Who is Jesus, really? That is a very good question, I think. Billions of people through the last two millenia have been searching for that answer. For sure, He is the eternal Son of God, the Father Almighty, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. No real Catholic would disagree with those statements. These are self-evident truths, because no other man in the history of the world has changed as many people’s hearts as He has. Only a God-man could have that much power. But He is a lot more than that! Let’s take a look at some of his better known titles.
Jesus, the King of Kings
Revelation 19:6 – On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Jesus, the Son of Mary
Mark 6:3 – “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega
Revelation 22:12–13 – “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
Jesus, the Bread of Life
John 6:35 – Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus, the King of the Jews
Matthew 2:1-2 – After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Jesus, the Lamb of God
John 1:29 – The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Jesus, the Word Become Flesh
John 1:14 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
Jesus, Lord and Master
Jude 1:4 – For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the Son of Man
Matthew 8:20 – And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus, the Son of David
Matthew 21:9 – And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah
Revelation 5:5 – Then one of the elders said to me, “Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals”.
Jesus, the Good Shepherd
John 10:11 – “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Jesus, Wonder Counselor
Isaiah 9:6 – For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life
John 14:6 – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus, Immanuel
Matthew 1:23 – “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath
Matthew 12:8 – “For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath.”
Jesus, God’s Servant
Matthew 12:18 – “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.”
Jesus, the Light of the World
John 8:12 – When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Jesus, the Messiah (Anointed One)
John 1:41- 42 – He first found his brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus.
Jesus, the Prince of Peace
Isaiah 9:6 – For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life
John 11:25 – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”
Jesus, the Melchizedekan High Priest
Hebrews 5:10 – …designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus, the Morning Star
Revelation 22:16 – “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
Jesus, the “I Am”
John 8:58–59 – “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I Am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
Jesus, the Good Teacher
Luke 18:18 – And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus, the God of Mercy
Jude 1:21 – Keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
The Interlocking Titles of Jesus
Of course, there are many more titles of Jesus. For the sake of this article, let’s take a look at just these few. Think of a jigsaw puzzle and how each piece fits together just right to form a mosaic of a complete, beautiful picture. This is exactly how we should look at Jesus. Nothing is more frustrating to a jigsaw puzzle addict than a missing piece or two. Just so, one can’t look at Jesus the Good Teacher, without having to know about Jesus the God of mercy, Jesus the “I AM” (the name of God), etc. Jesus, the servant of God, interlocks just perfectly with Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. All of these pieces MUST go together in our hearts and minds to get a complete picture of who Jesus really is. So many people erroneously only cherry-pick one or two of the above titles and think that that is all Jesus is!
One of the hardest titles of Jesus for Protestants is “Jesus, Son of Mary.” Why? Because this title somehow elevates (in their minds) Mary to being a female deity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mary is a woman, but she is a woman uniquely united with God in three ways: she was fully united with the Holy Spirit (and still is); she had the King of Kings living in her womb for nine months, feeding off of her flesh and blood; and she was chosen by God the Father to be the New Testament Ark of the Covenant, the dwelling place of God. [In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant had three things inside of it: the manna from heaven, the Word of God in stone, and the rod of Aaron (the symbol of the royal high priesthood, which resprouted and came back to life)]. Just so, while Mary was pregnant, she had the Bread of Life (Jesus) inside of her, the Word of God made flesh (Jesus) inside of her, and the royal high priest (Jesus), who also came back to life. For sure, “Jesus, the Son of Mary,” is one of His most important titles, since He is “bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh” (Genesis 2:23).
“Jesus, the Light of the World” helps to explain how in Genesis, there could be light before the sun was created on the fourth day. God created the world “ex-nihilo,” or “out of nothing”. This statement means that before Genesis, there wasn’t even air, dirt, water, or anything present beforehand. Many people mistakenly think that Genesis isn’t coherent because there was light before the sun was created on the fourth day. But with Jesus present, it all makes sense.
