Who is the real Jesus?

If you spend enough time in the Gospels, you begin to see Jesus, perhaps in a way you may never have seen Him before. Traditional Christian teachings tell us that Jesus came to earth from heaven, born of a virgin, the Son of God, our Prince of Peace. Angels sang at His birth and that He came to bring glad tidings of great joy to all people. Good news, yes?

Then we often see Him in pictures as a gentle shepherd holding a lost lamb, cradling it in his arms. We also see him nailed to a Roman cross, crucified in the most tortuous death imaginable to rise victorious three days later over death.

I know this is basic and concise, but it’s the picture most people, even those who have been taught the Scriptures know of Him. What we often don’t realize is that there is so much more than we could ever know of who Jesus really is. If He is who He claims to be, He is Emmanuel, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, I Am, the Alpha and Omega, Savior, Messiah, Redeemer, King of Kings and Lord of lords. And those are just a few of the names I can remember. Each one tells of His character and His purpose and who He truly is. And I challenge each one of us pray for discernment to fully grasp what most people want to ignore. Who is Jesus? Is He who He Himself claimed to be? If so, and we ignore Him and claim He meant something else, what does that say about us? What does that mean for us in the future?

I know, these questions are a lot to unpack, and I apologize in advance for the length of this blog post. But knowing God…knowing Jesus, the real Jesus, not the man-made version of Him…affects every single person on the planet and their eternal future. So I unapologetically offer you what Jesus claims about Himself, not my opinion, and would ask you to seek the truth for yourself, lest the many voices of our culture deceive you into thinking you can create your own more palatable Jesus.

But before I focus on today, let’s look at the culture Jesus was born into. The people with whom He interacted.

The religious leaders of the Jews didn’t recognize Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah because they were looking for a military leader to free them from the oppression of Rome.

His closest disciples weren’t listening (or ignored His words) when He told them He was going to die and rise again. They were too busy arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom.

Some of the women who followed Him were paying attention to His words. One anointed Him in preparation for His burial. The women stayed with Him at the cross, watching Him die. They were the first ones to return to His tomb the day after Shabbat when He rose from the grave.

The people of His day were fickle. Some believed He was their Messiah. After all, He’d fulfilled many of the prophecies and who else could raise the dead or heal the blind or cast out demons? But they didn’t really understand His mission. They couldn’t imagine that their Messiah could die. Especially if they believed He was God in flesh dwelling among them. How on earth could God die?

The leaders couldn’t accept Him because He broke their man-made traditions. He messed with their power and threatened their authority. He was a radical, calling them hypocrites and white-washed tombs. Can you imagine how they must have felt? Of course, they didn’t believe He was God, but having a popular preacher call you a brood of vipers didn’t set well.

In fact, He was such a threat to them that they plotted to kill Him. And when they succeeded, they were glad. They mocked Him. I wonder what they thought of Him when Jerusalem was sacked in 70 A.D. and they lost their power anyway.

Today, many people of different faiths, even those claiming to be Christians, want to re-invent this Jesus of the Bible to suit their liking. They don’t like this radical king any more than the Pharisees did.

And let’s face it, we live in a culture that does not want to accept blame for anything. We don’t want to feel guilty, therefore, there is no way we can admit that we are sinners in need of a Savior. The new “Jesus” is a social reformer, someone who cares for the poor and needy, and tells us all to just love one another. He’s the kind and gentle teacher, not the radical redeemer who calls us out on our sin and had to make atonement for it so we could live. If He actually did have to die to atone for our sin, then we’d have to admit that there is a God we’re accountable to. How can we accept this atonement if we won’t admit our own guilt and sinfulness? It takes courage and humility to surrender to a Holy God.

In my studies for my current book on Mary Magdalene, which put me in Jesus’ path often, I came across a rabbi who said, “I know the New Testament teaches that Jesus’ coming was to make atonement for man’s sin. But why did a man have to die for man’s sin? God could forgive men their sins simply by confessing them directly to Him. It is blasphemous to believe that a holy God would allow an innocent man to die for another man’s sin. We do live in an unredeemed world, but God is accessible to all men and they do not need an intermediary. All who believe in God and live righteously have a share in the Kingdom of God.”

Really? These words apparently came from a conservative rabbi and yet he believes that all we need to do to be forgiven by a Holy God (whom we have offended and broken faith with) is to confess directly to God. But even the Old Testament has taught from the beginning that the shedding of blood is necessary for God to forgive sins. Leviticus 17:11 says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”

The New Testament tells us that without the shedding of blood there is NO forgiveness of sins. There is no forgiveness without Jesus penal substitutionary death on the cross. But if we refuse to see ourselves as having a need of a Savior, we aren’t going to want to think Jesus had to die for those sins. And if we don’t accept that teaching, then we can reinvent him into the image that is more palatable, yes?

It isn’t pleasant to think about Jesus’ tortured and bloodied body, nailed to a cross. It’s far more pleasant to just see Jesus as a good teacher who came to show us a good way to live. To love our neighbors as ourselves and do unto others as we’d have them do to us. That’s good enough, isn’t it?

The thing is, we can’t simply have parts of Jesus and discard the things we don’t like. We might wish we could do that with anyone we find fault with, but just because we don’t like something about someone doesn’t mean we can just pretend that part of the person doesn’t exist.

And Jesus didn’t come to earth to simply give us a new philosophy to try to live by. He came to radically change us, and He caused a shift in the universe when He died and rose again.

It is not a kindness to tell people that Christianity teaches us to just be nice to each other and do good works and one day we will live in heaven if we’re good enough. If we just confess our guilt without surrendering our will to God, without accepting His atoning sacrifice on our behalf, then confession doesn’t mean much.

Jesus came from heaven to earth to preach repentance because the kingdom of heaven was at hand. He came to fulfill prophesy given to Eve at the beginning of time when God said that her seed would crush the serpent’s head and the serpent (the devil) would strike her offspring’s heel. God was speaking of Jesus, the Redeemer, whom God had already planned would make a way to fix what Adam and Eve broke when they sinned.

We’ve needed a Redeemer since that time, and if we think God is somehow cruel to want blood to pay for our sins (yes, we all have them), then we don’t understand a Holy God.

I know this is a long commentary. But I would ask anyone who struggles with the real Jesus of the Bible or thinks they can pick and choose which parts about Him they like and don’t like and make their own Jesus, to ask God to show you the truth. Study ALL of Scripture and ask for insight to understand why God’s holiness demands blood sacrifice, but then also ask for insight to really see how much Jesus loves you that He would go to such lengths, even to die, just to buy you back from the mess you (and me) are all living in.

No one gets out of this life without having to face Almighty God. We can deny Him all we want on this earth, but death is the great equalizer and that is where we will meet Him. Of course, if we believe in Him before that day, which anyone can do if we but ask, our experience in His presence will be much different than it will if we continue to create Jesus in our own image.

He was made to be like us so that we could be like Him. He is the standard, and it’s not just a good person that He wants us to be. It’s a radically transformed life He wants to give us and to set us free from the sin in our hearts – even if we want to deny that it’s there. Anyone who looks at themselves honestly knows it is there.

And once we can finally face God honestly and read His word honestly and with humility and ask for His discernment and wisdom to understand His words, we will be a lot closer to realizing why Jesus came and why He had to die and why His resurrection can give us eternal life. But it starts with us seeking Him honestly.

Whoever seeks Him will find Him if they seek Him with all their heart.

~Selah