Core Beliefs: Jesus

If you walk into any Christian church in the world and ask someone, “What do Christians believe?” there is a good chance you will get all kinds of different answers. I want to distill all those different things down to the irreducible core beliefs. Other things can be discussed and debated, but what is the essence of what it means to be a Christian?

In 1st Corinthians 15:3 Paul says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures…” This first importance teaching is what I want to ensure remains at the core of everything we do. I believe it breaks down into three parts:

• Jesus
• Grace
• Bible

Jesus is the big E on the eye chart. If you ever ask someone what it means to be a Christian and they don’t immediately start talking about Jesus, go talk to someone else. This is where it has to start. We are called Christians for a reason. When we talk about Christians believing in Jesus, that means belief in who he is and what he did.

Who is Jesus?

Let’s set the stage. The Jewish people had been hearing for hundreds of years about this coming anointed one who was going to save them. Think Isaiah 53 and Psalm 72 where we see a coming ruler who will be greater than David but who will be a suffering servant. In this time, the Romans were the rulers of the day and everyone was under their control. Some people imagined that the Messiah would be a new king that was able to strengthen Israel’s army and get them out from under Roman rule, but Jesus stepped onto the stage as a carpenter’s son from Nazareth and didn’t seek political power but made the outlandish claim that he was the Son of God.

When we say that Jesus is the “Son of God,” we mean that he is God. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). Paul said in Colossians 2:9, “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Hebrews 1:2–3 says, “In these last days God has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of His glory and the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.”

We understand Jesus to be God. He is not a mere man or a high-ranking angel in human form. He is truly man and truly God. He is of the same nature as God, not created, but begotten. You create a work of art, you make a sandwich, but you beget a son. So when we say that Jesus is the Son of God, we mean that God has begotten his Son in his very same divine nature, nothing less, from all eternity.

It is important to make two notes about Jesus’ relationship to God the Father. First, God the Father is not God the Son and God the Son is not God the Father; they are distinct persons and can relate to each other. Second, the Father and the Son are one God not two Gods, one essence, one divine nature. From all eternity, without any beginning, the Father has always had a perfect image of himself and a divine reflection or radiance equal to himself, namely, the Son.

The fact that Jesus is God should be enough for our devotion. He is the goal of our faith. Anyone who speaks of temporal blessings through Jesus or the future glory of heaven more than Jesus should not be trusted. We love the good gifts that Jesus gives us, but none of the gifts are greater than Jesus himself. He is the one in whom our souls find their rest.

What did Jesus do?

But, that reality is only true because of what he has done. We would have never been able to see Jesus as infinitely true and beautiful and the solution for the longing of our souls was it not for what he did. So what exactly did Jesus do?
He reconciled men to God through his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection.

We see it all in Romans 5:10, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” This is what Christians mean by salvation. We stand at odds with the Almighty Holy God because of our sin. In Jesus’ death, we can receive reconciliation, and in his resurrection, he defeated death and promises those that are reconciled that they will not suffer the ultimate consequences of their sin.

You see, when men die they are making the payment for their lives of sin. (Romans 6:23) But when Jesus died, he was lifted up as a sacrifice by God the Father. He died so we wouldn’t have to. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is what Martin Luther called the great exchange.

God lays our sins on Christ and punishes them in him. And in Christ’s obedient death, God credits his righteousness to us. Our sin on Christ; his righteousness on us. I can’t say it enough, Christ is God’s answer to our greatest problem.

Jesus is the first great pillar of the Christian faith. You can’t love Christ too much. You can’t think about him too much, or thank him too much, or depend upon him too much. All our forgiveness, all our justification, all our righteousness is in Christ.