This week’s devotions are based on the Week 5 “Explore God” – Is Jesus Really God? (WATCH HERE)
Who is Jesus?
This question has been around since Jesus walked the earth. People saw his miracles, heard his teaching, and saw his interactions with outcasts. They wondered, “Who is this?” The question has been asked by every generation since and theologians have spent much time wrestling with the question. Is he human? Is he God? Is he both?
Ironically most major world religions will acknowledge that Jesus was a prophet or great teacher. Most are hesitant to equate him with God.
In many people’s mind at Jesus’ day this was blasphemous. In people’s mind today, they aren’t sure at best and don’t care at least.
But the question of “Who is Jesus?” is not just of historical significance, it is of eternal significance. If Jesus is who he claims to be and the Bible says he is, one must then contend with his claims and his teachings and seriously consider their eternal impact. Perhaps the significance of this question leads individuals to just answer, “He was a great teacher.” But even at that, most have not seriously considered his teaching, let alone incorporated all of it into their lives.
So how will we answer this question?
Let’s start with what the Bible says about Jesus.
Perhaps a great statement of clarity was inspired to the Apostle John in the opening verses of his Gospel. As he wrote late in the first century, the challenge that faced many Christians was gnosticism. Many of this belief “adamantly denied that the supreme being came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be merely a human who attained enlightenment through gnosis and taught his disciples to do the same” (wikipedia.com on gnosticism).
So John opens his Gospel with clear teaching on who Jesus is.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
So that there is no mistake, John continues in verse 14:
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word is Jesus.
The Word is God.
The Word is Creator.
The Word is Light
The Word became flesh.
The Word is Jesus, therefore Jesus is all of these things.
The amazing reality of the “Word” being a name for Jesus is it puts a flavor on all of the Word of God, the Bible. Every passage and paragraph is a reflection of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. It makes sense as not only was the word that God spoke at creation the work of preincarnate Jesus, but the words of Moses, the Prophets, and all are pointing to and centering on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
No human being of himself, no matter how many books they may have written or how powerful of an orator he or she is, has the impact and power that God has in his Word…That Jesus, THE Word, has in the lives of people.
There is no question left in John’s mind. Jesus is God. He writes so his first century reader and his 21st century readers will come to the same conviction and conclusion. Jesus is God!
Apply: What makes you certain Jesus is God? What makes you question this claim?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we praise you as God who manifests in the power of the Word of God and in the work of God you came in human flesh to accomplish. AMEN.