamb, who stands as slain in the midst of God's throne, the Lord Jesus. Only a human being could redeem humanity and creation, because it was a human being who had fallen into sin. But all the descendants of the first man, Adam, fell under the curse and slavery to which they had sold themselves in exchange for knowledge of good and evil. Someone had to come who was free from this curse, someone outside of Adam's line. That was only God, because God had created Adam. But it also had to be a human being, because it was humans who had transgressed.

 

Therefore, God became the Son of man and, as such, redeemed creation from all forms of slavery in which it was trapped. But God became human outside of Adam's line. The lineage of Jesus, running through Mary, ends with the following sequence:

"... the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God." (Luke 3:38)

Jesus was 'the seed of the woman'. (Gen.3:15) That makes Jesus truly man, ultimately coming from God. On the other hand the forming of Jesus in Mary's womb was announced thus:  “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

 

Jesus was holy, totally free from every burden of sin from any ancestry. He was God Himself, that had come in the flesh, as John puts it: 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us' (John 1:14). God redeems at the cost of himself. He does not use an angel but bears the consequences of humanity's choice by becoming human. These consequences, however, were unspeakable:

^'Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' (Rom.5:18,19)

 

The redemption that Jesus accomplished on the cross of Golgotha ​​is like the turning of an avalanche. An avalanche is triggered by a small movement high in the mountains. Thus, only one relatively small act was needed to push humanity and creation in the wrong direction: eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But in the valley, the avalanche has gained dizzying force and magnitude, and everyone who falls under it, is buried. The consequences of one wrong act extended to billions of people and to thousands of billions of wrong choices by all those people. The effort required to undo the unimaginable consequences of the Fall was immense. Jesus Christ made that effort, and everyone who places their trust in Him shares in the glorious results of his work.

 

"For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." (Rom.5:17)

 

Christmas

“ But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son…” (Gal.4:4)

Just as a ship is fully equipped, with all the cargo, all the gear, and all the manpower on board to set sail, so too was time complete and equipped for the Son of God to make the journey to earth. What is the profound meaning of Christmas?

 

The birth of Jesus Christ was for Him a “emptying,” a unique and unimaginable descent that had never before occurred in the history of creation and would never occur again:

“…JESUS ​​CHRIST, Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men…” (Phil.2:6,7)

This literally states that Jesus Christ was God and became Man, the greatest of all descents that has ever occurred. This happened in “the fullness of time.” The time was ripe for the fulfillment of everything written about Him. Many predictions from the beginning of creation had accumulated, and in His life as a Man, they would all come true.

The first prediction was that 'behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel' (Isa.7:14). Jesus was not the Son of Joseph. Only of Mary. That is why Joseph wanted to secretly reject her. They were engaged and had not yet had intercourse. Yet, she became pregnant. He knew the laws and was convinced that she had committed adultery. An angel had to be called to change his mind. Joseph believed the angel and was reassured of his fiance's integrity.

That the virgin would conceive had already been foretold 700 years before Christ by the prophet Isaiah. However, there is an even older birth announcement. Shortly after the Fall, God's judgment against the devil rings out: "...and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise its heel." (Gen.3:15)

The seed of the woman... The virgin Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus. Crushing the heel of the woman's seed required the completion of a centuries-old development in martyrdom: crucifixion. This torture was invented by the Assyrians or the Babylonians, more than 500 BC, and perfected by the Romans, who drove nails through the victim's wrists and heel. The only remnant of a crucifixion ever found bears clear testimony to this method of execution. It was when this hideous torture was "ready" to be unleashed upon the Son, who would become Man, that He began this descent:

"...And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil 2:8)

Only for this reason could the angel say: "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11) For this reason, shortly after His birth, His mother, Mary, was told: "a sword shall pierce through thy own soul." (Luke 2:35)

Meanwhile, this happened almost 2,000 years ago, and we await a new fullness of time. This time it is a "fullness of the times" (plural). It is a culmination toward which all previous times culminate:

"That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him" (Eph.1:10).

However, this will not happen without a struggle. It would take an entire book to explain how everything will be brought together under the authority of Jesus Christ. It is the Book of Revelation, in which the Lamb breaks seal after seal of the scroll to claim ownership of all things for himself based on his finished work on the cross.

Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
“Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”