Who Is Jesus?

Start with the person

Almost everyone has an opinion of Jesus, and most opinions are secondhand. He is a gentle teacher, a revolutionary, a figure on a cross at the end of a church aisle, a name used in anger when a hammer slips. Before we go further, it is worth setting those pictures aside and looking at what we actually know. For a seeker, the best thing you can do about Jesus is meet Him the way His first friends did: by watching what He did, listening to what He said, and asking who this could be.

The man in history

Jesus of Nazareth lived in the Roman province of Judea in the first century. He grew up in Galilee, in a working family, and around the age of thirty began a public ministry of teaching and healing that lasted about three years. He gathered twelve close followers, and many others traveled with Him. He was arrested in Jerusalem during Passover, tried before the Jewish leadership and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, and crucified, a form of execution reserved for the worst offenders. This much is not seriously doubted by historians, whether or not they are Christians. Roman and Jewish writers outside the church mention Him, and the New Testament documents were written within living memory of the events. If you want to take that question on in more depth, the page on whether Jesus really existed lays out the evidence.

What is distinctive is not that He existed but what happened around Him. People who watched Him were not merely impressed. They were disturbed, healed, forgiven, offended, or changed. Some left everything to follow Him. Others plotted His death. Very few stayed neutral.

What He taught

Jesus taught mostly in short stories, in conversation, and on hillsides. If you have never read Him for yourself, you may be surprised by how direct He is and how little He sounds like the religion people sometimes expect. He said that the greatest commandments are to love God with everything you are and to love your neighbor as yourself. He told a story of a father who runs down the road to welcome home a son who had wasted everything. He praised a tax collector who could only ask God for mercy and was cold toward people who were proud of their own goodness. He said blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, and the peacemakers.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

That invitation is one of the most quoted sentences in the world, and it is also an accurate sample of how He talks. He does not ask the weary to pull themselves together first. He says to come as you are, tired, and promises rest.

He also said hard things. He said the way of following Him means taking up a cross. He said that it is not what goes into a person that defiles them but what comes out of the heart. He said no one can serve two masters. He spoke of a judgment and of a narrow gate. A fair picture of Jesus holds both the tenderness and the demand, and it notices that they come from the same love.

What He claimed

Here is where the question of who Jesus is becomes unavoidable. A good teacher tells you what is true. Jesus said something different: He said who He was.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

He said He was the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life. He forgave sins, which the people around Him understood to be something only God can do. He accepted worship. When asked directly whether He was the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed, He said that He was.

A famous old argument puts the point sharply: a man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be merely a great moral teacher. He would be either mistaken, or deceiving, or exactly who He said He was. Whatever one makes of that argument, it names the choice honestly. The Gospels do not leave us the option of a tame Jesus who said nothing about Himself.

Why Christians say He is God

The earliest Christians were Jews, strict monotheists who believed in one God and would never casually call a man divine. Yet from the very beginning they worshiped Jesus. The reason is what they had seen and what they took to be its meaning. The Gospel of John opens with a sentence that says it as plainly as language can.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

And a few lines later it says who the Word is.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

Christians therefore confess that Jesus is fully God and fully human, one person with two natures, the Son of God who became flesh. The church did not invent this later; it was the conviction of those who first knew Him, and the great councils of the early church did little more than guard it against distortion. The apostle Paul writes of Him as the image of the invisible God.

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:”

If you want a longer treatment of this question, the page on whether Jesus is God tests the claim against the texts, and the page on the Trinity gently explores how one God is Father, Son, and Spirit.

The cross and the empty tomb

What makes Jesus not merely admirable but the center of a world religion is how His story ends. He was executed, and He was seen alive three days later. This was not a vision by one person. The New Testament lists witnesses, including more than five hundred at one time, and says most of them were still living when it was written, available to be asked. The disciples, who had fled in fear when He was arrested, were soon proclaiming the resurrection in the very city where it happened, at risk of their lives, and most of them paid with their lives for refusing to stop.

For Christians, the resurrection is not an extra detail but the vindication of everything He said and the beginning of a new creation. It means that His death was not defeat. It means that He is alive now and can be known, not merely remembered. Read the resurrection of Jesus for the evidence as people have weighed it.

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Christians read that ancient line, written centuries before, as describing what Jesus did on the cross. Whatever you make of it, it shows that the people who wrote the New Testament did not see the crucifixion as an accident but as the plan of a God who would rather suffer with us than leave us alone.

Why this is more than information

It is possible to know everything above and not know Jesus. The Christian claim is that He is not a figure of the past but a living person who can be met. The Bible says He stands at the door and knocks.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

Notice the manner: He knocks, He does not force the door. He invites. The Jesus of the Gospels never coerces; He tells the truth and then lets people choose. That is why this guide never pressures you, and why we will not.

How to get to know Him

Here is a practical way to begin, which costs nothing and asks nothing of you in advance.

• Read the Gospel of Mark, the shortest and quickest, in one or two sittings. Or read John at a slower pace. Pick one and just watch what Jesus does and how people respond.
• While you read, ask what you would have thought if you had been there.
• Say a short prayer, such as: "Jesus, if You are who You say You are, show me." It is not a spell. It is a sincere request.
• Tell one person you trust that you are looking into Him.

A caution that we believe is honest: the Jesus of the Gospels will probably not fit what you have seen on a bumper sticker, in a movie, or in an angry sermon. People often say the surprise is how kind and how clear He is. If that is your experience, you may find that your question has moved from "who is He?" to "what do I do about Him?" The chapter on what it means to be saved and the one on saying yes are written for that moment. And if you are not there, that is all right. Keep looking.

Where to go next

More on the site: Who is Jesus Christ?The Gospel explainedTeachings of Jesus in his own wordsRead John chapter 1

Back to the whole guide: How to come to Christ