Who is Jesus?

Christmas time seems an especially appropriate moment to reflect on: who is the wonderful person who entered our world as a little baby so long ago?

The text below is from a Sunday School I did recently (apologies for the poor sound quality). I sought to answer the question above as comprehensively as I could, considering the whole witness of Scripture.

(A number of these I got from Tim Keller.)

Jesus is…

  • The anointed one, the Christ.
    • He was chosen, designated by God for all he was called to do (Isa 42:1).
    • His life and ministry has the Father’s endorsement (Matt 3:17; 17:5).
    • He is the great apostle (“sent one”) of our confession (Heb 3:1)
  • God in the flesh
    • He is Immanuel (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23)
    • The one in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily (Col 2:9)
    • He is the great “I AM” (Exod 3:14; John 8:58)
    • He is the creator (John 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2)
  • The obedient Son
    • Jesus is the new and better Adam, who was tested in a desert (not a garden), and yet resisted temptation (Luke 4:1–13).
    • Jesus is the new and better Israel, who succeeded where Israel failed, and who brings Israel’s exile to an end with his vicarious suffering (Isa 53)
    • He obeyed even to the point of death on a cross (Phil 2:8)
    • The one whose righteousness earns our enrichment (Gen 22:18; Rom 5:18)
  • The temple where God’s glory dwells.
    • The place where we meet God (John 4:23; Rev 21:22).
    • The place where God’s glory dwells (2 Cor 4:6; Col 1:19; 2:9).
    • The place where we get clean and hear God’s forgiveness pronounced over us (1 John 1:9).
  • The sacrifice.
    • He is the true and better Abel, who, though innocently slain, has blood that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for our acquittal (Gen 4:8; Heb 12:24).
    • He is the true and better Isaac, who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us all (Gen 22:10; John 3:16).
    • He is the passover lamb, whose blood wards off God’s wrath (Exod 12:23; John 1:29; 1 Cor 5:7; Rev 5:6)
    • He is the true and better Jonah, who was cast out in the storm so that we would know peace (Jon 1:15).
    • He is the true and better Esther, who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace, but lost the ultimate heavenly one. Who didn’t just risk his life but gave his life. Who didn’t just say “if I perish, I’ll perish,” but “when I perish, I’ll perish for them, to save my people.” (Est 4:16)
    • He is the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11).
    • He is the righteous one who nevertheless bears the curses of the covenant for us (Gen 15:17; Deut 28:15–68; Isa 53:4)
  • The priest.
    • Our names are engraved on him, which he bears into God’s presence (Exod 28:9)
    • He offered the sacrifice of himself for us (Heb 7:27; 9:26; 10:14)
    • He pronounces us clean (Matt 21:14; Mark 1:40–41; Luke 17:14–16).
  • The victorious warrior and invincible fortress.
    • He is the seed of the woman who crushed the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15).
    • He is the defeater of the demonic powers who once enslaved us (Exod 14:30; Col 2:15)
    • He is the true and better David, whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves (1 Sam 17).
    • He is the lion of Judah who has prevailed against sin, death, and Satan (Rev 5:5)
    • He is the rock and fortress, the great city in which we must take refuge in order to survive the coming wrath (Ps 2:12; 18:2; Jer 1:18–19)
  • The deliverer (Rom 11:26), the savior (Luke 2:11).
    • He is the true and better Joseph, who is at the right hand of the king and forgives those who betrayed and sold him, and uses his power to save them (Gen 45:7, 15; 50:21).
    • He is the redeemer who breaks the power of sin and leads us out of slavery into the promised land in a new and better exodus (Exod 20:1)
  • The rightful king.
    • He is both the root and the offspring of David (Isa 11:1; Rev 22:16).
    • He is the new and better Solomon, whose wisdom is unsurpassed, who builds the temple, and whose glory is so great that he draws the nations to himself (1 Kgs 3–10)
    • He is the new and better Hezekiah, who purges idolatry and trusts his Father, and whose prayers deliver us (2 Kgs 19)
    • He is the new and better Jehoiachin, who surrendered himself to the curse of exile, and paradoxically received a future for his line (2 Kgs 24:12; Ezek 17:22–24)
    • He is the Son of Man who receives the kingdom after all his enemies have been crushed beneath his feet (Dan 7:14).
    • He is the new and better Adam who rules not only the earth, but the heavens as well (Gen 1:26; Matt 28:18).
    • He is the prince of peace, whose reign brings an end to all strife (Isa 2:4; 9:6; Jer 23:5–6).
    • He is the gardener of the new creation, who brings it to ultimate fruitfulness, cultivation, glory, and bounty (Gen 2:15; ).
