JESUS CHRIST known only by divine revelation in the Scriptures

The Lord Jesus Christ

Used by express permission of the author, Shaun Willcock, Christian Apologist, Gospel Minister & Ambassador for Jesus Christ (II Cor. 5:17-20)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”
(John 1:1-4)

The world thinks of Jesus Christ as either a great man, or as a great teacher, or as a prophet, or as a madman. This is the world's view, or concept, of Jesus. But Christians have the infallible Scriptures, and in them they have learned the truth about Jesus.
Certainly, he was a great man, a wise teacher, and a prophet. Indeed, he was the greatest of all men who have ever lived, the wisest of all teachers the world has ever known, and the Prophet above all prophets. But he was, and is, more than all this. Jesus Christ is God.

“In the beginning was the Word,” says the text. “In the beginning.” He who is here called “the Word”, was there “in the beginning.” For this to be so, he must have existed before the beginning. And therefore he himself had no beginning. He always was. When a man begins a race, he has to be at the starting-point before the race begins. He has to be there before the beginning! The Word, Jesus Christ, existed before the beginning of space and time.
He was “with God”; for God has eternally existed in three persons (1 Jn.5:7), and the Word, who is the second person of the Godhead, was “with” the other two persons of the Godhead from eternity, though distinct from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
“And the Word was God.” NOT a created being; for when creation began, he was already there; but the uncreated, eternal God. THIS is who Jesus Christ is! In these verses, we have the biblical truth of the divine mystery of the Godhead – three persons in one God – stated in stark clarity. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God, existing as he does in three persons, is not divided into three. It is not that the Father is one-third God, the Son is another third, and the Holy Spirit is another third. No! The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, the Holy Spirit is fully God.
The Word was, and is, God!
It goes on to say, “The same was in the beginning with God.” Yes, he was there – in the very beginning – with the Father. And, “ALL things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
But what do we read in Gen.1:1? “In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth.” If the Word created all things, then he created the heaven and the earth; and if he created the heaven and the earth, then he is God!

Many heresies have been spread abroad about the Lord Jesus Christ. But only in the pages of the inspired Bible will man ever learn the truth about him. That tiny babe, born into the world almost 2000 years ago, born of a humble virgin, was “GOD manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim.3:16)! As man, he had a definite beginning in space and time, as all men do; as God, he had no beginning. He who had existed from before the beginning, from all eternity, “from everlasting” (Psa.90:2), in the fulness of time took upon him flesh and blood, and entered this sinful world as a little babe. GOD had become man! And yet in doing so, he had not ceased to be God. “God was manifest in the flesh”, so that Jesus Christ was both God and man. Not half-God and half-man, but fully God and fully man.
THIS is the Christ of the Scriptures! He is “the brightness of [God's] glory, and the express image of his person” (Heb.1:3) – and this is one of the reasons why he is called “the Word”. He is “the image of the invisible God” (Col.1:15). That man who walked the dusty roads of the land of the Jews so long ago, was the perfect revelation of the eternal God to the human race; for he was himself God. All that God wanted to reveal of himself to the race of men, he revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (Jn.1:18).
How ignorant the people were of the true identity of the man, Jesus of Nazareth! “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not” (Jn.1:10). They had no idea; and truly, unless the heavenly Father reveals Christ's true identity to a man, no man will ever know him (Matt.16:17). As they beheld him, beheld him with the eyes of flesh alone, they said, “Is not this the carpenter's son?” and they were offended in him (Matt.13:55,57). Oh, blind and sinful world! Like Pilate, who, when Jesus stood before him, asked, “What is truth?” even as he stared the One who is Truth in the face (Jn.18:38), they beheld God manifest in the flesh – and knew him not. To them, he was merely the son of Joseph, the carpenter (Lk.3:23). But those who were given eyes to see, and ears to hear, came to know the truth, and knew better; and such blessed ones know better to this day: not the son of the carpenter, but “the Son of the Highest”; the Son of God (Lk.1:32,35).

That he “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic.5:2), should make himself of no reputation, and take upon him the form of a servant, and be made in the likeness of men (Phil.2:7), is the greatest of all wonders, and that which has caused the hearts of the elect in all ages to fill with praise and adoration. That “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isa.57:15), “was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (Heb.2:9), and “humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil.2:8), is a marvel, the contemplation of which has, throughout the ages, prostrated the saints of God in the dust in awe and worship. The One who is “high and lifted up” (Isa.6:1), was made low! He who inhabits eternity, entered time! He whose name is Holy, came into this sinful world!
And why? Why?
To accomplish for the elect that which they were utterly powerless to accomplish for themselves. His name shall be called JESUS, the angel said; “for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt.1:21).
He came into this world to die in the place of all those chosen by God to salvation before the foundation of the world, according to his good pleasure; to secure their salvation (Isa.53; 2 Thess.2:13; Eph.1:3-6; Jn.10:28,29). His blood was shed for many for the remission of sins (Matt.26:28; Acts 20:28).
No wonder, then, that “God also hath highly exalted him [Christ], and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil.2:9-11).

Jesus Christ is Lord! The Scriptures declare that “there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (1 Jn.5:7). One God in three persons. Thus it has ever been, from all eternity. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God [the Father] sent forth his Son, made of a woman” (Gal.4:4). Yes, truly, GOD was manifest in the flesh! God the Father sent forth God the Son, that the Son should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him (Jn.17:2). And indeed, Jesus Christ finished the work the Father gave him to do (Jn.17:4)! On the cross, just before he died, he said, “It is finished” (Jn.19:30). He perfectly completed his redemptive work. “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Eph.5:25).

THIS is the Christ of the Bible! THIS is the Christ whom Christians love and adore. “A greater than Solomon” in wisdom, certainly (Matt.12:42); a Prophet greater than Moses or John the Baptist, indeed (Deut.18:15-19; Acts 3:22; Jn.3:27-31); a man greater than all men who have ever lived; and yet – more than all this.
Jesus Christ is God.

“To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (Rev.1:6). Amen, and Amen!

(End of Article)
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Our prayer for the readers of this blog is that they too might know the CHRIST of GOD, as revealed in God's Word . . . the Bible. The prayer of Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest for His people, as recorded in John 17 provides the template for our prayer for you:

Verse 20:
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

1 John 5:20:
"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life."

May the Holy Spirit be pleased to reveal HIM to you as He has to *each of us to His praise and glory!

*Luke 10:21-22:
"In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."

In Christian love,

June & Ralph Nadolny,
two sinners saved by His grace (Eph. 2:1-9)
. . . made "new creatures in Christ" (II Cor. 5:17)
"But by the grace of God I am what I am:" (1 Cor. 15:10a)
"We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19)
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Author's Note:
Shaun Willcock is a minister of the Gospel. He lives in South Africa and runs Bible Based Ministries.
You may contact him directly here:

Bible Based Ministries
info@biblebasedministries.co.uk
www.biblebasedministries.co.uk

Providing teaching from the Word of God, and a biblical exposure of the Papal system and all that is associated with it