Who Is Jesus?

As children, we grow up hearing stories about God.

Our families tell us the story about God and the rainbow… that God watches over children, maybe as a means for behavior modification or to get them to sleep at night… that God created the world… God’s promises come true and I think that’s the way of it with child rearing in America and in many places around the world. But, if you do not grow up in a “Christian” home, you do not hear so much about Jesus. So it was for me and my brothers. And because he wasn’t talked about in stories or explained, there was a secret, mysterious cloud that shrouded the figure of Jesus, his life and his mission, despite his name being mentioned practically every day, hence our curiosity. We heard his name a lot, especially when we were in trouble. In fact, we measured the usage of his name as a meter to know when we were in the worst of trouble. You see, we believed if my mother used both his names, first and last i.e. Jesus Christ, then trouble was definitely coming and we better escape outside and disappear for awhile.

All people eventually ask the question, ‘Who is Jesus’? Maybe we are drawn to it because of circumstances swirling around us… or while watching clouds, or because of something we have heard, but at any rate, we all ask, ‘Who is Jesus’?

One of the eyewitness and close friends of Jesus was inspired by God to write a summation of him.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Everything that was created received its life from him and his life gave light to everyone” (John 1: 1-4).

Simplicius of Cilicia, a Platonic philosopher in the 4th century, once told a friend, that these words were “worthy to be written in letters of gold”, and they are.

These verses parallel the first verses in the bible “In the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1) and they are meant to. The passage is telling us that God in the human form was not a created being, but eternal. Jesus’ existence was with God from the beginning and before the world had a beginning…
The eternity of God is also described in Psalms 90:2, “You have always been God. Before the mountains were brought forth”.

Christ is the Word. For “by him God has in these last days spoken to us” (Hebrews 1:2). Jesus, the Christ has made known God’s mind to us, as a man’s word or speech makes known his thoughts. He is the Word because “no one has ever seen God, [except] the only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like” (John 1: 18).

Christ is the Word and he “became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us” (John 1: 14).

Christ is the Word and God from a bright cloud has “directed us to hear him” (Matthew 17:5).

Christ is the Word and he announced it himself when there is no one to explain it or to share his story. He said… John 3:13; John 6:46; John 6:62; John 8:14; John 8:58; John 16:28 and John 17:5.

Christ is the Word “and with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Everything that was created received its life from him, and his life gave light to everyone. The light keeps shining in the dark” (John 1:3)

The Word of Christ shines forth, once veiled with the cloud of human flesh… He that was in the beginning, never began, and therefore was ever and shines forth for you.