  Who is Jesus Christ?
Contents
Who Is He?
He is the son of God,
the only begotten son of the Creator, God Almighty. Although
He is called the Son of God, He is God himself. Since the
Fall up to nowadays people had rebelled against God. In other
words it means that people have sinned. About 2000 years ago
Jesus was born as a human being on the earth to fix the rift
between a man and the Lord. Jesus loved humankind, and that
is why He gave up His right to be God. So He incarnated and
took the shape of a human being. He lived His life to bring
the message of forgiveness on the Earth. He lived a perfect
humble life, but He died on the cross because of us and our
sins. He did all of this so that everyone who believes in him
will be saved and gets back to the relation with God. After
three days God raised His Son from the dead and exalted him
to the highest place and gave him the name that is above
every name.
He is true God and true human being. Who
can feel our needs better than an other person? Who can help
us better than the Creator himself? Jesus is praying even now
for those who believe in him and He will take care of their
needs forever. He will come back on the earth once again, but
then He will arrive surrounded by the heavenly army to call
for His believers to the heaven. Because of love for a
mankind He has delayed His second arrival almost 2000 years,
so that as many as possible could be saved.
What He Has Done for You?
God is righteous,
therefore He do not leave the wickedness of people without
conviction. However, He has always wanted to save people from
conviction, and that is why He gave His only son as a
sacrifice for every one of us. Jesus incarnated as a human
being (an ordinary man). He lived a perfect life and filled
all the requirements of God’s law. His living was good
enough to God, but people did not want to receive him as the
promised Saviour and Messiah (= King, who brings a peace to
Jews). Instead of crowning Jesus to king, they convicted
Jesus to death, only because He admitted that He is the son
of the God. He suffered the most cruel and shameful death,
what they had there in the Roman empire on those days. They
crucified him in public between two criminals.
When Jesus was suffering on the cross, the
darkness covered Jerusalem for hours. Christ suffered the
punishment for the sin of the people; He bare the sin of
many. Just before His death Jesus prayed on the cross:
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
are doing." After that He cried: "It is
finished." And with that, He bowed His head and gave up
His spirit.
At the moment of the Jesus’ death the
curtain of the Jerusalem’s temple was torn in two from
top to bottom. In Jewish temple sermons the curtain separated
the holy part of temple from the most holy part, where only
the high priest was allowed to visit once in a year. Now
Jesus had fulfilled the Law and prepared the way to God for a
human being. There was no longer use for the curtain. Jesus
had prepared the way to God in His death on the cross. He was
the final sin offering, because He was God and first truely
sinless human being.
Jesus was buried in a tomb cut in the rock,
which was sealed with a big stone in front of the entrance to
the tomb. Roman soldiers kept guard over His tomb. Awhile
Satan, who is the ruler of darkness, rejoiced in his victory
over Christ, because He thought that Jesus had failed. But
three days after Jesus’ death on the cross God raised
him from the dead. Now Jesus is the risen Saviour. He got
victory over death, sin, sickness and especially over Satan.
During the days after his resurrection Jesus appeared
hundreds of people and taught His disciples. When He had
finished His mission on the earth, He returned to the heavens
to God. Yet today He rules over the universe from the
heavens.
God had no must to offer salvation to
humankind. He saw that a man spoilt by sin could not return
to him. As a Creator of the earth He could have devastated
the whole universe and start everything all over again. But
He loved His creation and that is why God had pity on
humanity, and decided to give another chance to the
humankind. He gave His only son as a sin offering for the sin
of humanity, so that we might be saved based on the work of
His son, Jesus Christ.
In the death of Jesus Christ the grace
covered justice. God did not give us the condemnation, which
belonged to us, but He gave us a chance to the better quality
eternal live. We got something we did not deserve. Jesus
redeemed His own people from subordination of sin by paying
the highest price: He died for each of us.
What He Wants You to Do?
God’s proposal
of salvation applies to everyone. As He causes His sun to
rise on the evil and the good, He gives sinner capability to
answer ‘yes’ to His proposal. He esteems a
man’s will and lets everyone to make his personal
decision. The salvation has already done completely. There is
nothing to add it; you can just accept or reject the
salvation through Jesus Christ. The atonement of Jesus is
intended for everyone, but it works only with them who have
accepted it. God stretches out His hand — it’s your
decision to take God’s hand or not to take.
How to take God’s hand? Jesus told
people to turn their back to sinful life and to turn to God.
He told them to repent and believe in Jesus' name. God had
kept it simple: to repent and believe in His name. There is
no gain in salvation — God had done it all for you. You
can just take the salvation from God’s hand. Just
believe that Jesus Christ died for you, and you will receive
the gift of forgiveness. Yes, it will be all yours! God asks
you no gain, no deeds — on the contrary He does not need
your deeds or explanations. By believing you stretch out your
hand like a beggar requests a coin."Yet to all who
received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become children of God.", John 1:12
When one experiences his guilt and repents
evil deeds, it is good to him to know that He needs the
atonement of Jesus to get a true peace of mind. He should be
honest to himself, confess his weakness to God and turn away
from sin. None of us can be saved through his deeds —
everyone needs to turn to God by believing in Jesus and
trusting him completely. There is only one way to get rid of
the slavery of the sin — the Jesus is the way.
What it means to believe in Jesus Christ?
