Introduction
Jesus has come to be known by many names: the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ, the Son of Man. All of these encompass one fact of His being; Jesus is the one and only promised Son of God sent to die as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. “If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.”[1]
The Incarnation
Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God. In order to fulfill His plan for redemption of the world fallen slave to sin, God needed to send someone to atone for the sins of all and take judgment onto themselves. To do this, He sent none other than Himself. God came to earth in a living, breathing human body for all to see and know, and His name was Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus was not only fully God, but He was also fully man. “Not only does the incarnation reveal God, but it also reveals man.”[2] He restored the image of God in man and showed us what it meant to live as one created in the image of God. This was only possible as one who was both God and man. Through not only His life but the very essence of who He is, we can understand more about our nature and the nature of God.
The Messiah
As previously stated, Jesus is now known by many names, one of which being the Messiah. However, we find that this is interestingly one name that Jesus rarely acknowledges. This is likely due in part to the connotation of the word at the time in His culture. The Jews believed that God would be sending someone to them to rescue them and establish His kingdom. We know that Jesus has done exactly that; however, He did it in a much different way than the Jews had come to imagine.
Jewish culture had shaped the Messiah into a kind of warrior that would take earthly kingship and free them from tyranny. At the time, this meant that he would overthrow the Romans hold over them and establish a new, unbeatable kingdom in the name of the God of Abraham. They never imagined that the kingdom of God that was to come would be a spiritual one ruled by peace and humility. Because of this, in the minds of the people the Messiah had taken on this role of vengeance and justice that was never intended to be.
Jesus presents Himself as one who would bear suffering and endure pain and betrayal in order to fulfill the will of His Father. Even His own disciples did not accept this role He was to play at the Messiah. One of the few places Jesus acknowledges Himself as the Messiah is to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. Likely, He chooses to reveal Himself to her in that way because she comes from a different culture that has a different understanding of who the Messiah is to be and what role He is to fulfill.
The Sender
Jesus’ life and being led up to one final act in His first time on earth: His death and resurrection. Surely, this was not simply an act to showcase His power and then leave humanity behind. Rather, He fulfilled His purpose of salvation for the world, just as God had promised through the many prophets who came before Him. Jesus fulfilled this promise by taking on the burden of our sin and dying a criminal’s death for our sake, being raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit that lived within Him, and finally sharing that same Spirit with us before He left to sit at the right hand of God the Father until it is His time to come again.
Jesus is the sender of the Holy Spirit. He Himself was sent by the Father to atone for our sins, and He then sent the Spirit to help anyone who accepts Him as Christ. “[Jesus] continued to sanctify human living by His obedience in the power of the Holy Spirit. The inner secret of His holy life was His loving relationship with His Father in the Spirit.”[3] Jesus wanted to share not only heaven and the new earth with us, but as the incarnation and revelation of God, He wanted to make it possible for us to share in His love for the Father. To do this, He sent His Holy Spirit to us before His return, that we may connect with Him and grow deeper in our love for the Father, just as Jesus Himself did.
Conclusion
Regardless of what title you may give Him, Jesus is the promised one from the beginning who God sent to be the salvation of the world. Jesus is the Word and is with God and is God. He is fully God and yet at the same time He is fully human. He is the Son, a loving member of the Holy Trinity. He is the one who was prophesied to crush the snake’s head; and He is the one who will one day return again to complete the redemption story and bring about the new heaven and new earth where we will live in perfect harmony as things were meant to be in the beginning.
Bibliography
Dunning, H. Ray. Grace, Faith, & Holiness, 686. Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 1988.
Noble, T. A. Holy Trinity: Holy People: The Historic Doctrine of Christian Perfecting, 239. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013.
[1] Romans 5:17-18.
[2] H. Ray Dunning, Grace, Faith, & Holiness (Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 1988), 686.
[3] T. A. Noble, Holy Trinity: Holy People: The Historic Doctrine of Christian Perfecting (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013), 239.