The True Titles of Jesus
Some people in other faiths say that Jesus was just a great prophet and/or teacher, completely ignoring his claim to be God. There are only three possibilities for anyone claiming to be God. First, the person is crazy; second, the person is lying; or third, the person is telling the truth. Looking at the Gospels, Jesus raised the dead, healed the lepers, healed the lame, healed the woman with a hemorrhage, and so on. This means that the first two choices, being crazy or a liar, are pretty much off of the table. Of course, the Jews and the Romans got around those miracles by claiming that Jesus was curing people because he was of the devil, which is really preposterous. No, the only one of the three that makes any sense to logical people is that Jesus was telling the truth about who He is, the Son of God.
“Jesus, the Messiah” (the anointed one) and “Jesus, the Son of Man” interlock perfectly in our jigsaw puzzle of Jesus titles with “Jesus, the Son of David.” David also was an anointed one and a Priest-King of Jerusalem, like Melchizedek before him. Jesus, also the King of Peace and a Priest-King of Jerusalem, followed in David’s footsteps as the King of the Heavenly Kingdom. Additionally, in the book of Daniel, Daniel describes the coming Messiah as the Son of Man. Jesus, the Prince of Peace goes together perfectly with Jesus the King of Kings, as Jesus is as royal as it gets. And the really great news for us sinners down here on earth is that these titles mesh just perfectly with Jesus, the God of Mercy. There weren’t too many benevolent, merciful Kings in the days gone by, because usually, power goes to the head of a King (see Henry VIII), and power usually corrupts kings. But not with our King Jesus. And since we are His children through adoption (Galatians 4:5), that means that, although we are His servants now, in the Kingdom of Heaven later on, we too will be royalty, i.e., princes and princesses.
And finally, “Jesus the Lamb of God” and “Jesus, the Bread of Life” are the titles that lead us all to the Eucharist, the New Testament replacement for the Old Testament Passover. Isaiah told us all that the Messiah would be like a lamb led to the slaughter, opening not his mouth, which came to pass during the Passion. The Jews HAD TO EAT the Passover Lamb in order to be saved from the angel of death; just so, we HAVE TO EAT the New Testament Passover lamb in order to be saved from the devil. In other words, we prevent the devil from devouring us (1 Peter 5:8), by instead devouring the flesh of Jesus Christ!
The bottom line is that we will NEVER fully understand who Jesus really is until we experience, and feel, his unconditional love in heaven after we die. But the Bible does give us quite a few hints, IF we include all of His titles and meditate on them!
16 thoughts on “Who is Jesus, Really?”
Pingback: VVEDNESDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit
Matthew 17:5
He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
In Matthew, God the Father declared that Jesus is His son…
Who is Jesus, really? I would say we don’t know for sure. Remember that the church didn’t decide that Jesus was officially THE God (not some lesser god as other Judean men had been referred to) until the council of Nicea 400 years after Jesus walked the earth. For the first 400 years after Christ, whether Jesus was a human, a god, THE God, or some combination was an open question. And if Jesus didn’t make it crystal clear, did he think it was all that important?
Jesus was crucified because He said that He and the Father are one…
Both the humanity and divinity of Jesus are essential in the plan of salvation. There could have been no shed blood without His humanity. This was required for the redemption. His divinity is required so that we can approach Him as God in order to receive His Spirit within us and benefit from the redemption. Chapters 14 thru 17 in the gospel of John tell us a lot of how Jesus viewed His human connection to the Godhead.
Kyle, to add to Ray’s reply, for the first 300+ years of its existence the Church and it members were under constant threat. Under such conditions, setting up a formal structure, the Church’s Magisterium, was no easy task. The Council of Jerusalem notwithstanding, the Council of Nicaea (325) was the first official ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, and it was held because it was finally safe to hold such a council.
Nevertheless, throughout the first 325 years of the Church, Jesus’ divinity was only an “open question” to some. Jesus proclaimed his divinity in His teachings (see John 8:58, for example) and the true believers of His Church have always believed this. The Apostles believed He was God (see John 20:28, for example), and the early Christians fully accepted that He was one with God, through the teachings of His disciples. The early Doctors of the Church also taught that he was God. It only makes sense that this teaching was the very first teaching adopted at the first official council of the Church.
