Who really was Jesus Christ?

Many people share the opinion that Jesus taught, for example, how to lead a proper, godly life, Jesus taught virtues (how to treat other people, how to love God and neighbor, how to be honest before people) and set an example with his life. He taught people how to fulfill God's Commandments, given to the Jews by God through Moses. Much in every popular religion is said that Jesus was a prophet and teacher of godly life. But all this is not the main thing that Jesus Christ brought to people during his earthly life.

The first thing that Jesus revealed was how to come to God, how to gain eternal life. He said – "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." (John 14:6-31). Jesus Christ declared that He is the only way through whom we can come to God after our earthly life, that is, how we can receive eternal life with God (Acts 4:12, John 14:6, 1 Timothy 2:5).

Moreover, Jesus not only taught how to receive eternal life with God, but He, according to the will of the Father, paved the way for people to God by dying on the cross and being resurrected. Being both man and God, He built a bridge between the sinful human world and Almighty God Himself. In this way, everyone can have eternal life by believing in Jesus as Lord and choosing to follow Jesus, imitating His example (Ephesians 2:8-9, James 2:17-18).
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You have just read my statements claiming that Jesus is God, and that it is through Jesus Christ that forgiveness of sins and eternal life can be obtained. You may ask, "What evidence is there that this is really so?" It is to this question that I will devote most of this article.

The first thing to prove or disprove is the divinity of Jesus Christ, and how it is possible to live in an eternal relationship with God through trusting the word of Christ. After all, only God or a God-man can offer such a privilege – eternal life and an eternal relationship with God. To answer these questions, the first thing to check are the primary sources that directly give us the ground for research and evidence:

• 1 Peter 2:22 says that Jesus lived a sinless life.
• Jesus was God before He was born, then He became a man (John 1:1,14 – “The Word became flesh”).
• Jesus proclaimed himself to be God. Before the Pharisees and scribes, and even while being crucified on the cross, Jesus did not deny His divinity.
• The Holy Scripture also indicate that Jesus lived the life he taught. His example matched his words (teachings). Everything he said to his disciples and the people who listened to his Sermon on the Mount matched reality – that is, it came true. Therefore, we cannot attribute any of this to lies or accuse Jesus of falsehood in his statements. Moreover, much of who he was and what he accomplished during his earthly life matches prophecies from prophets who lived long before Jesus was born.
• Jesus Christ died on the cross (John 19:31-42), taking the punishment we deserve (2 Corinthians 5:21). [3] This was also testified to in prophecies, such as Isaiah 53:4-5. Jesus himself foretold that this would happen to Him (Matthew 20:17-19; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 18:31-34).
• Jesus predicts what will happen in the future (for example, from Matthew 24:4-6). And also about the immediate future for Him: His own death on the cross, the descent of the Holy Spirit, the founding of the Church of Christ, the fall of Jerusalem.

So we see that Jesus, by His words and actions, did not claim to be simply a great spiritual teacher. Kenneth Scott Laurette, professor of the history of Christianity at Yale University, said:

Jesus is not great for his teachings alone, although that would be enough to secure him a place in history. The main thing is the combination of his teachings and his person. This is the case when the teachings and the teacher are inseparable. It should be clear to every thoughtful reader of the Gospel that Jesus considered his words inseparable from himself. He was a great teacher, but he was not only a great teacher. His teachings about the kingdom of God, about human behavior and about God were very important, but they cannot be perceived separately from Jesus himself; he believed that such a separation deprives his words of any meaning.

