Who is Jesus Christ?

Christianity is not primarily a set of beliefs, although it does have beliefs. It is not a way to behave, although behaviour is not irrelevant. Christianity is first and foremost about Jesus Christ. It is about a person and it is about a relationship.

'God' is a community of three persons - the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son took on humanity and was born as one of us, lived as one of us, died as one of us and rose from the dead as we too can. This is an amazing thing – the Creator of the cosmos, the one who sustains all that is, moment by moment, merely by his powerful word, was born the same way we were, and into a poor carpenter’s family. Why did he do this?

So we can know

Truth can either be reached rationally – which is possible with Christianity. The historical evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is compelling. But truth is also self-authenticating. Truth is palpable, and when we see Jesus Christ, we see truth. When we read his words we read truth. Truth about things that really matter – truth about God, about ourselves, about life, about death and about meaning. Truth that works, today and for the rest of eternity.

So we can know ourselves

When we look at the life and the teachings of Jesus Christ, we look at our feet in embarrassment. Here is truthfulness that shames my lies. Here is love that exposes my hard heart. Here is a man who lives like I have never lived. A man who lives in a way we must admire or hate. We admire him because we see what we should be. And we hate him for the same reason – because he exposes that we are not good. That we are wicked. That we are those who have rejected God’s good and lived for ourselves. That I have crowned myself as king and emperor of my world, when that place belongs to Christ alone. That I am a grubby rebel against a sparklingly glorious Lord.

So we can know what we could be

When we see what we are not in what Jesus Christ is, we see a possibility. We see life as it could be lived. This humbles us and depresses us – we are so far from it. But Jesus offers the possibility of change. The dynamic of forgiveness and grace – mercy and love poured out freely from God to us who are undeserving. We can be what we see in Christ, but only through, by and in friendship with him. We have no power to change like this by ourselves.

So we can know who God is

We have been rejected by God because we have rejected him. We have lived in his universe, and taken the good things he has given us and we have spat in his face by ignoring him and turning from him. No-one has seen God the Father, and we do not deserve to. But in Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, we see him. We see the God of eternity. In the face of a man we see the full glory of God. A man who is God!

So we can know God personally

God is not content to have us merely know about him. He wants us to know him. Our Lord would also be our Father. He would know us, he would make us his friends – even his children. And so he sent his Son to bring about a reconciliation, to bring us back to our Father. How can a right and just judge (as God is) forgive rebels, though? He cannot forget his justice – he is holy. But one who is without sin, without guilt and shame and rebellion took the place of us rebels. When Jesus died on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem, he took in his body the sin, the rebellion, the wickedness and the shame of humanity. He took the place of his people. He suffered the anger and punishment of God. He who had always known God as his Father cried out in terrible agony – ‘My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me!’. Jesus was abandoned so we need not be. Jesus was punished so we need not be. He was made a sacrifice in our place. A substitute for us. When we turn to trust Jesus Christ, we are united in that death, connected through time and space to that Friday afternoon by the Holy Spirit. Our wickedness is taken, and replaced by Christ’s spotless righteousness. So we can stand before God as innocent, as accepted, as his children.

So we can live with God always

God will accept his children, he will raise us up after death. So on the day when Christ returns from heaven where he now is, on the day Christ recreates this world. On the day when he judges all the living and the dead. On that day we will be given new perfect bodies. We will see our Father and his Son face-to-face and they will destroy all pain and death and suffering. How do we know? How do we know death has no hold over us? Because it had no hold over Christ! He rose – he destroyed the power of death in his death. He broke the back of guilt and shame and sin. He is alive – the King reigns, the Judge will return, the Saviour is still rescuing many and drawing them to himself.

So we can live for God now

But it is not all in the future. When we fix our eyes on Christ, not only do we depend utterly on him, but he changes us to make us like him. His Holy Spirit lives in our hearts and makes us like Christ – like the one who is truly human. To be what we were created to be, to know the joy and freedom of being utterly human, is to follow Christ. We can love like God. We can be good like God. Not perfectly so until he returns and we are raised anew. But we are born again – we start a new life, where past wickedness is always wiped away and where a future grace – love from God – lines the path ahead of us. We can do good, not because it will earn God’s love – it never can. We can do good and love, because we were made to live that way, and because this is a great blessing and because the Lord would give us every blessing.

It is all about Jesus. The thing we find hardest is to lift our selfish eyes above ourselves. I naturally think of all of life in relation to me - how does it affect me? I do not find it hard to consider myself. Yet if we can lift our eyes to Jesus Christ, we see glory and humility, wisdom and understanding, joy and sorrow, righteous anger and selfless love. We see all that is good and right and all we can ever need or want. It is all about Jesus – this cosmos, the story of history. Is your life all about Jesus?