This is part 1 of Who | What is Jesus (God or man) and why is He so important to Christians? *Please read the Bible texts and references so that you can not only understand what is being said but also test what is being said. The Bible teaches us to test everything against the Word of God. (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 | “Examine all things, hold fast to what is good, and shut out evil in every form.”)
Who is Jesus and why is He so important to Christians? Let's take a closer look at the person many talked about—and fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith. Because of the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despised its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12.
Some see Jesus as a teacher (Rabbi), others see Him as a prophet, and still others believe that Jesus was just a man with wise ideas. You can find people who deny His life and death but unconsciously want to derive moral knowledge and/or values from the Truth that He testified in the world. Jesus was both man and (is) God, God who came to earth as a man – and took upon himself the sins of the world. He is | was not only a wise teacher, prophet, and man, but also God's Son (which also makes Him God).
But let's start at the beginning or somewhere in the middle. Because we can already find the prediction of Jesus' coming in the Old Testament and there is a lot to be said about that. In this article, we want to start in the middle, and in a subsequent article, we will go deeper into the predictions in the Old Testament. At the beginning of the New Testament (From now on we will refer to this using NT) we note that the existence of Jesus, who and/or what He is (God's Son, God) has been foretold by God and the prophets since the beginning of time, but the world has not understood the mysteries. The prophets, Moses and David, and even Abraham have already spoken about Jesus - but people did not know this, only after Jesus came did it become clear to some.
In the NT you will find the 4 gospels, each starting from a different part of the testimony of Jesus Christ. Luke, begins his testimony by talking about Elizabeth and her husband Zacharias. Zacharias was a priest from the family of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth was from the bloodline of Aaron (one of the first High Priests of Israel). They turned out to be barren, but at an old age, they had a child, which was announced by a messenger of God (angel). You can read more about this in Luke 1:5-13. This child that was born is Johannes the Baptist. It was said of him that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit (of God) and would go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah. He was hereby calling the children of Israel to turn from sin and return to God. So, he testified of the coming of the Messiah and called the people to repent. In Malachi 3:12 (OT) there is also a reference to John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Jesus (the Messiah, the sent | Chosen One).
In Malachi 4:5 (OT), but also Matthew 1:2-5 (NT) reference is made to John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Jesus (the Messiah, the one sent by God | Chosen One).
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Malachi 4:5)
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. (Matthew 1:2-5)
When Elizabeth was about six months pregnant, she was visited by Mary, her cousin. Maria was now (also) pregnant herself. In Matthew we can see the family tree of Jesus - and thus see that Jesus came from the bloodline of David (in Matthew 1), as this is foretold and described in the OT. In Luke 1:26-39 it can now be read that the Holy Spirit came over Mary; *Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a young virgin, betrothed, and therefore not yet married, to Joseph.* and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and that therefore He, the Holy One, was born, who was to be called the Son of God. His name would be Jesus (referring to the Lord is (or brings) Salvation, for He saves His people from their sin).
Furthermore, in Matthew 1:23 we read, “He would be called Immanuel, which means “God is with us.” It is also written in Luke 1:35 “...The child will be called the Son of God (reference: Isaiah 7:14).
The Bible also teaches us that the baby in Elizabeth's womb reacted with joy (kicking) when the sound of Mary's greeting came to Elizabeth's ears. Elizabeth became filled with the Holy Spirit and began to applaud and speak loudly, thanking and praising the Lord God (Luke 1:39-56).
"... and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
An annotation must be made here. The emphasis here is not on Mary but on the Lord God. God graced Mary by choosing her to be the mother of Jesus, but Mary, like every other human being, was born under the flood of sin and also depended on the blood of Jesus to be saved. Why am I mentioning this? There are theories of faith that place an incorrect emphasis on the role of Mary in these texts. Some think that she serves as a mediator between man and Jesus (Hail greetings, praying to Mary, etc.). Jesus is the mediator between God and man. No one comes to the Father except through the Son. We need no other mediator to make things right with God the Father (He whom alone is God Almighty).
In the next part, we continue with what is said in the Gospels about Who | What Jesus is: His life on earth.
