Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ (Conceptualization)

The Godhead
God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit

Jesus Christ is the only Son of God who, in the fullness of time, was sent by God the Father to be the propitiation for our sins and to ransom us from death.^[1] By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, and became man in an event known as the Incarnation, as referred to in Isaiah 7:14. Indeed, the calendar itself reflects this truth, with the traditional calculation of Jesus’ birth marking the first century A.D., that is, "in the year of Our Lord…". The Apostle John wrote in his gospel the following regarding Jesus Christ: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."(John 3:16).

When he was about thirty, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, inaugurating his ministry. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ or Messiah, prophesied in the Old Testament (Greek: Χριστός; Hebrew: 'משיחא'). Jesus proclaimed that “[t]he time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe in the Gospel.”^[2] As signs of these truths, Jesus performed various miracles.

However, not all who heard the Lord believed in him, and, because he “was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God”, some sought to put him to death.^[3] Jesus was handed over to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate and crucified. But it was through his redemptive death, as the scriptures had foretold, that Jesus reconciled mankind with God.^[4] And so, on the third day, in a truly historical event, Jesus physically rose from the dead, making possible salvation and eternal life for those who believe in him. Indeed, his very name, Yeshua (Hebrew 'יהושע') means "Salvation" and is the concatenated form of Yahoshua, ‘YHWH is salvation’. After appearing to his disciples on various occasions, Jesus ascended to Heaven, where he acts as our mediator, assuring, by his constant intercession, the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Infancy

The Gospels tell us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea to a young virgin named Mary, by the Holy Spirit. Luke's account of the gospel relates that the angel Gabriel visited Mary in order to announce that she had been chosen to bear the Son of God (Luke 1:26–38). A survey of the Roman Empire was ordered by Caesar Augustus, which caused Mary and Joseph to leave Nazareth and go to the home of Joseph's forebears - to the house of King David. After Jesus' birth, they were forced to use a manger for a crib because the town's inn was full. According to Luke 2:8–20, an angel spread word of Jesus' birth to several shepherds who came to visit the newborn. Matthew also tells of the "Magi" (Zoroastrian priests) who brought many gifts to the infant Jesus (among which were gold, frankincense, and myrrh)^[5] after following a star which they believed was an indication that the Messiah, or King of the Jews, had been born.

Jesus' early home was the town of Nazareth in Galilee, and except for an escape to Egypt in early childhood to avoid Herod's massacre of the other male infants, all other events in the Gospels take place in ancient Israel.

At Twelve Years Old

The account of Jesus' parents finding him in the temple impressing the "teachers" with his knowledge of the scripture is the only detailed event between Jesus' infancy and adult life that is known.

Ministry

Baptism

Jesus' Baptism

The gospel of Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, which appears to be the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus came to the River Jordan, where John was preaching and baptizing people in the crowd. After Jesus had been baptized, and had risen up out of the water, Mark states Jesus 'saw the heavens torn apart and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased' (Mark 1:10–11). Luke adds the chronological anchor that John the Baptist had begun preaching in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, approximately in 28 AD (Luke 3:1) and that Jesus was thirty years old when he was baptized (Luke 3:23).

Temptation

After this baptism, according to Matthew, Jesus was brought into the desert by God where he fasted for forty days nights. During this period, the Satan appeared before him and tried three times to tempted Jesus into demonstrating his supernatural powers as a proof of his divine status; each temptation was refused by Jesus, with a scriptural quote from the Book of Deuteronomy.

Jesus then began to preach. John describes three different passover feasts that Jesus attended, thus implying that his ministry lasted three years.

Disciples and Apostles

The larger part of this was directed towards his closest followers, the apostles, although all of his followers were considered disciples. At the highest point of his ministry, Jesus attracted disciples and audiences numbering in the thousands; in particular in the area of Galilee. Many of Jesus' most well-known teachings were given during the Sermon on the Mount, such as the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer. Jesus often used parables in his rhetorical technique, such as the Parable of the Good Samaritan and the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats; these teachings encouraged unconditional self-sacrificing love for God and for all people. During these sermons, he also discussed service and humility, forgiveness of sins, how faith should be applied, the Golden Rule, and the necessity of following the spirit of the law as well as its wording.

Social Outcasts

Jesus also often conversed with social outcasts, such as the publican (Roman tax collectors who were unpopular for their practice of extorting money).

Miracles

Throughout his ministry, Jesus performed many miracles including healing the sick and possessed, feeding 5000, and even raising from the dead.

His Preaching was Offensive to the Established Authority

As He preached, Jesus ran afoul of the Sanhedrin, the recognized Jewish religious authorities, who were allowed to have considerable religious, political and monetary influence under Roman rule. Jesus chastised them, accusing them of making laws for the people to follow that were the laws of men, not God. The Sanhedrin tried to set traps for Jesus by asking Him questions to either discredit Him with the people or get Him in trouble with the Roman authorities, but all of their efforts failed and they gave up. They lacked the means to stop Jesus until Judas Iscariot came to them and offered to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He would tell them where Jesus would be that night so they could seize Him.

