Person and Work of Christ - Part 1

Christ is the backbone of Christianity. So let us explore the issues concerning Jesus Christ – who he is and what he did.

• Who is Jesus? A man? God? Someone uniquely different?
• What did he do? Taught us how to live? Died for our sins? Both?

Jesus – God or Great Teacher
The Bible clearly teaches us that Jesus Christ is God. John 1.1 refers to Jesus as the Word (Logos) and tells us that ‘in the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God’. John 1.14 affirms that ‘the Word (God) became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’

Jesus himself testifies about himself on several occasions. In John 10.30 He claimed to be equal with God, ‘I and the Father are one’. John 14.9 records Jesus words thus, ‘..anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’

Jesus referred to himself as God in John 8.58 ‘ I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I Am!’ The teachers of the Law understood well that He was claiming to be the God of Israel and so tried to kill him. Before his arrest, on the night of the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.’ John 14.6

After appearing to Thomas who doubted him, Jesus makes a profound statement, ‘……; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’.

Birth of Jesus
Atheist and skeptics scoff at Mary’s virgin birth while others object to the doctrine of virgin birth on the grounds that it is similar to other pagan legends of heroes who were half god, half man. In the pagan stories of this kind, there is gross physical cohabitation of a god with a human being. Mary is simply informed that the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1.35) There is no suggestion that Jesus is half man and half God.

According to Theologian Wayne Grudem, “God in His wisdom, ordained a combination of human and divine influence in the birth of Christ, so that His full humanity would be evident to us from the fact of His ordinary human birth from a human mother, and His full deity would be evident from the fact of his conception in Mary’s womb by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.’