Ask people who Jesus was and you will get a range of respectful answers: a teacher, a healer, a reformer, a good man killed by bad politics. Every one of those is too small for what the New Testament actually claims — and too small to save anyone. This lesson asks the question Jesus Himself pressed on His disciples: whom say ye that I am? (Matthew 16:15).
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:14, KJV
Before Bethlehem
He did not begin at the manger
John opens his Gospel not with a birth but with eternity — read John 1:1-3. The One who was born in Bethlehem already existed, and everything that was made was made through Him. Compare Colossians 1:16-17 and Micah 5:2, where the promised ruler is said to come from everlasting.
Promised from the beginning
The first promise of a deliverer appears while Adam and Eve are still standing in the ruins of their choice — Genesis 3:15. From there the thread runs unbroken: a descendant of Abraham, a son of David, a child born in a named town, a servant who suffers for others. Read Isaiah 9:6-7 and Isaiah 53:4-6 and ask how a person could arrange to fulfil such things.
Seen before He came
Much of the Old Testament is a portrait gallery of Christ: the lamb provided in place of Isaac, the Passover lamb whose blood shelters a household, the sanctuary where a substitute dies so a sinner lives, the rock struck in the wilderness. Jesus said the Scriptures testified of Him — John 5:39 and Luke 24:27.
The Word made flesh
Fully God, fully human
Scripture will not let us choose one and drop the other. He was weary, hungry, grieved; He also forgave sins, stilled a storm and received worship. Read Philippians 2:5-8 for the descent, and Hebrews 4:15 for what it means that He was tempted as we are and did not yield.
What He actually did
He healed, but He was not only a healer. He taught, but He was not only a teacher. Watch what He claims in John 8:58, John 10:30 and Mark 2:5-11. These are not the words of a gentle moralist. Either they are true, or they are intolerable.
The mission He named
He said plainly why He came — Luke 19:10 and Mark 10:45. Not to admire us, not merely to instruct us, but to seek, to find, and to give His life as a ransom. Everything in the Gospels moves toward a cross He repeatedly said He would die on.
Why it matters who He is
Only God can forgive; only a man can die
If He were less than God, His death would be one more tragedy. If He were less than human, it would not be our death He died. The union of both in one person is precisely what makes salvation possible — compare 1 Timothy 2:5.
He is alive now
The story does not end at the tomb. Read 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, and notice that Paul appeals to living witnesses. Because He rose, He serves for us now — Hebrews 7:25 — and because He rose, He is coming back.
He asks for a verdict
Jesus never invited neutrality. The question He put to Peter He puts to every reader, and admiring Him from a distance is not one of the available answers.
Before the next lesson
- Read John 1:1-18 and list every claim John makes about the Word.
- Read Isaiah 53 in one sitting, then Mark 15, and note the overlaps.
- Write one sentence answering, in your own words, "Who do I say Jesus is?"
Questions to sit with
- Which of Jesus' own claims is hardest for you to accept, and why?
- If He is who He says, what does that change about this week?