Who Is Jesus Christ?
All things were made by Him. There is simply nothing in creation that this Man didn’t make. Who do you say this is? We say more than a man, and far more than the modern world understands Him to be.
There have been many great men of God down through the ages of time, but there has never been a man quite like this Man. He created the world, and all that there is, yet the world knew Him not. He was the fountain of all good things, and yet He was rejected and despised by those He loved, and came to save. In Romans 5 Paul says,
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Christians throughout the world would say they know who He is, but I wonder, do they really? In Sunday services around the world, worship leaders lift up song and praise, and millions of sincere people join in the anthems. Yet the Bible teaches us that God must be worshiped in Truth, or it is not received in Heaven as true worship. Is this Truth to be defined as correct teaching alone, or is Truth more than just sound doctrine?
This article will remind readers that many will come on the day of reckoning and discover to their shock and dismay that their worship was in vain, since it failed to meet the criteria of the Word, and in fact the worshiper will discover that he or she was never known at all by, or approved of God, though he or she carried out many religious acts and deeds.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Matthew 15:8-9 “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
It will not be the sinner, the adulterer, the drunkard, the murderer or the thief that will be disappointed on that day. Rather, it will be the man or woman who thought they were right, who will be disappointed on that great Judgment Day.
A verse that we need to pay close attention to is found in Hebrews 13:8,
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
Before we can enlarge on Who He is, we need to debunk a few erroneous ideas, and take a bit of space here to show who he is NOT.
He is NOT a second person in a three-person Godhead. While the doctrine of the “Godhead” is covered more exhaustively on this site elsewhere, in an article by that name. We will touch upon what could be fairly considered the most devious aspect of this devilish error, as we attempt to explain it.
Satan’s use of the “trinity” teaching, to accomplish his “will” in the last days
Isaiah 14:12-14 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
We see in this passage that the ultimate “will” of Satan in his long-term plan is to ascend back to the place where he was deposed. His “will” is to go back and take over God’s creation, taking the place of the great worshiped Being of the heavens and earth. A great question is, how will Satan accomplish this? How would he return back to the city of God, the very place where he was defeated and cast down from? The answer is obvious: through man, God’s masterpiece creation.
(verse 13) “…I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”.
All Bible students realize that the stars of God spoken of here are the sons of God, of which Jesus is the firstborn.
Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
God has a family, and that family is destined to reign with Christ over the creation,
Revelation 11:15 “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.”
1 Timothy 2:11-12 “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”
Of course, Satan had found out the hard way that he cannot defeat the Spirit of God, but realizing that God would have a family created in his own image, he devised a plan to remove God through his family, just as Absalom tried in the days of King David, his father (II Samuel 15).
Satan has been working on this grand scheme down through the ages, and a further study on this would make for another whole topic on this website. But to speak of it briefly, we need only look at Satan’s near success when he led Adam to sin against God’s Word, Genesis 3:6, then again in leading that great prophet Noah to plant a vineyard and be nearly ruined in his drunkenness, Genesis 9:20; then again nearly trapping Abraham in lies and deceit in Genesis 12:13; and again in Genesis 20:2. We can go on and on, speaking of the angry loss of temper by Moses in striking the rock, that rock represented Christ, or the murderous plot of David in the taking of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, after being caught in an adultery affair.