Who Is Jesus Christ?

Have you ever been with a group of friends and tried to tell them about someone they haven’t met yet? You can describe all of the person’s great qualities and achievements. You can elaborate on how you would trust him with your life or leave your children to him when you die. The friends may nod in enthusiasm at your delight in this person, but without their own relationship with him, it is simply a nice story.
Knowing who someone is can never be just an academic question. Even if the subject is history of mere humans, a list of events or actions is just a starting point. Not only do you have to judge the accuracy of the account, but you have to try to view it in context of culture and the person’s mind and attitude. You have to be very honest about your own perspectives and experiences that may affect the process. You also have to guard against misrepresentations by others. Some people are respectably wrong. Others are full of their own intelligence, willing victims of their own delusions. People supplied with the same facts are known to come to varying conclusions. That doesn’t mean the truth is elusive or that “everything is relative.”
The truth is that one and only God has given us plenty of evidence of his existence, including his time on earth as Jesus Christ. The ancient validity of the scriptures is there, but a sinful, prideful heart is a barrier to that knowledge. The Bible doesn’t contradict anything, except man’s own imaginations which he sometimes labels science or philosophy or religion. Such imaginations are part of the search for spiritual meaning that is universal. Some claim ignorance, which they are if they don’t know, and others claim nothing past this life, but it is likely that is from lack of hope as much as anything.
The truth about Jesus Christ is very simple. Sure, God is incomprehensible, but he has made knowledge of himself, as it relates to our reality and needs, exceedingly plain. Jesus Christ is God as man. It was predicted irrevocably in documents that stand up to all scrutiny. Further records show that, while on our planet, he did things consistent with this position. He controlled the weather immediately with a word. He brought people back from being dead. He knew peoples’ thoughts. He created food out of nothing. This was all a prelude to his orchestration of his own death and resurrection. The disputations of these facts are grasping, foolish attempts to repudiate God. Jesus Christ is the key to everything. Through him everything about the world, our problems and desires, makes sense. And he provides the only way for things to be resolved.
All men know there is something wrong with how men run this world. History is replete with wickedness and hardship. Some try to use this as an argument against God, but they really know it is the fault of men. All men know the baseness of their own hearts. Some let that baseness rule, reveling in their own corruption. Others strive to be good, but always know it is not enough. Others erect a facade of intellectual superiority, sometimes deceiving themselves with their own smoke and mirrors. The humble and wise, by the grace of God, turn to Jesus Christ and get new hearts and a sure hope.
The religious systems of men might obscure this hope. Whether they be pagan or dressed in “Christian” vocabulary, they are a distraction and a deception. They assuage men’s egos and falsely complicate God’s program. A significant portion of the New Testament is addressing this propensity of men. So-called religious leaders offer a cacophony of empty words that pretend to drown out the simple, beautiful melody of God’s truth in Jesus Christ. Their creeds appeal to both pride and need in an ineffective, convoluted way. They are devoid of real joy, since the participants must always be laboring to fulfill criteria. Death hangs at the finish line, taunting them to ‘do enough.’
Our unavoidable, impending deaths are the final reminder of our need for God. However, God is patient and has a full set of plans. He is allowing time for more people to choose him and the only viable rescue option. He promises new bodies and a new earth, with a perfect government. He gives one hundred percent and we just need to accept. It is only people’s pride that keeps them from accepting these promises. Meanwhile, those believers in Jesus Christ still living on this sin-corrupted earth live in unearthly peace because they know Him.
Resources other than the Bible:
Answers In Genesis
Mathematics: Is God Silent? by James Nickel
The Kingdom of the Cults by Dr. Walter Martin
Many Infallible Proofs by Henry Morris
Josephus