Daily Encouraging Words

WHO DO YOU SAY JESUS IS? 📌The Identity, Deity, Person, and Saving Work of Jesus Christ According to Scripture 1⃣The question that demands a personal confession Our Lord Jesus Christ asked His disciples a question that confronts every generation: “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15, LSB). Brethren, I want us to appreciate the weight of this question. It stands at the very heart of the Christian faith because our confession of Jesus Christ determines our understanding of God, salvation, worship, discipleship, and eternal life. We cannot define Jesus according to popular opinion, personal preference, religious tradition, or emotional experience. God has revealed His Son through the Scriptures, and His testimony must govern our confession, beliefs, and conduct. Look at the progression in Matthew 16:13–14. Jesus first asks His disciples what people say about the Son of Man. Their answers reveal the various opinions that circulated about Him. Some identified Him with John the Baptist, others with Elijah, and others with Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Notice that these responses acknowledged Jesus as an extraordinary religious figure. Yet they failed to establish the full truth of His identity. People may speak respectfully about Jesus and still fail to confess who He truly is. Jesus then directs the question to His disciples: “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). Notice the distinction. He moves beyond public opinion and demands a personal confession that corresponds to the truth of His identity. We must examine what we believe about Jesus and ask whether our confession agrees with the testimony of God's Word. Simon Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Brethren, this is no ordinary declaration. Peter identifies Jesus as the promised Messiah and the divine Son. The title Christ translates the Greek Christos, meaning “Anointed One,” and corresponds to the Hebrew Mashiach, or Messiah. Jesus is the One whom God promised throughout the Old Testament: the King from David's line, the Servant who bears the sins of His people, and the One through whom God accomplishes His redemptive purposes. Notice Jesus' response in Matthew 16:17. He declares that Peter is blessed because “flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” What does this establish? A true confession of Christ rests upon divine revelation, not unaided human judgment. The Father makes the identity of His Son known, and Scripture bears authoritative witness to Him. We must receive this revelation, believe its testimony, and confess Christ according to the truth God has made known. Here we must distinguish between knowing facts about Jesus and confessing Jesus according to the truth of Scripture. The Christian confession does not merely acknowledge that Jesus existed, taught wisdom, performed miracles, or exemplified love. We confess Him as the promised Messiah, the eternal Son of God, the incarnate Lord, the crucified and risen Saviour, and the appointed Judge of the living and the dead. 2⃣ Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God Brethren, let us establish something fundamental: the identity of Jesus Christ does not begin at Bethlehem. His human birth marks the incarnation of the eternal Son, not the beginning of His existence. John establishes this truth in the opening words of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1, LSB). Notice how John deliberately takes us back to Genesis 1:1, where Scripture declares that God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. Before creation came into existence, the Word already was. John uses three expressions that establish three essential truths about the Word. “Was the Word” establishes His pre-existence; “was with God” establishes His personal distinction from the Father; and “was God” declares His full deity. We must understand the theological significance of these statements. John neither identifies the Word as the Father nor places the Word among created beings. He declares that the Word eternally existed with God and possesses the divine nature. The Son is personally distinct from the Father, yet He shares the one undivided divine essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The historic Christian confession describes this divine unity through the language of consubstantiality: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share one identical divine essence. They are not three gods, nor are they three manifestations of one Person. They are three distinct Persons in the one true God. This is the doctrine of the Trinity, and Scripture establishes it through its testimony concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. John 1:14 then declares, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” Please notice what the apostle says. The eternal Word became flesh and entered human history. He did not cease to be God, surrender His deity, or merely appear to possess a human body. The eternal Son assumed a genuine human nature while remaining truly God. This is the doctrine of the incarnation: the eternal Son took to Himself our humanity without sin. This truth establishes the foundation of our Christian confession. Jesus Christ is not a created angel, a lesser deity, a mere prophet, or a human being who attained divine status. He is the eternal Son who shares the one undivided divine essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We must preserve both truths: personal distinction within the