In the last post, I provided basic biblical doctrine about God. To summarize:

1. There is one God who always was and always shall be.
2. He has given us revelation about Himself through His Word through the Apostles and the Prophets of the Bible.
3. God is the creator of the universe. All of its vast complexities, order, and beauty are his handiwork.
4. God has specific attributes that define His divinity and are unique to Him.  No other being has or ever will have these attributes: He is all powerful, and all knowing. He is eternally existent: he always has and always will exist.  He is perfectly pure and holy, there is not darkness at all within Him. He has never and will never change. He is far above all created beings. He is the ultimate source of truth and life.
5. God is revealed in three separate and distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person has the same essence and are equal in all divine attributes. While having the same divine essence, each person of the Trinity has a different, complimentary role directed at the same purpose.
6. God is compassionate and loving not wanting anyone to perish under his judgement but that all would come to repentance and salvation.
7. God is also Holy and perfectly just. He will judge the unrepentant and rebellious. That day is coming soon.
8. Because of God’s great love for people, He has provided a way for us to avoid judgement and also receive the free gift of eternal life. Receiving eternal life is our choice but only happens on God’s terms.

This post is the most important in the gospel series on this site. It is about the person of Jesus Christ and how through him alone, God offers salvation – eternal life in the Kingdom of God. The offer of eternal life is open and free to anyone, but it can only be received on God’s terms, not ours. His terms are simple: repent from sin and place your complete faith in Jesus Christ alone.

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:11-12

Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, the savior; the only way for people to be saved from the coming wrath of God. That said, we need to understand who he is from what is recorded in the scriptures.

Who is Jesus?

Jesus once asked his disciples about himself and received various responses about what people thought:

Then Jesus and his disciples went to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said, “John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.”

Mark 8:27-28

What do people today say about who Jesus is? A new age ascended master? A fable? An alien entity? I always thought it fascinating that nobody ever questions who the Buddha was. In fact, the gods of other religions are accepted without question. The world accepts them at face value for who they are declared to be.

It seems everyone has to weigh-in with their own opinions about who Jesus is and what he did. So, who is he? It’s an important question that needs the right answer with so much at stake. Interestingly, Jesus asked his disciples one more key question about himself:

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!

Matthew 16:15-17

Simon correctly identified Jesus as the Christ. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. “Christ” is a designation for the Messiah – the Anointed One; the promised savior. Jesus warned us that many would come with false claims to be the Messiah or God. Don’t believe them. Jesus is the Messiah and proved that fact through his miracles, his righteousness, his fulfillment of prophecy, and his resurrection from the dead.

Biblical doctrine indicates Messiah has a dual nature; he is both God and human. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah.

She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: “Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.”

Matthew 1:21-23

His Divinity

Jesus testifies about himself regarding His divinity.

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

John 10:27-30

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, before Abraham came into existence, I am!”

John 8:58

The Apostles testify about the divinity of Jesus:

In the beginning was the Word [John’s euphemism for Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

John 1:1-3

Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’” For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

John 1:14-18

For in him [Jesus Christ] all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form.

Colossians 2:9

His Humanity

It is clear from the scriptures above that Jesus is fully God. He is also fully human:

Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

John 1:14

But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights.

Galatians 4:4-5

His Mission

Jesus Christ, the second person of the Triune God, came down from heaven as the promised Messiah to accomplish many things, some of which have been discussed in previous posts on this site. But his primary mission: to take our sins upon himself so that instead of judgement we deserve, we would have peace with God.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6 (ESV)

We are all sinners, sin is breaking God’s Law, and the penalty for sin is death.  And so Jesus took upon himself the sins of us all and satisfied God’s requirement for justice through his death on the cross. He was then buried, and on the third day after His death, He was risen bodily from the tomb. Here is what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ:

For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at one time.

1 Corinthians 15:3-6

Here is how Jesus described his mission:

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

God is indeed loving and compassionate towards all people. But that love and compassion does not mean He lets anyone get by with sin. Unrepentant sinners will be judged. God’s love offers us all a way to avoid judgement and to receive eternal life, as John 3:16 says. The good news for all of us is that the penalty for sin (death) has already been paid in full by Jesus Christ. The holy and righteous judgement of sin has been satisfied once, for all, at the cross of Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection to life. Now that sin and death has been defeated through Christ, the offer of salvation and eternal life is extended to all people. That’s right – you do not have to pay the penalty for your sin if you meet God’s requirements. If you choose not to meet God’s requirements – and it is your choice – then you remain responsible for your own sin – your condemnation remains.

The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

John 3:18

Jesus Christ, raised bodily from the dead, has ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God until the day in which He will return to judge the world. When that day arrives – and time grows short – the offer of eternal life through Christ will be withdrawn. Also, the offer is only open while you still are alive. Once you die, the offer is withdrawn and you will face judgement. Unrepentant sinners go to the abode of the dead – Sheol in Hebrew; Hades in Greek; hell in English. Heaven is a pure and holy place. Unrepentant sinners will be barred from entry.

After he had said this, while they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud hid him from their sight. As they were still staring into the sky while he was going, suddenly two men in white clothing stood near them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:9-11

Look! He is returning with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes on the earth will mourn because of him. This will certainly come to pass! Amen.

Revelation 1:7

In summary, God’s judgement of our sin has been satisfied through the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross so that we who repent and believe in Him are forgiven – the case against us in the court of heaven is dismissed!

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of his grace.

Ephesians 1:7

Don’t remain an unrepentant sinner! Rejecting Christ seals your fate forever. The is no reincarnation, no purgatory, no other salvation through any other entity. Only Jesus – the promised Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25-26

How about you? Do you believe this? Big question that demands an answer.

I hope that through this post, you have some understanding of who the biblical Jesus is, what he did for us, and the invitation extended to each of us by Him. The most important question now is this: once knowing these truths, how does a person receive the free gift of eternal life? Is it automatic? No, it isn’t.

The next post is about how we receive the gift offered to each one of us.