The Bible tells us about living faith over against the dead
intellectual faith. Living faith means believing with
knowledge, acknowledgment and confidence. We can believe in
something without ever accepting it as a fact. We can also
accept some facts without ever counting on them. Living faith
is something different. When you have the living faith, you
believe in the message of the Bible, accept Jesus as your
personal saviour and put all your hope on him. Often we are
in the lack of faith, but fortunate God himself strengthens
our belief every day. It is not the matter of how much faith
you have, but it is the matter to whom you had put your
faith.
Bound by guilt, I had no chance to make it thru.
You said "I will pay it, for you."
The hate was strong, but yet
it couldn't overcome your love.
You looked like a looser,
but you were not
'cause you came back again.
Ulf Christiansson
Five Steps to Salvation
What Do You Get from Him?
The most greatest
gift God wants to give to you is the eternal life together
with him and other believers. You will enjoy life, which
quality surpasses your wishes. The eternal life is the
topmost aim we have particularly, when we remember that there
will be only two choices: the eternal life or the eternal
doom and separation from God. This promise of God waits for
its fulfillment during our migration on the earth, but we can
now already watch the eternal life by the eyes of faith as a
beautiful reality in future. It is there already, although we
cannot see it yet.
Before the ascension Jesus promised
Counselor, The Holy Spirit, to His congregation. The Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of God, who affects among believers: He
educates them, directs their ways, comforts them, strengthens
their faith, heals their soul wounded by sin etc. The Holy
Spirit is with us at every moment. He reminds us about the
coming rejoicing in the eternity by giving us foretaste about
it in our lives. He gives us many gifts, which we call
spiritual gifts.
God knows the weakness of our sinful nature
and our incompetence before Him. That is why He gives us new
nature (=Spirit), a spiritual life. This gift is called
‘born again’ or 'born from above'. It is a sudden
event as a human birth. When you born again, it does not mean
loosing one's personality nor anything like it. You can see
the relsult of new life, because the result shows up mainly
as a change in the attitudes of living. The change dues to
the fact that after rebirth you want to follow Jesus and you
love him. The new nature, you have received as a gift, is
turned to God and His values, not to sin as our old fallen
nature, which is still there, unfortunately.
A believer is considered competent before
God. God does not accept our sin, but He still convicts sin.
However He forgives the believer his evil deeds, because He
counts Jesus’ atonement to his credit. Now when God has
declared the believer ‘not guilty’, he is innocent
and clean in the sight of God in spite of his feelings. The
believer is now innocent in God’s eyes, and that is why
He declares him righteous. The believer is still does a sin,
he do not live in sin anymore, because God has forgiven him
and released him.
God does not leave a new believer on his
own, but He adopts a reborn person as a child of his own. God
is the great Father to him. This new position before God
guarantees a believer a right to his inheritance, which is
the eternal life. He might also approach to God as a child
approaches his loving father. God listens to us. He listens
our prayers and He knows perfectly our needs. Those prayers
are not vain, because He is the God Almighty — there is
nothing impossible to him.
The rebirth of the believer is a beginning
to the new life. The believer starts to grow in direction of
God. This process is called sanctification, which continues
until we die. We do not become perfect nor even free from sin
during our living on the earth, but the healing work of The
Holy Spirit makes us to grow towards similitude of Jesus
Christ. Not until there in eternity we will be completely
like Jesus as a human being. We will not become God as Jesus
is, but we will be exempted completely of sin and its curse
as a Jesus-like human being.
No-one can save himself by deeds. The
salvation is available through faith in Jesus Christ. Why
then Christian people talk about the importance of the good
deeds? The good deeds according to God’s will are the
result of the step by step advancing sanctification and the
new spirit as a gift from the Son. The atonement and belief
are like the roots of a huge tree, from where the vital
nourishment flows up. Good deeds are like the fruit of the
tree. The fruits grow naturally based on the nourishment
coming from the roots. So, the deeds do not cause a belief or
the salvation, but the rebirth together with the work of The
Holy Spirit causes the good deeds as a natural part of the
new life.
Where from You Could Read More about Him?
The Bible is
God’s message to the humankind. The Bible is true in
every way. It tells us about salvation history from the
creation of the world until the end of this age. The Bible
contains the instructions we need to find the way back to
God. The Bible tells us the will of the God and it gives us
advises how to live in God’s will. For thousands of
years the Bible has been guiding principle for those people,
who have continued worshipping the Living God. The message of
the Bible is still actual. We shall see the message in the
biblical spirit to fit in our time and culture. We should ask
The Holy Spirit to illuminate the message of the Bible to us,
as He inspired those people, by whom the Bible has been
written. The message of the Bible is still there for you and
me.
However, the Bible is not a complete
scientific description of the creation or the history of
nations. The Bible is not meant to be read literally as in
direct reply to all the problems of the world. It is rather
like guiding principle or compass, which gives you the right
direction. The Bible is God’s message, which tells us
everything we need to know if we want to be saved from the
eternal death. The Bible contains everything, what God wants
people to know about him. Below this passage I have collected
some verses, which tell you a little more about Jesus Christ
and His message to you.
Life of Jesus
The Gospel of Mark
Following
Jesus
John 6:35-40 ; Mt. 10:32-39 ; Mt. 28:16-20
How to talk with Jesus? (praying)
Mt. 6:5-15 ; Mt. 18:19-20 ; Luke 11:1-13 ; Luke 18:1-14 ; Luke 23:39-43 ;
John 17:1-26 ;Ps. 4:1-9
Eternal life with Jesus
To whom? John 3:14-17
What kind of life? Rev. 21:1-22:7
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Data Universum Oy
