Who Is Jesus Christ?

What is the meaning of His name?  

·    Jesus Christ’s name is in the Greek form of Joshua and of the title meaning, "Yahweh is salvation" and "the anointed one" or "Messiah."   It is the Proper name of the Savior of the world.  The title "Christ" gathers all of the Old Testament prophetic hopes and infuses into them the meaning associated with the proper name Jesus. 

·      Jesus is the clearest picture of God the world has ever seen--that is the affirmation of believing hearts. In Jesus Christ are united the vertical of God's revelation and the horizontal of history's meaning. Christians see in this one proper name a conjunction of God and man.

·    The believers of the New Testament did not first "read" Jesus Christ chronologically. That is, they did not set down to construct a doctrine called Christology that would move from pre-incarnate to His final coming.  Rather, they were caught up in the historical reality of what God was doing for them and all the world through Jesus Christ. Looking at the different episodes of the Christ event should show the New Testament understanding of Jesus, God's Christ. 

Who is this Jesus?

·        In the text of the Christological passage found in the book of Colossians, and the verses that follow, the lordship of Christ is affirmed as existing over creation, the church, and the individual Christian. He truly is the cosmic Christ.

·        Jesus Christ's likeness or "image" to God is so genuine that it provides man with a perfect manifestation and exact representation of God. In the person of Jesus Christ incarnate, we see a revelation of the invisible God. 

·    (Colossians 1:15-18 NIV)  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 

Reconciled to God in Christ Jesus 

·       (Colossians 1:19-20 NIV)  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,  and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 

·        Jesus Christ went from being the spotless Lamb of God to being sin on our behalf while on the other hand, the Christian has moved in Christ to being "reconciled ... holy ... blameless ... above reproach in His sight. 

·    Any theology that denies the substitutionary atonement of Christ or neglects the saving power of His sacrifice and the necessity of His shed blood, no matter how impressive otherwise, is a false theology with no power to save. The cross of Christ is a constant reminder of proud mankind's inability to generate its own salvation. The substitutionary atonement is not one theory among many, but an eternal fact. 

Some Names and Titles of Jesus 

·     Jesus' very name suggests His purpose. "He shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). 

·        Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23)

·        The Son of God (Mark 1:1)

·        "A Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11)

·        The Word who made the world (John 1:1-3)

·        The Life (John 1:4), The Light (John 1:5)

·        The Glory of God (John 1:14), One full of grace and truth (John 1:17)

·        The Son who makes the Father known (John 1:18)

·        The Water of life (John 4:14)

·        The Bread of life (John 6:41)

·        The Light (John 8:12), The Door (John 10:7)

·        The Good Shepherd (John 10:11)

·        The Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25) 

·        The Way, the Truth, the Life (14:6).

·        The guarantee of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22)

·        God's great and final High Priest (Hebrews 8:1) 

·    The Apostle Paul addressed Him as "the Lord"--the earliest Christian confession was that Jesus is “Lord”.  The lordship of Christ is tied to the reverence for the name of God and is an assessment of Jesus' worth as well as Paul's relationship to Him. Since Christ is Lord, we are servants.  

The Humbled and Exalted Christ 

·       (Philippians 2:9-11 NIV)  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.