Who Is Jesus

Following Jesus is not easy, and there are a few things about him that were hard for me to believe.

Jesus claimed to be God.

The Bible says that Jesus was fully man and fully God at the same time. He is not “a god” of many gods, or just “a great prophet/teacher”, he is fully God.  The word used for this is incarnate... “in flesh”... God in flesh.  The Bible says that Mary, Jesus' mother, was a virgin.  And that her son was actually God’s son.

Jesus says in the Bible that he is the “only” way to eternal life.

Not “a way” to heaven, but “the only way”.  This is one that so many people just can’t believe in, and it’s a major difference between Jesus and all the other religions of the world.  Other religions say there are many ways to heaven/afterlife and Jesus says there is just one, him.

Jesus came back from the dead.

The Bible calls this “resurrection”.  The Bible says Jesus was killed on a cross, then buried in a tomb, and he came back to life three days later.  He talked, walked, and ate with his followers after his death.  Some didn’t believe, and they touched his nail scarred hands just to make sure he was who he said he was. Then after 40 days of visiting with his followers, he ascended into heaven.

And those are just 3 of the hard to believe aspects of Jesus.

Historically, Jesus lived for 33 years.  He was born in a small town called Bethlehem, he moved shortly after birth to Egypt for a short time. Then he and his family moved to a small town called Nazareth, which is located in the Galilee region.  He worked with his adopted dad Joseph in the trade of carpentry/construction.  Following his resurrection, the ancient world was taken by storm with a movement of followers, quickly labeled by those that opposed it as “Christians”.  Jesus’ life story is also documented in books other than the Bible.  It is said that if you didn’t have the Bible, you could get all the facts I listed above from other sources (historians, kings, and other writings) around the time of Jesus’ death and later.