So we start with the question that was already asked:
How is your relationship with God going? What if the Lord were to return today, do you know for SURE, NO DOUBTS, that you would go to live with Him forever? Do you know for CERTAIN that you are going to heaven? Can a person even know?
There is GOOD NEWS! As the Scriptures teach, a person can know! And that is truly GOOD NEWS!
So, if you have a Bible, go to the back of the New Testament to I John 5:13. The apostle John writes that we can KNOW how to have eternal life! Here is what he wrote:
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
But then we must ask what was written? In the Bible there are many LIFE and DEATH statements. You should pay very close attention when the Bible talks about LIFE (eternal life, eternity, heaven, salvation) and DEATH (damnation, eternal punishment, separation from God). Read what was written, quoting the words of Jesus in John 8:24:
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
Notice the DEATH statements in the verse: “you will die in your sins”. The good news is Jesus says we don’t have to die in our sins! Jesus does say we need to believe that “I am He”. This leads to the question, though, who is this Jesus who said “I am He”?
Jesus, one day asked His disciples about this. Here is how it is recorded in Matthew 16:13-17:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
Notice in the above verses from Matthew, Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The word Christ means anointed one – one who is set apart for a purpose. The Old Testament, which was written in the Hebrew language, uses the word Messiah, which you may have heard before. So Simon Peter is saying that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. The Christ is the one who would fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Peter is saying the one who does that is Jesus! Peter also adds “the Son of the living God.” But whose Son is He? Jesus answers that for us at the end of the Matthew passage: “My Father who is in heaven.“
But is believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, all we must believe concerning His identity? Let’s continue our study and let the Bible continue to answer our questions. Notice what John 1:1 says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jesus being the Son of God, is God. Notice how the apostle John continues in John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
When Jesus came to earth, or as the apostle John wrote, “became flesh,” did Jesus have to leave the Godhead in heaven? Notice as you read Colossians 2:9 next, Jesus is 100% man and 100% God:
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form;
When the apostle Paul wrote that passage in Colossians, the “in Him” was talking about Jesus. The fullness of Deity (of who God is) dwells in bodily (human or flesh) form! Jesus was God in human form.
Now notice that God the Father calls His own Son God. Here is how the Hebrew writer put it in Hebrews 1:8:
But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER”
One asks, though, who did Jesus claim to be? Did Jesus claim to be God in the flesh? Notice in John 8:58 that Jesus claims to be the great “I Am”.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
In order to know that you have eternal life (LIFE statement) and not die in your sins (DEATH statement) we must believe that Jesus is who the Bible says He is! We must believe Jesus is God, or we will die in our sins.
The Bible teaches that there are three persons in the Godhead. Read how Matthew 3:16-17 mentions God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – the three in one:
After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
Notice God the Father – a voice out of the heavens; God the Son – My beloved Son; God the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God. Jesus is one of the three persons of the Godhead.
But what did Jesus do, and why did He do it. Click below to continue.
“Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.
Copyright by The Lockman Foundation”