| Who Is Jesus Christ? God has three different ways of revealing Himself to us. Sometimes He portrays Himself as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as Holy Spirit. There is only one God Who has three Personalities with distinct purposes and work in complete harmony with each other. That this is beyond our ability to fully understand is not reason to reject this revelation, but we must try to understand as much as we can of what God has revealed to us. The Father is revealed as the personal God of creation. The Father is God. God is Father. What is important about the Father's revelation of Himself, however, is that He made our relationship to Him dependent on our relationship to His only Son. The New Testament writers repeatedly refer to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. The New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is the "only," the unique Son of God (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9). The Scriptures portray Christ as sharing the glory of a jealous God who, through Moses, insisted that no one deserved to be worshiped but God Himself. This God shares His love with angels and mortals. But with Christ the Son, He shares His glory. Jesus' words tell us that He definitely claimed to be God. In (John 8:58) we find Christ's claim that He never had a beginning. Jesus declared that His own existence transcends time. He has always existed. He has no beginning. Christ's claim that He is God can be found in (John 10:30). All our problems began when our first parents willfully and disobediently ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that time on, the children of Adam were born physically alive but spiritually dead. Once created to walk with God, man has inherited a nature that causes him to forget God, to hate his fellowmen, and to live a life of self-destruction. When Adam followed the way of the serpent, he didn't just hurt himself. When he ate of that tree in defiance of his Maker, spiritual and physical death fell upon all men. We are born into this world spiritually dead. We are born separated from God. We are born into a world of physical and spiritual death, and unless something happens, we will live out our lives in rebellion against God. When Adam and Eve sinned, God could have struck them dead instantly. And He would have been just in doing so, because His holy nature demands that disobedience be punished by death. Yet, because God is love, He did not strike our first parents dead. Instead, He sought them out, provided them with a covering of animal skins, and gave to them a wonderful promise (Gen. 3:15). At that point God announced the good news. Yes, the good news is that God Himself resolved the dilemma--His holiness is counter-balanced by His love! Love found a way. Love found another tree, the cross (Rom. 5:6). God in His wisdom provided a way to undo the terrible damage done to man at that first tree. There are two principles of resolution that ended the dilemma caused by our sin and helplessness and God's holiness and love: (1) the principle of adequate sacrifice, and (2) the principle of necessary substitution. There can be no forgiveness without a sacrificial death (Heb. 9:22). Through His death on the cross, Jesus Christ presented to God a Sacrifice sufficient to pay for the sins of all mankind. The Old Testament sacrifices had to be offered every day. Furthermore, those sacrifices were only for sins committed involuntarily, in ignorance, or through human weakness (Lev. 4:2-7). A sacrifice could not be given for a premeditated, deliberate sin in Old Testament days. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by His death on the cross provided a once-for-all Sacrifice for all our sins (Heb. 10:12). He was the complete and perfect Sacrifice. It satisfied every demand of a Holy God, an it brings salvation to all who trust in Christ. His sacrifice of Himself was adequate for several reasons: 1) He became a member of the human family. He could truly represent us (something no angel could do) because He took to Himself a human nature. 2) He lived a sinless life. Confronted by physical, mental, and spiritual temptation, Jesus did not sin (Heb. 4:15). Therefore, when He died, He did so as a perfect human being. Because He did not sin, He could die for our sins. 3) He remained God. Even though Christ became fully human, He also retained His full Deity. He was not half God and half man; He was fully God and fully man. His goodness is what gave His sacrifice infinite value, making it adequate to pay for the sins of all mankind. Jesus' death on the cross, provided a necessary substitute for the death we deserve to die, for our own sins. Jesus had substitution in mind when He told His followers that He would give His life as a "ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). When Christ made this statement He was planning to give His life in exchange for our legal release from sin and guilt. He died the death all of us should have died, taking the punishment we deserved. That's what Jesus did for us. In love He became our substitute and died in our place. He overcame our inability to save ourselves by paying the price for our sins. Why do you want to go to hell for all eternity? Your soul is immortal! That is Who Jesus Christ is to us all. Believe!!! |