There may be no more important question a human being can answer than this:
Who is Jesus Christ?
Not who does your family say He is. Not who does your church say He is. Not who does the culture say He is. Not who do historians say He was.
Who is Jesus to you?
Some call Him a great teacher. Some consider Him a prophet. Some admire His teachings about love, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion while rejecting everything else Scripture says about Him. Others believe Jesus was created by God or that He began His existence when He was born in Bethlehem.
But that is not the Jesus revealed in Scripture.
The Bible makes an extraordinary claim: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but He is also God. He existed before Bethlehem. He existed before Abraham. He existed before the earth. He was there in the beginning, and everything that exists was created through Him.
Bethlehem was not the beginning of Jesus.
It was the moment the eternal Word entered human flesh.
And John begins his Gospel by making sure we understand exactly who Jesus is.
Q: WHAT DOES JOHN 1 SAY ABOUT JESUS?
John doesn’t begin with Mary, Joseph, Bethlehem, shepherds, or a manger. He takes us farther back than that.
He takes us before creation itself:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” — John 1:1
Every part of that statement matters.
“In the beginning was the Word.”
When the beginning began, the Word already was.
Then John says:
“The Word was with God.”
There is distinction.
Then:
“The Word was God.”
There is deity.
John isn’t describing an ordinary human being who later became important. He is introducing us to someone who existed eternally and possessed the nature of God.
Then John removes any possibility of misunderstanding:
“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” — John 1:3
Everything created was made through Him.
That means Jesus Himself cannot belong to the category of created things.
He is the Creator.
Q: HOW DO WE KNOW “THE WORD” IS JESUS?
Because John tells us.
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” — John 1:14
The eternal Word didn’t cease being who He was.
He became flesh.
He entered human history.
He experienced hunger.
Thirst.
Exhaustion.
Pain.
Temptation.
Rejection.
Grief.
And eventually death.
The One through whom the universe was created entered His own creation.
That is Jesus Christ.
Q: SO DID JESUS EXIST BEFORE MARY GAVE BIRTH TO HIM?
Absolutely.
Jesus Himself said:
“Before Abraham was, I am.” — John 8:58
Notice He did not merely say:
“Before Abraham was, I was.”
He said:
“I AM.”
That language immediately recalls God’s revelation to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:14:
“I AM THAT I AM.”
Jesus’ audience understood the significance of what He had said. The very next verse says they picked up stones to throw at Him.
Why?
Because they understood He was making an extraordinary claim concerning His identity.
Jesus wasn’t saying:
I am older than Abraham.
He was saying something much greater.
Q: IS JESUS ACTUALLY CALLED GOD IN THE BIBLE?
Yes.
John 1:1 says:
“The Word was God.”
After the resurrection, Thomas saw Jesus and declared:
“My Lord and my God.” — John 20:28
Jesus did not correct him.
Paul wrote concerning Christ:
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” — Colossians 2:9
Hebrews speaks of the Son and records:
“Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever…” — Hebrews 1:8
Scripture does not present Jesus merely as a messenger delivering information about God.
Jesus reveals God because He shares the divine nature.
Q: BUT IF JESUS IS GOD, HOW CAN HE ALSO BE THE SON OF GOD?
This is where we must allow Scripture to define God rather than forcing God into the limitations of human experience.
The Bible teaches there is one God.
“The LORD our God is one LORD.” — Deuteronomy 6:4
Yet Scripture reveals the Father as God, the Son as God, and the Holy Spirit as divine, while maintaining that God is one.
Jesus is not the Father.
The Father is not the Son.
Yet the Son shares the divine nature.
We see their distinction clearly at Jesus’ baptism. Jesus is in the water, the Spirit descends, and the Father’s voice speaks from heaven.
Christianity does not teach three gods.
It teaches one God, revealed in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We may struggle to fully comprehend that reality, but difficulty comprehending God should not surprise us.
If the Creator of space, time, matter, life, consciousness, and the universe could be completely contained within the limits of the human mind, He wouldn’t be much of a God.
Q: DID JESUS ACTUALLY CREATE THE UNIVERSE?
Yes.
John says:
“All things were made by him.” — John 1:3
Paul says concerning Christ:
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible…” — Colossians 1:16
Then Paul continues:
“All things were created by him, and for him.”
And then:
“And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” — Colossians 1:17
Stop and consider what that means.
The One who later walked the dusty roads of Galilee created the world beneath His feet.
