Jesus Christ

Jesus is the most influential man who has ever lived; through the centuries people have talked about Jesus, written about Jesus, preached about Jesus, and even died for Jesus. How could one person make such a profound and universal impact on humanity?

During His time on earth, Jesus performed miracles that were unheard of. He fed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish; He walked on the sea; He calmed a storm; He opened the eyes of the blind, made the lame walk, and even raised the dead to life. Where did His supernatural power come from?

Jesus promised His believers everlasting spiritual fulfillment. He assured His followers that they would always have peace in their hearts. He even told the people that the only way to receive eternal life was to believe and follow Him. What gave Him the authority to offer these promises?

The fact is that Jesus was not just a man; He was God who became man. He is not just a historical figure; He is the everlasting and almighty Creator. He was not just a religious leader; He is Lord and Savior.

Although Jesus was born at a point in time, He has always existed, long before His entry into this world. He has no beginning or end. He said of Himself, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,* the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last” (Revelation 22:13).

When we talk about Jesus, therefore, we must not only think of Him as someone who lived two thousand years ago in the land of Palestine. Jesus is the everlasting God, who humbly became a man in order to save us and bring us into His eternal kingdom. Thus, to understand the life and work of Jesus, we need to first turn our attention to Jesus the eternal God, the Creator and Ruler of all things.

Unlike the many other so-called gods that human beings worship, the God that we ought to believe in is not the invention of man. We must search for the true God and worship Him because He is our Creator and Provider, and ultimately, He is the King and Judge to whom we all will have to answer.

The Bible explains who the true God is and how He relates to each of us: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:24-28 NIV).

Jesus is this only true God. As the Bible says, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).

Therefore, to worship the Lord of heaven and earth means to believe and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.

God surpasses the physical realm. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24) and cannot be seen or touched because we live in a physical universe.

God is self-existent and eternal; He has no beginning or end. The Lord God declared, “I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6).

No one created God. He is the one and only God, the God who made all things and gave life to all things living.

As the Creator and Master of everything, God is all-present, all-powerful, and all-knowing. His Spirit pervades the entire universe, and He sustains and rules over the whole creation with His almighty power. He also knows and sees everything, including the intentions of our hearts.

God is holy and His nature is the absolute moral standard. There is no wickedness in Him; He hates all evil. He expects all human beings, who have the ability to make moral choices, to imitate His divine nature.

God is true; He does not lie. He is an unchanging and trustworthy God; a God on whose promises we can rely because He will not fail to keep even one of them.

God is just, showing no partiality, but punishing the wicked and rewarding the obedient. Everyone will have to give an account to God for their every deed before His judgment throne. The wicked will be condemned to eternal fire, and the obedient will be rewarded with eternal life.

God is loving, caring deeply about us because we are His children. Although He is just, He still shows mercy and much patience when we disobey Him, hoping that we will change, readily forgiving us whenever we turn back to Him. He knows and sympathizes with our weaknesses and pain. That is why He came to this world — to experience our weakness, to feel our pain, to bear the punishment for our sins, and to bring us back to Himself.

People through the ages have sought for many means and ways to escape the loneliness and emptiness of their existence. Things such as health, fame, education, and romance can bring only temporary fulfillment. In their desperate search for excitement or escape from problems, people have blindly turned to drugs, sex, alcohol, wild parties, violence, and the like. However, instead of finding satisfaction, they face an even greater emptiness, leading to more and more problems such as broken families, suicides, and violent crimes.

A spiritual void is something neither material nor physical enjoyment can fill. The void that is inside every human being is the result of sin, a state of alienation from God. As much as we wish to find true happiness, we are not able to because we have not acknowledged God as our king.

More dreadful than the spiritual emptiness is the eternal separation from God. As sinners, we belong to the dominion of darkness and cannot enter the kingdom of God. When our days on earth come to an end, we will suffer the torment of everlasting fire.

God is not a despotic disciplinarian always waiting to punish us for our sins. Nor is He merely a sympathetic onlooker. Rather, He wants to take an active role; He wants to share our sufferings, to help us. He cares about what we are going through. Most importantly, He wants to deliver us from the dominion of darkness into His glorious kingdom.

So God put His love into action. To save us from Satan’s control, God had to pay a ransom for our sins with the life of someone who was completely sinless. Since no one is sinless except God alone, God Himself came to the world in the flesh in order to lay down His own life for our sake. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” ( John 3:16).

Jesus’ entrance into this world was most unusual. He was born of a virgin! This in itself set Him apart from all other human beings.

As incredible as such a birth was, God had foretold of it through the prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before it happened. “The virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel*” (Isaiah 7:14).

