Getting To Know Jesus...

There's a lot to know but we'll start with 3 things for now!

1. He is the Son of God

There was and still is some confusion about Jesus' identity; was He the Son of God or not? However in the Bible several times Jesus is declared or revealed to be the Son of God. In Matthew 3:16-17 we meet Jesus as He is being baptised by John the Baptist. We are told in verse 16 that as soon as Jesus was baptised, Heaven opened up and the Spirit of Yahweh descended on Him in the form of a dove. In verse 17 we hear from God the Father Himself and He says:

"This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased".

In Luke 4:41, Jesus is casting out demons and as the demons are being cast out they declare to Jesus "You are the Son of God".

To be honest God the Father's declaration that Jesus is the Son of God is all the confirmation that we need that Jesus is truly the Son of God.

2. He died and rose for you

Jesus came to the earth to share the Gospel and to pay for our sins through His death. In Luke 19:10 Jesus reveals the purpose of His coming to earth:

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost".

In Matthew 5:17 Jesus talked about how He came not to cancel the Law but to fulfil it through His death. Pre-Jesus whenever an Israelite sinned against Yahweh (by breaking any of the commandments given through Moses) they would need to provide a sin offering to atone for their sins. Sin offerings usually consisted of the killing and bloodshed of an animal and mostly animals without defect could be used. Jesus was the only one without defect/sin and thus He was the only one that could pay for our sins. Jesus was the ultimate sin offering that atoned for all the sins of mankind.

Why did He need to die for our sins you ask? Sin became so prevalent, the act of providing sin offerings became so regular that sin offerings almost became meaningless and detestable to God. The idea behind the practice of providing sin offerings was so that people could atone for their sins and at the same time demonstrate repentance from those sins. However, even though regular sin offerings were made, people weren't repenting from their sins and thus the practice of sin offerings was overused and taken advantage of.

Jesus not only suffered and died for us, He also rose for us too! Through His resurrection Jesus overcame death for us and guaranteed that those who followed Him would have eternal life. In John 11:25-26 Jesus said to Martha:

"I am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die."

P.S. please check out "He Died and He Rose" by Uncle Reece, it is a very moving rendition of Jesus' Crucifixion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pldouk86Xcg

3. He loves you

Believe it or not God Loves us , I mean He really Loves us otherwise He wouldn't have put Himself through pain, humiliation and death. God the Father literally risked His Relationship with His one and only Son Jesus just for our sake. Think about it, prior to Jesus leaving His Heavenly Throne and coming to earth had you ever heard of or read about God the Father and Son being separated? No, because it never happened, They were always together! Even when the earth and everything as we know it was Created Jesus was there and He participated in the Creation of all things. How do I know this? When we refer back to Genesis 1:26, it says:

Then God Said,"Let Us make mankind in Our Own Image, in Our Likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

And to give us a deeper understanding of God's Love for us, He literally stood by and allowed the world to do its worse to His Son. He could have made it easier for Jesus or stopped the whole ordeal at any moment but He didn't because He wanted to make sure the penalty of our sins was fully paid for. God has sacrificed so much for us, can you imagine what it would feel like if someone you love unconditionally keeps doing what they know will hurt you? Can you imagine what that would do to your peace and sanity? But that's what God endures every single day and He gives us more and more Grace every single day. He is constantly going out on a limb for us and putting His Heart on the line. If that's not love, then I don't what is.

To conclude, Jesus is the One and Only Son of the Living God. He Loves us unconditionally and He demonstrated His unwavering Love for us by suffering and dying for our sake. He saw all our sins and mess ups ahead of time but He still took it upon Himself to give Himself for us. Thus, because He willingly died for us, I personally believe that we owe it to Him to live for Him.