The One who looked upward at the stars created the stars.
The One who entered a boat created the sea.
The One who multiplied bread created the grain.
The One who turned water into wine created water.
The One who opened blind eyes designed the human eye.
The One who raised Lazarus created life itself.
And the hands eventually nailed to a Roman cross were the hands of the One through whom all things were created.
That changes how you look at Calvary.
Q: WAS JESUS INVOLVED IN CREATION IN GENESIS?
Genesis begins:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” — Genesis 1:1
John intentionally begins his Gospel with similar language:
“In the beginning was the Word…”
John is taking us back to Genesis and telling us something about the identity of the Creator.
The New Testament repeatedly teaches that creation came through Christ.
Hebrews says God made the worlds through His Son.
Colossians says everything visible and invisible was created through Him and for Him.
John says nothing that was made was made without Him.
Jesus did not first appear in the biblical story in Matthew chapter one.
He was there before Genesis 1:1 became history.
Q: THEN WHAT HAPPENED AT BETHLEHEM?
The Creator entered creation.
That is what makes the birth of Christ so extraordinary.
We often make the manger sentimental. We picture Mary, Joseph, animals, shepherds, and a baby.
But think about who that baby was.
The universe could not contain His glory, yet He allowed Himself to be held in Mary’s arms.
The One who created humanity entered humanity.
The One who needed nothing allowed Himself to experience hunger.
The One who created human lungs took His first human breath.
The One who created human hands wrapped His tiny fingers around Mary’s.
The eternal Word:
“was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
That is not merely a beautiful Christmas story.
That is one of the most staggering claims ever made.
God came near.
Q: DID JESUS GIVE UP BEING GOD WHEN HE BECAME HUMAN?
No.
Jesus became genuinely human without ceasing to be divine.
Philippians 2 describes Christ as existing in the form of God, yet humbling Himself and taking the form of a servant.
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” — Philippians 2:8
Jesus did not come to earth displaying divine glory in a way that overwhelmed everyone around Him.
He humbled Himself.
He served.
He washed feet.
He touched lepers.
He ate with people society rejected.
He allowed Himself to be mocked.
Beaten.
Spit upon.
Nailed to wood.
The Creator allowed His creation to reject Him.
That isn’t weakness.
That is unimaginable humility.
Q: WHY DID JESUS COME?
Because humanity had a problem it could not solve.
Sin.
Jesus said:
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” — Luke 19:10
He did not come merely to improve civilization.
He didn’t come merely to give motivational speeches.
He didn’t come merely to demonstrate kindness.
He came because humanity was separated from God by sin and needed reconciliation.
John the Baptist saw Jesus and declared:
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” — John 1:29
The Creator came to rescue His creation.
Q: WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?
Because sin carries a price.
God is loving, but God is also just.
The cross is where mercy and justice meet.
Jesus lived without sin, yet willingly gave Himself for sinners.
Peter wrote:
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree…” — 1 Peter 2:24
The cross wasn’t an accident.
Jesus wasn’t simply a good man who unfortunately got killed.
He repeatedly told His disciples what was coming.
He willingly went to Jerusalem.
He willingly gave Himself.
Jesus said:
“No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.” — John 10:18
The nails held His body to the cross.
But love is why He went there.
Q: COULD JESUS HAVE STOPPED THE CRUCIFIXION?
Yes.
When Jesus was arrested, Peter tried to defend Him with a sword.
Jesus stopped him and said He could appeal to His Father and receive more than twelve legions of angels.
Jesus was not powerless.
Think about that while reading the crucifixion.
They mocked the One who created their mouths.
They struck the One who gave strength to their arms.
They drove nails through the hands of the One who created them.
They lifted the Creator of the universe onto a cross made from a tree that existed because He created it.
And Jesus stayed.
Not because Rome was stronger.
Not because the religious leaders had defeated Him.
Because there was something being accomplished that humanity desperately needed.
Redemption.
Q: DID JESUS REALLY RISE FROM THE DEAD?
The resurrection is the foundation of Christianity.
Jesus was crucified.
He died.
He was buried.
Then on the third day:
the tomb was empty.
His disciples claimed to have encountered Him alive.
Paul summarized the message in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4:
“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures… he was buried… he rose again the third day.”
Paul then makes Christianity extraordinarily testable in principle:
“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” — 1 Corinthians 15:14
Christianity does not ultimately rest on the idea that Jesus taught some nice things.
