Jesus Is series Archives

Jesus Is the Word

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

John wrote in Greek.
The culture of the day was Greek.
The Greeks valued logic,
Ideas that challenged their thinking,
The Gospel is an irrefutable argument.

John was Jewish.
His heritage was Jewish.
Jews valued the revelation of God.
The Law. The Prophets.
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God..

Jesus is the Word.
He is eternal.
At the very beginning
When the Self-Existent One was all there was
Jesus was there.

He was WITH God.
Separate and distinct from God.
He WAS God.
The same as God.
Jesus is both.

The Gospel opens with a mystery.
The Word.
However, we don’t have to solve it.
We just believe.
Believe the Word.

Jesus Is the Son of Man

By Paula Wiseman

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Matthew 16:13

The Son of Man was the title Jesus preferred for Himself.
It appears over eighty times in the Gospels.

It says He is fully God and fully man.
It says He fully identifies with humanity whom He has come to save.
He has all authority enabling Him to work miracles
Yet He has no earthly possessions.

But in Daniel 7:13-14
There is the rest of the story.
The Son of Man in power and glory.
Ruling and reigning
Where He was always meant to be.
From the foundation of the world.

The cross was only part of the plan.
The crown in the culmination.
He was the baby in the manger.
He was the itinerant rabbi.
He was the suffering savior and the risen Lord.
He is and forevermore will be the King of Kings.
Enthroned. Exalted. Glorified.
The Son of Man points to that.

Jesus Is the Seed of Abraham

By Paula Wiseman

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. Galatians 3:16

Jesus is the seed of Abraham
What does that mean?
Thousands of years ago
God made a covenant
He gave land
He claimed a people for His own.
Abraham was the beginning of that line of people.

At first it was just a biological line
But later God revealed
He counted all those who BELIEVED His promises

Jesus is the fulfillment of those promises.
Promises to cover and remove sins.
Promises for a kingdom
For an identity
For blessings.
All in Christ.

Why does it matter?
Abraham had many descendants.
Paul stresses there is only one seed.
The Galatians (and many of us) struggle with grace.
They (and we) wanted to work for their salvation
Rather than working because of it.
They thought they had to do, or be, or become
In order to win God’s favor.

But the promises made to Abraham
And to his Seed
Show we already have God’s favor
In Christ.
In Christ alone.
In His finished work.

What Abraham anticipated
We participate in.
Through Jesus.

God made the promise.
The Spirit sealed the promise
Jesus fulfilled the promise.

We just have to believe.
Like Abraham.

Jesus Is the Savior

By Paula Wiseman

And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.” John 4:42

Jesus is the Savior.
So consider
Who can be saved?

He is the Savior of the world.
Not just Israel. Gentiles too.
Not just the righteous but sinners.
The unworthy. The hopeless. The powerless.
That’s us.
That’s me.

Saved from what?
The wrath and judgment of God for starters.
That’s amazing, no doubt.
But there’s more.

Jesus saves us from the penalty of sin.
We won’t receive the punishment we deserve
For our transgressions against the Holy God.

Jesus saves us from the power of sin.
We can overcome temptation
Through the Holy Spirit’s power.

Jesus saves us from the presence of sin.
We will spend eternity in the presence of Christ Himself.
There will be nothing unholy or unclean there.

We can say with the hymnwriter
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Jesus Is the Prophet

By Paula Wiseman

Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He will say to you (Acts 3:22).

Jesus Christ is greater than Moses.
Moses delivered the Law.
Jesus proclaimed grace.
Moses led Israel from slavery in Egypt.
Jesus rescued us from bondage to sin.

Moses miraculously provided bread in the desert.
Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life.
Moses interceded for the people when they faced God’s wrath.
Jesus took that wrath on Himself and satisfied God’s justice.

Moses spoke the words of God with the authority God gave him.
Jesus Christ spoke the words of God with His own authority.
But Moses knew Christ was coming.
Moses said we must listen to every word Jesus would say.

Hear every word.
Proclaimed by the Prophet, Jesus Christ.

Words like, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life,” (John 3:14-15).

Jesus Is the Only Begotten of the Father

By Paula Wiseman

And the Word became 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

Jesus alone is the only begotten of the Father.
Singularly, exceptionally.
It is unprecedented, unexplainable
That God would take on humanity.

Yet Jesus did.

He is unique in His mission.
No one else could be our Savior.

He is unique in His position.
The highly exalted Son who humbled Himself.

He is unique in His ability
To communicate the Father’s glory to us.

Because of what Jesus did,
He made a way that we, too, could be the
Children of God.