  • The prophet, who declares the word of God to us, and even is the Word of God (John 1:1; Rev 19:13)
    • He faithfully transmits God’s message (“What I hear, I speak”; John 8:26–28; 12:49–50; 14:10, 24; 15:15; 17:8, 20)
    • He declares God’s coming judgment and preaches repentance (Matt 23–25; 4:17)
    • He is the new and better Elisha, whose signs give life to those who seem certainly lost (2 Kgs 2:15–13:25)
    • He now intercedes on our behalf (Luke 23:34; Heb 7:25)
  • The sage, who speaks life-giving wisdom.
    • He is filled with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and the fear of YHWH (Isa 11:2).
    • His words are length of days and years of life to us (Prov 3:2)
  • The first recipient of the inheritance promised to Abraham.
    • He is the “pioneer”: the first man to enter the most holy place in heaven (Heb 2:10; 6:20; 12:2)
    • Jesus is “the firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5), the first recipient of the fullness of the Spirit as a man (Acts 2:33).
  • The beginning of a new people.
    • He is the true and better Abraham, who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar, to go out into the void and create a new people of God (Gen 12:1–3; Gal 3:29).
    • He has received the highest name (Phil 2:9; Heb 1:4) and bestows that name graciously on us (Num 6:27; Eph 3:15).
    • He is the father of his people (Isa 9:6; Heb 2:13).
    • He reunites all humanity in worship of the living God (Isa 2:1–5; 49:12; 55:5)
  • The mediator, who reconciles us to God and establishes our covenant relationship with him.
    • He is the true and better Moses, who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord (Exod 32; Num 14), and who mediates a new covenant (Exod 19:3; Jer 31:31–34).
    • He makes us right with God (Col 1:20)
  • The lawyer / intercessor who pleads our case (Gen 18:23; 20:17; 1 John 2:1)
    • He is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends (Job 42:10).
  • The circumciser of our hearts, who cuts off our sin and makes us new.
    • He engraves God’s law on our hearts (Jer 31:33), writing with the Spirit (Rom 2:25–29)
    • He gives us one heart and one way, that we may fear Him always (Jer 32:39)
    • He gives us a heart to know God (Jer 24:7; 31:34)
  • The sole entryway into life.
    • He is the new and better Noah, who brings us through the deluge of God’s judgment to a new creation, where we find rest (Gen 5:29; 6–9; 1 Pet 3:21; 2 Pet 3:7)
    • He is the narrow door which leads to pasture (Matt 7:13; John 10:7)
    • He is the way, the truth, the life, the only way to the Father (John 14:6)
  • The life-giver.
    • Through him all the families of the earth are blessed (Gen 12:3)
    • He is the bread of life; the true bread from heaven (Exod 16:4; John 6:35–51).
    • He is the true vine; we are the branches (John 15:1).
    • He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25); the prince of life (Acts 3:15).
    • He is the true and better Rock of Moses, who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert (Exod 17:6; John 19:34; 1 Cor 10:4).
    • He is the rest-giver. He has brought us into the promised land, that we might enter God’s rest (Josh 21:44; Matt 11:28–30; Heb 4:1)
    • He inaugurated the end-times jubilee, the time when debts are canceled and the land is renewed (Lev 25; 2 Cor 6:2).
  • The healer, caregiver, feast-maker, restorer of lost joy.
    • The doctor, who heals our deepest wounds (Jer 30:17; 33:6; Mark 2:17)
    • The shepherd of his people (Ps 23; Isa 40:11; John 10:11; 1 Pet 5:4)
    • The unrivaled host, who treats his guests to the finest of wine and meat (Isa 25:6; John 2:10; Matt 22:10)
    • The one who makes his people rejoice with shouts of joy when they thought they never would again (Isa 30:29; 35:10; 51:3; Jer 33:10–11)
  • The judge of all the world, who makes things right (Ps 2:7–9; Isa 11:3–4)
    • He humbles the proud and exalts the humble (1 Sam 2:8–10; Isa 29:20–21; 30:30-32; 35:4; 41:10-16; 49:24-26; 51:22-23; Luke 1:52)
    • He destroys all God’s and our enemies, who once oppressed us, thus giving us everlasting rest (Jer 50:34; 51:10; Rev 18–19)
  • The bridegroom.
    • From his side comes the bride (Gen 2:21–22; John 19:34); his sufferings win us to himself, and he continues to give himself to us (Eph 5:25).
    • He is the new and better Boaz, who, by marrying the church, redeems the seemingly hopeless lines of Adam, Abraham, and David (Ruth 4:14)
    • He is the true lover, whose tender affection for his bride brings the deepest and most poignant pleasure (Song of Solomon)
  • The great worship leader (Heb 2:10), who makes us radiant with praise for God (Ps 29:2).
  • The image of God (2 Cor 4:4) and the radiance of God’s glory (Heb 1:3).
    • He is the light of the world (John 8:12), who shines into our darkness (Isa 9:2)
    • He is the bright morning star (Rev 22:16), who heralds the end of night.
  • The impetus from which history stems and the purpose for which history yearns, the alpha and the omega (Rev 1:8).

Praise him!