It rests upon the claim that Jesus Christ walked out of the grave.
Q: WHY DOES THE RESURRECTION MATTER?
Because if Jesus remained dead, death won.
But He didn’t.
The resurrection declares that the grave does not have final authority over Christ.
Jesus said:
“I am the resurrection, and the life.” — John 11:25
Notice what He didn’t say.
He didn’t merely say:
I know how resurrection works.
He said:
I AM the resurrection.
Christian hope is not ultimately placed in an idea.
It is placed in a Person.
Q: IS JESUS ONE WAY TO GOD OR THE ONLY WAY?
Jesus answered that Himself:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” — John 14:6
That statement leaves very little room for turning Jesus into merely one spiritual teacher among many.
He did not say:
I know a way.
He said:
I am the way.
He did not say:
I teach some truth.
He said:
I am the truth.
He did not say:
I can improve your life.
He said:
I am the life.
That claim is either breathtakingly true or impossibly arrogant.
Jesus does not leave us comfortably in the middle.
Q: DID JESUS CLAIM UNITY WITH THE FATHER?
Yes.
Jesus said:
“I and my Father are one.” — John 10:30
Again, His audience understood this as an extraordinary claim. They prepared to stone Him, explaining:
“because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” — John 10:33
Jesus also told Philip:
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” — John 14:9
This doesn’t mean Jesus and the Father are the same Person. Jesus repeatedly speaks to the Father and distinguishes Himself from the Father.
It means that if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.
Want to understand God’s compassion?
Look at Jesus touching the leper.
Want to understand God’s mercy?
Look at Jesus forgiving.
Want to understand God’s hatred of hypocrisy?
Listen to Jesus confront religious pretenders.
Want to understand God’s love?
Look at the cross.
Q: WHY DID JESUS FORGIVE SINS?
This is another powerful indication of His identity.
In Mark 2, a paralyzed man was brought to Jesus.
Before healing the man’s body, Jesus told him:
“Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.”
The religious teachers immediately thought:
“Who can forgive sins but God only?”
Their basic theological observation was correct.
Ultimately, sin is against God, and God has authority to forgive it.
Jesus then healed the paralyzed man as evidence that the Son of Man possessed authority on earth to forgive sins.
Jesus wasn’t merely telling people:
God forgives you.
He personally exercised the authority to forgive.
Q: DID JESUS ACCEPT WORSHIP?
Yes.
After Jesus walked on water and entered the boat, His disciples:
“worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.” — Matthew 14:33
After the resurrection, His followers worshiped Him.
Thomas called Him:
“My Lord and my God.”
Jesus accepted this worship.
That matters because faithful servants of God elsewhere in Scripture refuse worship that belongs to God.
Jesus did not.
Q: WHAT DOES “SON OF GOD” ACTUALLY MEAN?
People sometimes hear “Son of God” and imagine Jesus as a lesser being created after God, almost as though God existed first and eventually produced Jesus.
That is not John’s teaching.
John simultaneously tells us:
The Word was with God.
And:
The Word was God.
The language of Father and Son describes a relationship within the divine identity; it does not mean Jesus was a created being.
Hebrews describes the Son as:
“the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person…” — Hebrews 1:3
Jesus is not merely similar to God.
He reveals God uniquely because of who He is.
Q: WHAT DID JESUS MEAN WHEN HE SAID “IF YE LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS”?
Jesus said:
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” — John 14:15
That verse destroys the idea that Christianity is merely claiming to believe Jesus existed.
Biblical faith changes allegiance.
If Jesus is Lord, His words matter.
If Jesus is King, His commands matter.
If Jesus died for you, how you live matters.
Grace isn’t permission to live however we want while occasionally saying Jesus’ name.
Jesus Himself asked:
“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” — Luke 6:46
Those words should make every Christian examine himself.
It is easy to wear a cross.
Easy to post a verse.
Easy to say:
I love Jesus.
The harder question is:
Does my life agree?
Q: IS BELIEVING JESUS EXISTS ENOUGH?
No.
James makes the point brutally clear:
“The devils also believe, and tremble.” — James 2:19
Biblical faith is not simply acknowledging God’s existence.
Faith trusts.
Faith obeys.
Faith repents.
Faith follows.
Jesus told people:
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” — Matthew 16:24
Christianity isn’t:
Jesus, follow me while I live however I want.
