More books have been written about Him than about any other person. Almost 2,000 years after He died, 2.5 billion people claim to be His followers.
But who is the real Jesus?
He’s not who you think He is
Most people think of Jesus as a religious teacher or a political leader – someone full of wisdom and good advice. But He never claimed to be either of those things.
No, His claims are much more significant. For example, He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
He is not just someone who points the way to God, He is the way to God.
He’s more than you think He is
How can Jesus be the way to God?
The first thing that we need to understand is that He is both God and man. He is the Eternal God, who has always existed and will always exist: “in the beginning was the Word [Jesus] and the Word was God” (John 1:1). But over 2,000 years ago He became what He was not before, but always will be now – a human being: “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14).
The second thing is that we are all condemned before God because of the wrong things we have done. Our pride and greed and anger (to name a few of our sinful actions) all have a price attached – an infinite price we can never pay: “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
But because Jesus is both God and man, He can pay the price for us. As a man, He can be the representative for humanity. As God, with no sin and therefore no debt of His own, He can pay the infinite price for sin. When He died on the cross, He died for the sins of the world and bridged the gap between us and God.
Why you need Him
To prove that all these things are true, three days after His crucifixion Jesus rose from the dead. So the Apostle Paul tells us, “there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
Jesus is more than you think. He didn’t come to tell you how to live your life. He came to die for your sins.
You are meant to be in a relationship with God, but this is only possible through faith in Jesus. He is “the way, the truth, and the life”.