Since Jesus is of divine origin, He did not descend from human ancestors through marriage. He was born of God, and was therefore called the Son of God. The Bible tells us that Mary was found to be with child through God’s spirit. Through this miraculous birth, Jesus came to this world as the only sinless person, the person who would ultimately lay down His life for the sins of mankind.

* Immanuel means God with us.

God’s Spirit is not limited by space or time; He fills the Universe. When Jesus walked on earth, He was also in heaven. Jesus is called the Son of God, yet He is actually the manifestation of the Father in human form. He took the roles of Lord and servant, Father and Son at the same time. Thus the Lord Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Although Jesus is God, when He came to earth, He participated in and experienced our humanity. Jesus never committed sin, yet He felt the lure of temptation; He spoke with authority, yet humbly served others; He performed supernatural deeds, yet also experienced hunger, thirst, weariness, and sorrow.

Being God Himself, Jesus manifested God’s nature in its fullness through His speech and deeds. He revealed God to us so that we could truly know God. “For in [Jesus] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

In Jesus, we see the true God who is perfectly just and loving.

Jesus lived among ordinary people and spoke to them in ways they could relate to: He offered healing, guidance, and consolation; He preached the good news of the coming of God’s kingdom, teaching people how to live lives pleasing to God in heaven, and showing them the way back to God.

Jesus is also called the “Christ,” which means “the anointed one.” God anointed Jesus to be King, Prophet, and Priest, to rule in the hearts of men, proclaim the message of salvation, and ultimately offer Himself as a sacrifice for mankind.

Jesus’ mission was to save humanity from sin. In order to do that, He died in our place. He was sentenced to be crucified to die a slow and painful death. Though He had the power to destroy the whole world, He willingly laid down His life. On the cross, He became a sinner, bearing the sin of the whole world and suffering God’s rejection.

Though we deserve to be punished, the Lord Jesus took up our punishment. Because He, the righteous, died for the ungodly, whoever believes in Him today may have eternal life. He is the bridge by which we may reach the shores of heaven. He is the Savior of the world. Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can receive eternal life and escape the fires of hell.

The story of Christ’s crucifixion is an account of the greatest act of love and sacrifice ever performed. It is the story of the Creator dying for His creation. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

From kings to slaves, from the educated to the illiterate, from the old to the young, from developed countries to primitive tribes, this testimony of boundless love has been told countless times, and it is still being told today.

Jesus’ power to save did not end at His death. Since He is God, and the Lord of life, death could not confine Him. He arose from death three days after His burial and then appeared to hundreds of His followers before He ascended back into heaven. As He had promised, He sent us His Holy Spirit to be our personal Counselor, teaching us and transforming us, so that we can live in accordance with God’s will.

The disciples of Jesus preached that He was alive; many suffered persecution and were martyred as a result. Today, Christians throughout the world also confess that Jesus is alive. He is the glorious Lord of heaven, worthy of our praise and worship. Because He is alive, He still answers prayers, transforms lives, and gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

Our Lord Jesus gives this beautiful promise to His believers: “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19). By His resurrection and the renewal of His Spirit, we can now live a new life: a life full of meaning and hope, a life everlasting.

Jesus Christ is the one and only way to heaven. Having paid for our sins and overcome the power of evil, the Lord Jesus has opened the door of salvation to us. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). In Him alone can we have true freedom, peace, joy, and hope.

We cannot reach heaven by trusting in a religious leader or by using our own efforts, trying to be “nice people.” Only those who walk in God’s way can enter His kingdom. We must receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior and become His followers. There is no other way. The Lord Jesus declared plainly, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Before ascending back into heaven, our Lord comforted His followers, saying: “In my Father’s house are many mansions... And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3).

The Lord Jesus, who is in heaven now, will come again in the Last Days. Whereas He came once as a humble servant to die for our sins, He will return as King and Judge.

With justice He will exercise the final judgment, judging everyone according to their deeds, both good and evil. Even the dead will rise, standing before His throne to hear their sentence. Our Lord will banish the unbelieving and disobedient away from His presence into eternal fire and darkness, but will welcome believers into His eternal kingdom. The physical universe will be consumed by fire; and God will establish a new creation, a new heaven and new earth, for the saved ones (see 2 Peter 3:7-13).

Friends, God is the reason to live. We must set our goal in life to live according to God’s will so that we may one day reunite with our heavenly Father. With this joyful hope, we eagerly wait for His coming, and we look forward to entering the heavenly kingdom, where we will be with our Lord forever.

Believe and trust in the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior.* He will save you; He will give you joy and peace in life; and He will receive you into His kingdom when you complete your life’s journey.