Who Is Jesus?

Who is Jesus?

How would you answer that question?
How have you heard it answered?
Have you ever even heard it answered?

It’s hard for me to find any questions that carry more weight than this one. No other question bears the direct weight of eternal destiny on its shoulders like this one does. And few, if any, bear that weight so concisely and so directly.

As a Christian, admittedly, an understanding of who Jesus is sits at the center of my faith. The nature of that faith places it at the center of my life, so having an answer to the question about who Jesus is necessarily forms the very foundations of my life - if in fact I truly am a Christian.

Now, I’m not perfect. Being a Christian and perfection in this life are not the same things, not unless we want to get into some strange discussions about semantics and the impartation of Christ’s righteousness in the life of believers. But that’s a bit off course for our topic today, a topic probably a lot more complex than the time I have to spend on it.

But not being perfect brings up an interesting point on the subject.

Fundamentally, every true believer shares in a unified recognition and acceptance of Jesus.

Not everyone claiming to be a true believer actually is. The idea of the visible church and the true church is something we’ll leave for another day.

But that leads us to the reality that there is an array of answers to this most important question within both the visible church and the true church.

Let’s quickly move past those professing to be Christian despite not being truly regenerate. The understanding of Christ in such a condition could not be entirely accurate. And while we could certainly dive into this deeper, I’d like to focus a bit more on the variations within the true church, or the united body of Christ.

As Jesus Himself stated in John 13:35, believers will be known to the world by their love for one another.

This verse points us in some very important directions on the topic.

When we answer the question who Christ is, if we are truly believers, we should have no trouble coming to agreement that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. There are many details, even, that any and all believers, throughout time, and especially since Christ’s incarnation, should be unified in.

However, we often get hung up on secondary issues that easily distract us from Christ’s directive to love one another, and that our love for those we’ve been united to in Christ is designed to be a beacon to the world of who we are, or more importantly, Whose we are.

First and foremost, answering the question about who Jesus is should immediately reveal to us whether or not we can legitimately claim to be His follower.

If we can, maybe our next steps would be to evaluate how well we’re actually living that out, quite possibly beginning with the way interact with others our very Head has united us to as part of His body.

If we can’t, let it be a spark that lights a fire inside of us to seek a proper understanding of Him, an understanding that will only come through His revelation to us, which He graciously promises to provide to any and all who sincerely ask.