Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? Most historians agree that Jesus, the man, lived and taught 2000 years ago. Jesus is part of the trinity, our Lord and our savior. The word Christians means to become more Christ like. We can’t do that unless we know who Christ was. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. Breaking that up into two parts we know Jesus was hungry, cried, slept, felt pain, and bled. He suffered from the human condition and knew what it was like to be fully human.

After His baptism Jesus was tempted by the devil. As a man His flesh would have wanted to give in to the temptations. To turn the rocks into bread to feed his hungry body, to be rescued from the consequences of life, and to skip the pains of development and go right to being worshipped. These temptations Jesus would turn into miracles later on, but He would do it in the service of others and not to feed His own needs.

Jesus the man spent three years teaching his disciples to be like Him, so that they could relay those teachings to us. Some of those teachings included to love and pray for your enemies (Matthew 5:43–44), to not judge people too harshly or unfairly (Matthew 7:1), to correct those who disrespect God (John 2:15), to forgive others (Matthew 6:14), and many more. The purpose of Jesus was to save us from sin and to help us develop our relationship with God. Both are equally important to Him, Jesus teaches us that how we act after accepting Him as our savior is just as important to our salvation as the act of accepting Him (Matthew 7:21-23).

From the beginning of time in Genesis God has been trying to guide man. Human beings have been ignoring what the Lord has been telling them. In Genesis he tells Adam and Eve that the garden will provide them with everything they need, but do not eat the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the center of the garden. God tells Abraham to trust Him, that He will provide Abraham and Sarah with a child. God tells the nation of Israel not to worship false idols. God is so separate from man that His words are disregarded. So the Bible culminates with God becoming flesh and giving His instructions from man’s level. Jesus is God providing His instructions to man at his level.

Jesus becoming flesh and blood gave man the opportunity to learn how to have a relationship with God, as a child they would have a relationship with their father. Jesus came to Earth to teach us, he was subjected to the worst of tortures, being separated and forsaken by God (Matthew 27:46), being without His glory (John 17:5), being ridiculed and besieged by those you were sent to save (John 18:22), and being betrayed by a close friend to your torture and ultimate death (Mark 14:10).

Imagine this, God Himself comes off His throne and lives in the flesh of a man. He endures all of this while being God.