Christianity is:
Jesus, I will follow You.
Q: WHAT DOES JESUS ASK US TO BECOME?
Not perfect people who never fail.
Faithful people who belong to Him.
Jesus calls sinners to repentance.
He calls us away from the old life.
He calls us to love God completely and love our neighbor.
He calls us to forgive.
Serve.
Tell the truth.
Resist temptation.
Love our enemies.
Care for people.
Remain faithful.
And when we fall, we don’t redefine sin to make ourselves comfortable.
We repent.
We get back up.
And we continue following Christ.
Q: WILL JESUS RETURN?
Yes.
The Jesus who came the first time in humility will not return in the same manner.
The first time, He came as a baby.
The next time, He comes as King.
Acts 1 records that after Jesus ascended, angels told the disciples:
“This same Jesus… shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” — Acts 1:11
The New Testament repeatedly looks forward to Christ’s return.
And when He comes, the question will no longer be whether humanity wants to debate His identity.
Philippians says:
“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow…” — Philippians 2:10
And:
“every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” — Philippians 2:11
Every knee.
Kings.
Presidents.
Billionaires.
Atheists.
Preachers.
Celebrities.
Prisoners.
The forgotten.
You.
Me.
Every knee.
Q: WHO IS JESUS?
He is the Word who was there in the beginning.
He is the Word who was with God.
He is the Word who was God.
He is the One through whom everything was created.
He is the One who became flesh.
He is the Son of God.
He is the Son of Man.
He is the Lamb of God.
He is Lord.
He is Savior.
He is King.
He is the resurrection and the life.
He is the way.
He is the truth.
He is the life.
He is the One who died.
He is the One who rose.
He is the One who reigns.
And He is the One who will return.
BUT NOW COMES THE QUESTION THAT MATTERS
We can spend hours discussing theology.
We can examine Greek words.
We can debate doctrine.
We can quote John 1.
We can prove from Scripture that Jesus existed before Bethlehem.
We can show that He participated in creation.
We can demonstrate that Scripture calls Him God.
All of that matters.
But eventually theology becomes personal.
Jesus once asked His disciples what people were saying about Him. They gave several answers. Some said John the Baptist. Others Elijah. Others Jeremiah or another prophet.
Then Jesus turned the question directly toward them:
“But whom say ye that I am?” — Matthew 16:15
That question has traveled through two thousand years and eventually reaches you.
Not your preacher.
Not your parents.
Not your spouse.
Not your friends.
You.
Who do you say Jesus is?
Because if Jesus really is who Scripture says He is, then He cannot simply be a small part of your life.
If He created you, He has authority over you.
If He died for you, His love demands a response.
If He rose from the dead, death does not have the final word.
If He is Lord, following Him isn’t a hobby.
And if He is coming again, you need to be ready.
WHO IS JESUS TO YOU?
Maybe that is the question we should end with.
Is Jesus someone you only think about on Sunday?
A name you use when you’re scared?
A person you pray to only when life falls apart?
A religious figure from childhood?
A picture hanging somewhere in your house?
A verse in your social-media biography?
Or is He truly your Lord?
Because there is a tremendous difference between knowing about Jesus and belonging to Jesus.
Judas knew Jesus personally.
He heard the sermons.
Saw the miracles.
Walked beside Him.
And still betrayed Him.
Knowing facts about Christ is not the same as surrendering your life to Christ.
One day every possession you have will belong to somebody else. Your house will have another owner. Someone else will drive your car. Your career will become a memory. Your body will return to the earth. Your name will eventually stop being spoken by people who personally knew you.
And when everything this world gave you has been stripped away, one question will matter more than all the others:
Who was Jesus to you?
For me, the answer Scripture demands is clear:
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is God the Son. He is the Creator who entered His creation, the Savior who went to the cross, the risen Lord who defeated the grave, and the King who is coming again.
He isn’t simply part of the story.
The story exists because of Him.
“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” — John 1:3
Before Bethlehem—
He was.
Before Abraham—
He was.
Before creation—
He was.
When the universe began—
He was there.
When your life began—
He knew you.
When He went to Calvary—
He died for sinners.
When the stone was rolled away—
He was alive.
And when this world reaches its final day—
Jesus Christ will still be Lord.
So the question is no longer merely:
Who is Jesus?
Scripture has answered that.
The question is:
WHO IS JESUS TO YOU?
RESTORED LIFE AFTER
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