Godhead and the unity of the divine essence. The apostle Paul reinforces this confession in Colossians 1:15–17. He identifies Christ as “the image of the invisible God” and “the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15–17, LSB). Brethren, we must pay careful attention to the expression firstborn. It does not teach that Christ was the first creature or that He belongs to the created order. Look at Paul's immediate argument. The apostle identifies Christ as the One through whom all things were created, whether in heaven or on earth, visible or invisible. Paul explicitly declares that all things were created through Him and for Him, and that He is before all things. A creature cannot be the Creator of all things without exception. Christ's supremacy over creation confirms His divine identity. The expression firstborn communicates His supreme rank, preeminence, and inheritance over all creation. Everything exists through Him and for Him. The universe does not exist independently of Christ; it depends upon His creative power and sustaining providence. Hebrews 1:1–3 further establishes this truth. God has spoken to us in His Son, through whom He also made the world. The Son is “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3, LSB). Notice the language of the inspired author. Christ does not merely reflect some divine qualities as a creature might reflect the character of its Maker. He perfectly reveals the Father because He shares the divine nature. The Son upholds all things by the word of His power, accomplishes purification for sins, and sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. We must confess the full deity of Jesus Christ. His authority is God's authority, His works reveal divine sovereignty, and His glory belongs to Him as the eternal Son. To diminish His deity is to contradict the testimony of Scripture and undermine the identity of the Saviour whom the Gospel proclaims. 3⃣Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man Now, brethren, we must address another essential dimension of Christology: the true humanity of Jesus Christ. The biblical confession requires us to affirm both His full deity and His complete humanity. The eternal Son did not merely appear in human form. He assumed a complete human nature and entered the conditions of human life, yet He remained without sin. Paul declares in Philippians 2:6–8 that Christ existed in the form of God, took the form of a slave, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5–11, LSB). Please observe the movement of Paul's argument. Christ existed in the form of God, yet He took the form of a slave and humbled Himself in obedience to the Father. The passage does not teach that Christ ceased to be God when He became man. Rather, the eternal Son humbled Himself through the incarnation and His voluntary obedience to the Father's saving purpose. He assumed the condition of a servant without surrendering His divine nature. The Son's true humanity is indispensable to our salvation. Galatians 4:4 declares that He was born of a woman. He experienced hunger and thirst, grew weary, wept, suffered, and died. Hebrews 2:14–17 explains that He shared in flesh and blood so that through death He might render powerless the one who held the power of death and deliver those who lived in slavery through fear of death. What does this mean for our understanding of redemption? Christ became truly man so that He could represent His people, obey God on their behalf, suffer in their place, and die as their substitute. His humanity was neither an appearance nor an illusion. The Son genuinely assumed our nature. Yet Jesus was without sin. Hebrews 4:15 declares that He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Unlike Adam, who disobeyed God in the garden, Christ rendered perfect obedience to the Father. He fulfilled the righteousness that we have failed to fulfil and bore the judgment that our sins deserved. Here we must introduce one of the most important doctrinal expressions in orthodox Christology: the hypostatic union. This doctrine describes the union of the two distinct natures, divine and human, in the one Person of Jesus Christ. Let us understand this carefully. Jesus Christ is not two persons, one divine and another human. He is one Person, the eternal Son of God, who possesses two complete and distinct natures. His divine nature remains fully divine, and His human nature remains fully human. The two natures neither mix into a third nature nor divide Him into two persons. The distinction between the natures remains even in their personal union. This is the historic confession expressed in the Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451): Christ is acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation. The Church did not invent these truths; this terminology safeguards the biblical testimony concerning the identity of Christ. We must also understand the theological significance of Christ's two natures for His mediatorial work. His deity qualifies Him to accomplish the work of God, while His humanity enables Him to represent humanity and suffer death in the flesh. One and the same Lord accomplishes our redemption. This truth guards us against two fundamental errors. We must never reduce Jesus to a mere human teacher, because He is the eternal Son of God. We must never deny His true humanity, because the Son genuinely assumed our nature to accomplish our salvation. The Jesus whom we worship is the incarnate Son, the one Mediator between God and humanity.