Who Is Jesus Christ?

13/7/2020

If we look at the Bible, Christ can be defined as "the one who is to come" (Yahshua) and "the anointed one" (Messiah). As Christians, we know the salvation story, of His humble birth in a stable, His ministry here on Earth, and His ultimate passion on the Cross for humanity. But who is Jesus really?

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read that Jesus Christ is the Son of God by nature and not by adoption (CCC 465). His personhood is fully divine and fully human (not partly, not quarterly but 100% both) — there is no duality to Him. He has a human intellect and will, yet perfectly attuned to His divine intellect and His divine will, which He has in common with the Father and the Holy Spirit (CCC 482). He is "like us in all things but sin" (Hebrew 4:15).

What does that mean? Like me, I had questions to follow up with those statements. Some of them are listed below in hopes that it may help you to understand better who Christ is, and through that, strengthen your relationship with Him. 😊

Q1. How does His divine and human will work? Does it mean that He had full knowledge of what would happen since young?
Like any of us, Jesus was birthed into this world as a baby and had to learn skills, knowledge, and maturity step by step as He grew. Although He is of the Father and is fully divine, His purpose (the eventual sacrifice on the Cross) was slowly being revealed to Him in stages. Christ also have full control of His rational thinking which in CCC 475 explains that His human will does not resist or oppose but rather submits to His divine and almighty will. When Jesus cried out "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?") in Matthew 27:46, it clearly shows that He experiences the same emotions as us. Though He is God, He is also man — He experienced temptation, hunger, grief, pain, worry, joy and so much more in His time here on Earth.

Q2. How sure are you that Christ is who you say He is?
Some say that He is only a prophet (a man and not a God), some say that He never existed at all. How do we know if this resurrected God is real? First off, Christ died in the year 33 AD. Relying on scriptures, St. Paul wrote the very first version of the Creed which was recited by the early Church within five to ten years of the resurrection. The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke were also written within 30 years of the resurrection. All of these could not have been stemmed from a fictional tale.

Secondly, no one in all of history have been able to find the body of Jesus to debunk the empty tomb which signifies the resurrection. Furthermore, the people that first found the tomb empty were women, whom in their time, had no credibility, yet the apostles later attested and backed up their witness, along with 500 other eyewitnesses. In the end, if it was all a lie, it would've been a religion built on a made up story but what did the apostles have to gain from it to the point of dedicating their whole lives to proclaim the good news and going through a martyr's death?

To add on, there were also historians who wrote about the existence of Jesus, one of whom is Flavius Josephus who was born in Jerusalem four years after Jesus died. He provided one of the longest secular reference of Jesus. Skepticism will always be there if one only accepts cold hard facts. At some point in our lives, we need to have both faith and knowledge for our relationship with God to grow.

Q3. How is Jesus God if He says that He is the Son of God?
As explained in my previous post about the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one divine being. The Father is not The Son, The Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. They are also not parts of God (33% each) but are all 100% God. CCC 258 explains that each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property.

Jesus is born of the Father, sharing the same nature. He "was begotten, not made". The Son became man so that we can relate to the Father and for us to become children of God through the sonship of Christ. The Spirit on the other hand, is the eternal exchange of love that the Father have for the Son, and the Son for the Father. The mention of the Trinity can be found across scripture such as Luke 1:26-28 (The Annunciation), Matthew 3:16-17 (Baptism of Jesus), Matthew 17:5 (The Transfiguration), and Matthew 28:19 (Commissioning of the Disciples).

Q4. Why did Jesus have to die on the Cross to save us from sin? If He is so powerful, He could've chosen an easier way to redeem humanity.
Indeed Christ could have just minister to the people on Earth, perform miracles, teach and then go back to Heaven. But would the faith have lasted till today? Knowing us, knowing humans, we would've been awed for a certain period of time and then forgot all about it. The Cross and the resurrection was needed so that it could make the ultimate impact for it to last for the past 2,000 years. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that Christ's passion made God's love for us so much more manifested. It helped man realize the effects of sin and how God would go to such lengths for us.

Q5. Why do we have to go through sufferings when we choose to follow Christ?
"Pick up your cross and follow me." (Matthew 16:24) is something that we are all too familiar with but I think some of us may look at it at a more negative perspective. It is not all dull and gloom. In fact, Christ also says in Matthew 11:30 that "my yoke is easy, and my burden is light". Whether or not we follow Christ, life is full of hardships and sufferings because of the fallen nature of mankind where we live in a broken world. It is whether we choose to bring meaning to our sufferings.

St. Paul in his writings laid out the paradox of the Cross — to be crucified is no longer death but Christ living in us; in suffering, when united to Christ, death now means life. Suffering to St. Paul is a participation in the mystery of Christ and is the way he can become like Christ. It is a means of sanctification, keeping pride at a minimum and trust in God at a maximum.

When you find yourself in darkness, remember that "my [Christ's] grace is sufficient in you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). God can use our mess to bring out a message, and change a test into a testimony.