Who Jesus is

Who is this Jesus? That is the question that every single person who encountered him had to face.

It’s the question that people to this day must face in encountering Jesus.

The Jews came face to face with this question when Jesus told them,

My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working. (John 5:17)

That statement may seem innocuous to us, but to the Jews, it struck like a thunderbolt. Why?

Nobody in those days ever referred to God as “My Father.” As “Our Father,” perhaps, but not, “My Father.”

And by saying, “My Father,” Jesus essentially made a claim to deity. What was the logic behind that?

Well, think about it. Sons (and daughters) share the nature of their father.

If the father is human, his sons and daughters will be human. If the father is a cat, his sons and daughters will be cats. If the father is an ape, his sons and daughters will be apes.

And if God were to have a Son, that Son would also be God by nature.

Now we are not saying, of course, that God literally gave birth, or that he married and his wife gave birth. Jesus existed from all eternity with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

But one thing is certain. They all share the nature of God. How that works, nobody can truly explain. But that’s how God has revealed himself.

So what? What does this mean for us?

It means that if Jesus is God, we can’t simply dismiss his words as the words of an ordinary man. Of a man who had his opinions, but we are free to disagree with.

Instead, we must hold to his words as truth. And obey them.

How about you? Who is Jesus to you?