Thanks for the replies. The Gospel of John is the one that starts referencing Jesus as God, so I see your points with the references to John. Those references however are missing from the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There were many versions of Christianity in the early church. As you say, being under duress with ancient communication methods definitely has that impact. Three Gospels did not clearly lay out that Jesus was God while one did. And if you look at other Gospels that didn’t make the cut, the variety of flavors of Christianity increases. The Gospels were written many years after Jesus walked the earth, and there were numerous versions of them before they settled into the versions we have today. The gospels are like the end of a long game of telephone – they were only written after oral histories were passed around and around. The basics of the Gospels are hopefully correct, but there may be fabrications and exaggerations included – whether by accident or on purpose (there are plenty of reasons for both). Jesus being God would’ve been a major piece of the story, and it is at best curious that it didn’t get included in the synoptic Gospels. Again, it’s not impossible that Jesus claimed to be God, but it is unlikely that he would’ve claimed to be God with that claim failing to make it into 3 of the 4 Gospels.
It is also important to note that there were other gods competing with Jesus in the ancient world. The roman emperors were typically deified as Gods, and there were other philosophers with followers claiming they were a god (Apollonius of Tyana for example). The Christians would’ve had to compete but within an officially monotheistic religion of Judaism. And it’s easy to see how the trinity developed from there. Jesus saying he is one with God, but not mean he was claiming to be God. You hear vice presidents say they are one with the president, but that just means they are carrying out the president’s agenda. Jesus could’ve said the same, but after a few hundred years the meaning of his words changed. I got into the weeds here, but at a high level, I have a hard time and have always had a hard time squaring Jesus being God with the lack of God references/claims in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written 30 to 60 years after Christ’s death. This is not that long after His death and certainly there would be people still living that knew Jesus. But there were not numerous versions of the gospels, as you claim, and I challenge you to name the “fabrications and exaggerations” that you claim are in the Gospels. There were, however, erroneous writings that taught false doctrines. These writings have been rejected by the Church.
Your contention that Christ’s divinity is not mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke is incorrect. In the healing of paralytic in Mark (2:1-12), Matthew (Matthew 9:1-8) and Luke (Luke 5:17-26), Jesus says he has the power to forgive sins. This is why scribes charge Jesus with blasphemy — only God has the power to forgive sins. So Jesus was saying He is God.
Also Paul states that Jesus is God.
Remember too, that Catholic teaching is based on Scripture and Tradition. Christ’s disciples were most certainly teaching Christ’s divinity and the teachings of the Christ’s disciples are found in the writings of the early Doctors of the Church. This is why the Protestant teaching of sola scriptura is wrong.
Gene, you reference very pertinent verses. If you read them closely, Jesus doesn’t say he is forgiving the sins. He says the people’s sins are forgiven. With the words Jesus uses, he is acting more in the role of priest rather than God.
I agree with you that sola scriptura is wrong. But I also believe that the church has gone astray and been wrong in places – the early Christians who knew Christ wrongly thinking he was coming back during their lifetimes is one example. Supposedly, Jesus said the world was ending during their generation (Matthew 24:34). Either the early church (including the supposedly divinely inspired scripture) was wrong, or Jesus was wrong.
Thirty years is also a really long time. If someone gave many teachings in 1980 and they were passed along verbally until now, what do you think the chances are we would be able to accurately capture those in writing today? There have been studies done on this, and the chances are virtually zero that the details are accurate. Oral tradition changes over time. The details change to fit the current situation so that the story remains applicable.
And finally, regarding Paul, where does he call Jesus God? Everywhere I’ve seen, Paul references Jesus as Christ or Son of God, which are not the same thing as God. Paul also curiously seems to change the teachings of the Gospels to be based more on belief rather than the action-based teachings of Jesus.