I once read a book by the English writer Clive Lewis, "Mere Christianity." He writes the following:

We mostly ignore some of what he (Jesus) said because we have heard it so often that we are no longer surprised. It is about the forgiveness of sins - all sins. Unless these words are spoken by God himself, they sound completely absurd or even comical. Each of us understands how a person forgives when someone offends him. You stepped on my foot, but I forgive you; you stole my money - okay, I forgive that too. But what about a man who has never stepped on his foot and has never had money stolen from him, and he takes it and says: they say, I forgive you for stepping on someone's foot and stealing someone's money? "You fool, you shine" - that would be perhaps the most gentle way to characterize such behavior. And yet that is exactly what Jesus did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, but he never asked the opinions of those who were undoubtedly directly affected by them. Without a moment's hesitation, he acted as if all these sins concerned him first and foremost, as if he were the one who was most harmed. This makes sense only on one condition: if he really is God, whose laws are violated and whose love is wounded by every sin. In the mouth of anyone other than God, these words, in my opinion, would only indicate a stupidity and arrogance unprecedented in the history of mankind.
However, this is a truly amazing and very important thing: even his enemies, reading the Gospels, usually did not have the impression that these words were dictated by stupidity or arrogance. Readers are impartial and even more so. Christ says that he is "gentle and lowly in heart," and we believe him, not paying attention to the fact that if he were only a man, "gentle and lowly" are not the first words that come to mind when you try to describe some of his statements. With all this I am trying to discourage people from saying the really stupid things that are often used about Christ: "I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I do not accept the claim that he is a divinity." We should not say that. A simple man who said things like Jesus would not be a great teacher. He would be considered either mentally ill - on the level of a person who thinks he is a boiled egg, or a devil from hell. You have to make your choice. This man was (and is) the Son of God, or he is crazy or something worse... You can consider him crazy, you can spit on him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let's refrain from this condescending nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He didn't leave us that option. He didn't intend to do that.

From the history of Jesus' life, especially the last three years before the crucifixion, it can be seen that everything Jesus did was truly moral and impeccably pure. None of the Pharisees or scribes could catch Him in a trick or find any arguments to expose Him in any sin. Jesus identified Himself with the divine essence, and this was in harmony with the numerous prophecies about the Messiah, who was to die as a Lamb. The Gospels show that He was not only a prophet, not only a spiritual teacher. He met the physical and spiritual needs of people, radiating God's goodness and God's character to those around Him. He knew the thoughts of people and repeatedly showed their true spiritual needs, knowing their lives as God knows them. But beyond all this, He took upon Himself the function of forgiving sins, as I quoted Clive Lewis above – and actually forgave on behalf of God, since it was before God that man sinned (Matthew 9:2-6).

Jesus could not have been a fool or a lunatic, for that would be contrary to his purity, his moral greatness, his nobility, his calmness, his clear mind. The whole Gospel is permeated with the depth and majesty of his teaching, which is amenable to logic and common sense.

The evidence we have, as well as the external and internal testimonies of the Bible [4], testify that Jesus is the Son of God. If this is true, if Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, then an important choice looms before us: either accept him as Savior from our sins, or ignore him and live as if God does not exist or a relationship with him is impossible. If we believe in him and accept the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, if we take it seriously, then Christ’s death reconciles us to God and allows us to start all over again in a spiritual way – realizing a holy life that is pleasing to God.

Those who have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord have first of all accepted His punishment for their own sins. They have also accepted a new life, justified by faith in the resurrected Christ.

Believing in Christ is not just some formal recognition of the fact of His earthly life on earth, death and resurrection. It is the belief that God came down from heaven to this world to take on the sins of humanity and your own. This means that if you believe that Jesus is God who died and rose again for you, then you are already saved. This is a turning point for a person, which separates his old (past) and new life. The new life (or, as Jesus said, birth from above) encourages you to become more and more like Jesus Christ, to obey God, and to be His witness to other people, regardless of where your life path has taken you.

Jesus' followers knew who Jesus was. The apostle Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." After hearing the testimony of the woman at Jacob's well and listening to Jesus himself, the Samaritans in a neighboring village confessed: "We know that this is indeed the Savior of the world" (John 4:42). After Jesus’ resurrection, when the apostle Thomas saw Jesus, he confessed and said to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28–29). [1] What about you, who do you think Jesus is?

Used sources:
1. Who Is Jesus Christ?
2. Is salvation by faith alone, or by faith plus works?
3. Got Eternal Life?
4. Is the Bible reliable?