Last Days of Jesus' Life

Lord's Supper

Garden of Gethsemane

Jesus in Gethsamane

Jesus knew that His time was short and that He was about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. He had His last supper with his disciples and went with them to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed vehemently knowing what was about to come.

Tried before Jewish Authorities

Jesus was betrayed by Judas into the hands of the Jewish religious authorities who took Him away and secretly put Him on trial during the night, trying to find justification for their desire to have Him killed. Finally, they convicted Him of blasphemy.

Tried before Roman Authorities

As they did not have the authority to put a man to death, they took him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, with their charges and demanded his execution. Pilate avoided the issue by sending him to King Herod since Jesus was a Galilean, but Herod sent him back to Pilate. Pilate at first tried to release Jesus with a flogging, and then gave the crowd a choice to either spare Jesus or a criminal called Barabbas as part of the passover tradition. The crowd chose to free Barabbas and Pilate washed his hands to signify that he bore no responsibility for Jesus' death before ultimately condemning Him to crucifixion.^[6]

Scourging

Death

Jesus died after suffering and giving up his spirit.

Resurrection

See main article: Resurrection of Jesus Christ

On the third day after his death, Jesus rose bodily from the dead.

In recent history, Dr. Gary Habermas is considered the foremost Christian apologist for defending the resurrection of Jesus. Other notable defenders of the resurrection include: William Lane Craig, Ben Witherington, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Edwin M. Yamauchi, N.T. Wright, and Michael Horner.^[7] In addition, much has been written defending the resurrection of Christ in the field of Christian legal apologetics.

Ascension into Heaven

Christ on the Cross by Jacques Louis David.

Modern historians generally place the actual date of Jesus' birth between 7 and 4 B.C. due to problems reconciling the Roman and Jewish calendars with the Gregorian Calendar which is in use today throughout the industrialized world.

Occasionally non-historians deny the existence of Jesus, but few scholars take this seriously. Tacitus, the Roman historian, wrote about Jesus in A.D. 115^[8], and Josephus, a Jewish historian who did not believe in Jesus' divinity, wrote about him. ^[9]. Dr. Gary Habermas wrote an extensive analysis of the historicity of the existence of Jesus in his work The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ which discusses many historical sources which mention Jesus.

Lee Strobel's book The Case for Christ contains a number of interviews with experts on the historical Jesus and a defense of Jesus's resurrection, and is a good resource on this subject.

Considering that Christianity is 2000 years old, the name Jesus for Jesus Christ is not a very old word in English. In Old English he was called hæland “saviour”, from the Proto-Germanic root hailjan “to heal, to save”.

After the Norman conquest, the French form Iesu or Iesus was adopted. This derived from Latin Iosus, which the Romans adopted from the Greek Iesous. The Greeks derived the name from the late Hebrew or Aramaic name Yoshua, today’s version of which is “Joshua”. The earlier Aramaic form was Jehoshua (Y’hoshua) or Joshua., deriving from Hebrew Jah, short for Jahweh, and Aramaic y’shuoh meaning “salvation”. The name thus meant “Jah is salvation”. Both Joshua and Jehoshua were common names in the time of Jesus.

In 16th century written English both Iesu and Iesus were used, for example in Tyndale’s New Testament of 1526. J did not replace I until the 17th century and the form with the final s became common in the 18th century.

In Middle English documents, Jesus was often written IHS, an abbreviation of Greek IHSOYS (Iesous). However, in spoken English between the 11th and 17th centuries, the letter I could sound like either an I or a J, so the pronunciation of Iesus was similar to today’s sound. Welsh still retains the Iesu form but pronounces it “yessy”.

Reference: ^[10]

The Teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ are found in the four Gospels and other holy documents.

Sermon on the Mount This is the greatest sermon Jesus ever preached. It contains the Lord's prayer, the beatitudes, the golden rule, and practical advice for Christian living.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For Yours is the kingdom

and the power

and the glory forever.

Amen.

The golden rule:

"Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you!"

Prayer To Receive Him Now

"Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Thank you for coming to Earth and dying so that I could have eternal life. Please forgive all my sins. I am going to follow You with my life now. Please fill me with Your Holy Spirit and direct my steps. In Jesus' name, Amen." ^[11]

• Andrew the Apostle
• Atonement
• Byzantine Empire
• Lazarus (brother of Mary)
• Lazarus (Parable)
• Judaism

• Summary of the Life of Jesus
• Teachings of Jesus
• Sermons of Jesus Christ

*Who is Jesus? Is Jesus Christ God?