You would be fairly alone in your opinion that Jesus was acting as a priest in these verses. The Hebrews knew their priests did not have the power to forgive sins. This power was God’s alone and Jesus was in fact forgiving the paralytic’s sins. This was a power not given to man until Jesus gave it to the apostles.
Mathew 24:34 has always been a confusing verse, but saying the “the church has gone astray and been wrong in places” because many early Christians may have believed the Second Coming was imminent is a real stretch. Jesus said the end times could happen any time, and that we should live our lives as if the end was coming tomorrow and this is true. Any of us could die tomorrow, and we will be judged.
Also you can’t compare teaching today with teaching 2,000 years ago. In Jesus’ time oral instruction was the norm.
Paul says Jesus is God in Hebrews 1 and 1:8 specifically, in Titus 2:13 (in the original Greek a single article is used, meaning great God and Savior Jesus Christ are one in the same), and in Philippians 2:6-10.
As to your statement “Paul also curiously seems to change the teachings of the Gospels to be based more on belief rather than the action-based teachings of Jesus,” where is this coming from? I have never heard such an arbitrary statement on Paul such as this ever before.
Regarding the verses about forgiving sins, I don’t think I’m alone. A number of people (mostly academics) have pointed out that Jesus does not say he is forgiving sins. And Jesus says so himself. It just depends on whether you believe Jesus is speaking in the third person about himself when he says the Son of Man can forgive sins.
And you are right that Paul says Jesus is God. The biggest question I’ve had for most of my life is whether Jesus said he was the one and only God. Or did Paul and his later followers elevate him to God or a type of God? Oral tradition is all they had back then – and that’s completely reasonable for the time – but it doesn’t mean that things didn’t get changed in very important ways over time.
And regarding Paul in general, many people have had this observation. I noticed it growing up as a kid reading the bible for the first time. Paul and Jesus don’t seem to be preaching the same exact same message. See Matthew 25:35-46 vs Ephesians 2:8-9 or Romans 2:21-28. Jesus had a message of being sorted by God based on your actions -good vs wicked. Paul seems to be basing salvation on belief in God. It takes some mental gymnastics to reconcile the two which after 2,000 years the various Christian churches have all tried to do in various ways. At some point, they just can’t be reconciled though. It’s like the details of the resurrection in the Gospels. When the stories have completely different things happening, there is no way to reconcile them. One or none of the versions actually happened, but all of them did not happen as stated.
I don’t know what “academics” have said what you claim, but Catholic Bible Scholar Theologians pretty much agree that Jesus Himself is forgiving the paralytic’s sins in the subject verses when He says “Child, your sins are forgiven.”
As for your contention that Paul’s message seems different from the message of the gospels (what you call belief vs. actions), you need to realize that Paul was bringing the good news of salvation to the gentiles. He was trying to convert pagans. His first task was to get them to stop believing in the gods and get them to believe in Jesus/God. And re-read Matthew 25:35-46 and Ephesians 2:8-9, but continue through verse 10. The message is really not that different.
And with that, Kyle, if you want to debate or discuss your views on Catholicism, Catholic teaching, or the Bible, you really should go to catholicforum.com, or find a discussion group in your area that you can join. Comboxes on articles are not meant for long, drawn out discussions. Peace be with you.
I have no problem ending this discussion. You started quoting bible verses in response to my general comment targeted directly at the article’s content, and I engaged with you. Peace be with you as well!
Yes, she is….But we imitate her after receiving Holy Communion in the state of grace, because then, like her, we have the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ inside of us.
We are called, at all times, to imitate the faith in God of those who have this genuine faith (see Hebrews 13:7). We also now have Scripture readily available to teach us how they went about it in the New Testament Church. I benefitted greatly from this.
In New Testament times, and for a long period after that, most people had to hear it explained by someone else and could not read it for themselves.
We know that the man Christ Jesus is a part of the Trinity by a hypostatic union. This is why we are able to give Him ‘latria’ treatment, or treatment that is acceptable only towards God. Is Mary more fully united with the Holy Spirit in any way that is different from the way that we are supposed to be united with the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit is within us?
She remains a creature of God as we are.