Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

Who is Jesus Christ? Of all the questions that might be posed to modern men and women, none is more important than this. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the central question of history and the most important issue anyone will ever face. Who is Jesus Christ? Where did he come from? Why did he come? And what difference does his coming make in my life? In the end, every person must deal with Jesus Christ. No one can escape him. You can avoid the question, or delay it, or postpone it, or stonewall it, or pretend you didn’t hear it. But sooner or later you must answer it.

It’s certainly not a new question. It’s as old as the coming of Christ to earth. Once when Jesus took his disciples on a retreat to a place called Caesarea Philippi, he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” They offered four responses: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets (see Matthew 16:13-16). Even when he walked on this earth, people were confused as to his true identity.
Across the centuries the discussion has continued to this very day. Visit any Internet religious chat room and you’ll find a bewildering array of opinions regarding Jesus. Here are some contemporary answers to the question “Who is Jesus Christ?” A good man … The Son of God … A Prophet … A Galilean rabbi … A teacher of God’s Law … The Embodiment of God’s Love … A Reincarnated Spirit Master … The Ultimate Revolutionary … The Messiah of Israel … Savior … A first-century wise man … A man just like any other man … King of Kings … A misunderstood teacher … Lord of the Universe … A deluded religious leader … Son of Man … A fabrication of the early church.

Which answer will you give? Before you answer, let me say that you can find people today who will give every one of those possible answers. Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. Two thousand years have passed and still many wonder about the man called Jesus.

I know what I beleive.  What do you belive?

For 2,000 years Christians have affirmed their faith in Jesus with these words from the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe … in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.” With this phrase we enter the second major section of the Creed. The Creed itself is Trinitarian—with a section devoted to the Father, a section to the Son, and a final section to the Holy Spirit.

Of the 110 words in the Creed, 70 occur in the section relating to Jesus Christ. That tells us something important. The Christian faith is all about Jesus! He is the heart and core, the touchstone of all that we believe.

You can be mistaken on some secondary issues and still be a Christian, but if you are wrong about Jesus, you are wrong in the worst possible place. Our faith in Jesus must be more than just an emotional experience of “having Jesus in my heart.” Our faith must rest on the revealed truth about Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.

If we take this clause from the Creed and examine it, we can see that it contains four statements:
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I believe in Jesus.
I believe He is the Christ.
I believe He is God’s only Son.
I believe He is the Lord.

He is the Savior!
He is the Messiah!
He is God’s Only Son!
He is our Lord!

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord. So says the Creed. Sos say we, as Christians.

This is the Jesus of the Bible. This is the Christ we worship today. This is the Jesus we call Savior and Lord. This is the true Christ of the Christian faith. There is no one like him for he alone is God incarnate. His words have divine authority because they are the words of Almighty God. One day the entire universe will bow down and worship him. We have no other Savior and we follow no other Lord. The martyrs died because they would not worship anyone else. We will not exchange the Lord Jesus Christ for anyone or anything.

He alone is the Lord. Oh, that our hearts would sing his praise. God hasten the day until every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, Amen.