Who Is Jesus?

Fully God, fully human

Jesus is the most familiar name in history and the most misunderstood. The Bible's claim is not that he was merely a great teacher or a kind prophet, but something far harder to hold: that in Jesus, the infinite God became a real human being — born, hungry, tired, weeping at a friend's grave — without ceasing to be God. He is the point where heaven and earth meet in a single person.

What he came to do

He did not come mainly to give advice. He came to rescue. He lived the life we fail to live, and then went to the cross to take the death our wrong deserves — closing the gap between a holy God and people who had run from him. 'God so loved the world,' he said, 'that he gave his only Son.' The cross is not God punishing the innocent; it is God, in Christ, paying the debt himself.

The claim you can't set aside

Jesus said things no merely good man says: that he could forgive sins, that he existed before Abraham, that to see him was to see God. This leaves fewer exits than people think. A man who said such things is not simply a wise teacher — he is either deluded, a liar, or telling the truth. The Gospels invite you to look at his life, his death, and his empty tomb, and decide. He never asked to be admired. He asked to be followed.

Key Passages