Who is Jesus Christ?

The most important question any person can ever answer is “Who do you say I am?”- Jesus Christ, Mark 8:29. The identity and person of the Lord Jesus is the fundamental question that one’s eternity hangs on. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who is fully God manifested in flesh, who is co-eternal, co-equal, and consubstantial with the Father? Did he live a sinless life, was crucified, atoned for the sins of the elect and suffered for the world and rose again the third day? Today, I would like to discuss the identity of Jesus Christ and why this is important to our salvation.

Jesus Christ is God the Son manifested in flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). This means that Jesus is the one, true God living among us as a man. He is not a demi-god, rather he is the fullness of the godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). Everything God is, was manifested in flesh as Jesus . However, Jesus is not the Father in flesh, he is the eternally-begotten Son of the Father in flesh. The Father is impassible and immutable, meaning that he could not die on the cross or incarnate, so he sent his passable Son as his agent to die for us (I John 4:14). Jesus Christ is God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father, come to us as a man. God loved us so much, that the second Person of the Godhead became a man to save us from our sins. Jesus is not the brother of Lucifer, nor is he a created being: Jesus is the eternal creator of all things. He is the eternal God. The Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of God made flesh. Jesus is not merely a good teacher or a prophet: he is Jehovah God  come in flesh.

Jesus Christ died for us on the cross. Here is another place where the identity of Christ is very important. Did Jesus die and rise again? He died on the cross for every person and he bought salvation for the elect. He suffered the pain of death and crucifixion for the sins of the world. No mere man could die on the cross for us, only a man who is God in flesh, can. He died the death that us sinners deserved: he was the sinless Son of God; yet he died for sinful mankind. We must believe in his death and resurrection; as well as his substitutionary atonement. Jesus had to die because we needed a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus rose physically from the dead too, Jesus had to rise again both physically and spiritually in order to conquer death and save us.

We also must acknowledge the full humanity of Christ. It is not enough to say Jesus is God, we must recognize that Jesus is also a true human. Jesus Christ must be fully man to truly be able to empathize with us and to save us. Our savior had to be a man so that he could die for us and experience the temptations that we do. He is fully man, everything that you or I can do or experience, Jesus could do too. He prayed just like we pray, he felt the pain of the cross for us. Only as a true man could Jesus die for us on the cross.

Why is the identity of Jesus important for our salvation? Because, Jesus said in John 8:24 that unless we believe that he is the I am, we will die in our sins. We must acknowledge Jesus Christ as Jehovah in flesh, he is not some lower deity nor is he just a man. He is God himself in flesh. Jesus Christ is God living with us as a true human being. Who do you say I am? I say Jesus is the I Am made flesh!