Mat 16:13  When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

Mat 16:14  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

Mat 16:15  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

Mat 16:16  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Mat 16:17  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

There are vast numbers of portraits of Jesus in the art galleries of this world. These images are often so conflicting that they offer little help in achieving an accurate picture of what Christ looked like during the period of His incarnation. This multiplicity of images parallels the widespread confusion about Jesus’ identity that exists in the world today. We need Christ-the real Christ. A Christ born of empty speculation or created to squeeze into the philosopher’s pattern simply won’t do. A recycled Christ, a Christ of compromise, can redeem no one. A Christ watered down, stripped of power, debased of glory, reduced to a symbol, or made impotent by scholarly surgery is not Christ but Antichrist.

No person in history has provoked as much study, criticism, prejudice, or devotion as Jesus of Nazareth. The titanic influence of this man makes Him a chief target of the arrows of criticism and a prime object of revision according to the interpreter’s prejudice.

The nineteenth-century liberals found a “liberal” Jesus; the existentialists found an existential hero; and the Marxists  discovered a political revolutionary. Idealists found an idealistic Jesus and pragmatists discovered a pragmatic Christ.

The evidence about Jesus is compelling, so withholding belief in Him is to commit an immoral act. Unbelief is judged by Jesus not as an intellectual error but as a hostile act of prejudice against God Himself. This sort of unbelief is destructive to the church and to the people of God.

Redefining Christianity is no easy task. Christianity has been given definition by two weighty factors:

(1) the existence of a body of literature that includes primary sources about the founder and teacher of the Christian faith, Jesus of Nazareth;

(2) the existence of two millennia of church tradition, which includes points of disagreement about particular issues of debate among denominations, but which reveals a remarkable unity of confession about the essentials of Christianity.

The church is called “the body of Christ.”

Some refer to it as “the continuing incarnation.” Surely the church exists to embody and carry out the mission of Christ. For this reason, the church is inconceivable without Christ. Yet the church is not Christ.

It is founded by Christ,

Formed by Christ,

Commissioned by Christ,

And endowed by Christ.

It is ruled by Christ, 

Sanctified by Christ,

And protected by Christ. But it is not Christ.

The church can preach salvation and nurture the saved, but it cannot save.

The church can preach, exhort, rebuke, and admonish against sin, it can proclaim the forgiveness of sin and it can give theological definition to sin, but the church cannot atone for sin.

Possessing Christ and despising the church is an intolerable contradiction. We cannot have Christ without embracing the church. However, it is possible to have the church without truly embracing Christ.

The Christ we believe, the Christ we trust, must be true if we are to be redeemed. A false Christ or a substitute Christ cannot redeem.

“These [things] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

Who is this Jesus?

I want to know the Jesus who radicalized Matthew,

Who transformed Peter?

Who turned Saul of Tarsus upside down on the Damascus Road?

The New Testament Reveals Jesus

Virtually all we know about Jesus is recorded in the Scriptures. The New Testament writers are the primary sources of our knowledge of Jesus.

Luke begins his Gospel with the following words:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4)

Peter adds the following statement:

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16)

What does the Bible call him – Who is Jesus?

“Christ …

Lord…

Rabbi …

Son of Man …

Son of God …

Son of David …

Lion of Judah …

the Rose of Sharon …

the Bright and Morning Star …

the Alpha and Omega …

the Logos …

the Advocate …

the Prince of Peace …

the only begotten of the Father …

the Lamb without blemish….”

Who is Jesus?

Jesus is known in part by what He did. On the other hand, the significance of what He did is strongly conditioned by who He is. Though we may distinguish between person and work, we must never isolate the one from the other. When we look at the titles conferred on Jesus in the New Testament, we see an interplay between person and work.

One does not normally refer to Jesus as “Jesus bar Joseph” or even as “Jesus of Nazareth.” Rather, His full name is  considered to be “Jesus Christ.”

Christ comes from the Greek word christos, which means “anointed.” It corresponds to the Hebrew word translated “messiah.” When Jesus is called “Christ,” He is being called “the Messiah.”

If we were to translate the name and the title directly into English, we would say “Jesus Messiah.” With this title, we are making a confession of faith that Jesus is the longawaited anointed one of Israel, the Savior who would redeem His people.

The poignant moment of messianic unveiling took place at Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus asked His disciples: “Who do the crowds say that I am?” (Luke 9:18). The disciples told Jesus the scuttlebutt of the mobs: “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Finally Jesus put the question to His inner core of disciples: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter replied with fervency, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:14-16).

Jesus’ response to Peter’s confession is pivotal to the New Testament understanding of the identity of Christ. Jesus replied: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (v. 17). Jesus pronounced His benediction on the one to whom God had revealed His true identity. He acknowledged that Peter’s recognition of His identity was correct.

On another occasion, John the Baptist greeted Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). But when John was arrested and cast into prison, his faith began to falter and he sent messengers to Jesus asking pointed question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus responded to the messengers by saying, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them” (Luke 7:20-22). These words were not idly chosen. Jesus was calling attention to the prophecy of Isaiah 61, the text that He had read the day He entered the synagogue in Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18- 19). After He finished reading the scroll, Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21). Essentially, Jesus’ reply to the message of John was this: “Tell John to read again the prophecies of Isaiah, and he will know the answer to his question.”

The Son of God

The New Testament recounts few instances when God was heard speaking from heaven. When He did, it was normally to announce something startling. God was zealous to announce that Jesus Christ was His Son. At Jesus’ baptism, the heavens opened and God’s voice was heard, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).

Elsewhere, the Father declared from heaven, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mark 9:7). Thus, the title conferred from on high to Jesus is Son of God.

The Logos

The title Logos is rarely used in the New Testament for Jesus. We find it prominently in the prologue to the Gospel of John, where we read, “In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Jesus Christ = The Manifested Word.

Jesus as Savior

There are other titles of note ascribed to Jesus. He is the Rabbi, the second Adam, the Mediator. But no title captures His  work more completely than Savior. The believers of the early church bore witness to this when they used the sign of the fish as their cryptic signal of identification. The acrostic formed by the letters of the Greek word for “fish” stands for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”

God Himself named Jesus as an infant. Jesus means “the Lord saves” or “the one through whom the Lord saves.”

Thus, Jesus’ own name carries within it the idea of savior. His titles-Logos, Messiah, Son of Man-all indicate Jesus’ qualifications to be the Savior of men. He alone has the credentials to offer atonement, to triumph over death, to reconcile people to God.

Here is where the relevance of Jesus crashes into our lives, bringing crisis.

Here is where we step over the line of detached scholarly investigation and into the realm of personal vulnerability.

We argue endlessly over matters of religion and philosophy, about ethics and politics, but each person must ultimately face the personal issue squarely: “What do I do about my sin?”

That I sin and that you sin is debated by none save the most dishonest of men. We sin. We violate each other. We assault the holiness of God. What hope do we have in such dreadful turmoil? We can deny our sin or even the existence of God.

We can exclaim that we are not accountable for our lives.

We can invent a God who forgives everybody without requiring repentance.

All such avenues are established in delusion.

There is but one who qualifies as Savior. He alone has the ability to solve our most abysmal dilemma.

He alone has the power of life and death.