Jesus Christ is not merely a good man, a prophet, or a religious teacher. He is the eternal Son of God who entered His own creation, revealed the Father, gave His life for humanity, and rose from the dead. To understand salvation, we must first understand who Jesus is because salvation is found in Him (John 1:1–4, 14; 14:6; Acts 4:12).

Jesus in the Old Testament

The name Jesus is revealed in the New Testament, but the Son of God did not begin to exist when He was born in Bethlehem. Before His birth, He existed eternally with the Father. John calls Him the Word and declares that the Word was with God, the Word was God, and all things were made through Him (John 1:1–3). Jesus also spoke of the glory He shared with the Father before the world existed (John 17:5).

The Old Testament prepares us to recognize Him. God’s first promise of redemption declared that the Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). From the beginning, God announced that One would come through humanity to defeat the enemy.

God then narrowed the promise through His covenant. The coming One would be connected to Abraham’s seed, come from the tribe of Judah, and sit upon David’s throne (Genesis 22:18; 49:10; 2 Samuel 7:12–16). The prophets continued revealing His identity:

  • He would be called Immanuel, “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22–23).
  • He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1–6).
  • He would rule upon David’s throne, and His Kingdom would have no end (Isaiah 9:6–7; Luke 1:32–33).
  • He would bear our griefs, carry our sorrows, be wounded for our transgressions, and bear the sin of many (Isaiah 53:4–6, 11–12).
  • His suffering would include rejection, mockery, pierced hands and feet, and the dividing of His garments (Psalm 22:1, 7–8, 16–18; Matthew 27:35, 39–46).

The Law, sacrifices, priesthood, tabernacle, Passover, and feasts also prepared Israel to understand His work. They were shadows pointing forward to the reality found in Christ (Colossians 2:16–17; Hebrews 8:4–5; 10:1).

The Passover lamb pointed to Jesus, “our Passover,” who was sacrificed for us (Exodus 12:1–13; 1 Corinthians 5:7). The blood of sacrificed animals provided a temporary covering under the old covenant, but it could not perfect the conscience or permanently take away sin. Jesus offered the complete and final sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11–14; 10:1–14).

Jesus is therefore not an addition to the Old Testament story. He is the One toward whom the promises, prophecies, covenants, and sacrifices were moving. Jesus said that Moses wrote about Him and that the Scriptures testified of Him (John 5:39, 46).

Jesus Revealed in the New Testament

The New Testament announces that the promised One has come. The angel told Mary that her Son would be called Jesus, the Son of the Highest, and that He would reign over an everlasting Kingdom (Luke 1:31–33). The angel told Joseph that Jesus would save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Jesus is fully God and fully man. The eternal Word became flesh without ceasing to be God (John 1:14; Philippians 2:5–8; Colossians 2:9). As man, He experienced hunger, weariness, sorrow, temptation, suffering, and death; yet He remained without sin (Matthew 4:1–11; John 4:6; Hebrews 4:15). As God revealed in the flesh, He forgave sins, exercised authority over sickness, demons, nature, and death, and perfectly revealed the Father (Mark 2:5–12; 4:35–41; John 5:19–21; 14:9).

Jesus is the Christ, meaning the Anointed One or Messiah. He is the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Lamb of God, the Savior, the Lord, and the King (Matthew 16:13–17; John 1:29, 41; 4:42; Revelation 19:16). These are not unrelated titles. Together, they reveal who He is and what He came to accomplish.

Why Jesus Came

Jesus came to reveal the Father, destroy the works of the devil, seek and save the lost, and give humanity life (Luke 19:10; John 10:10; 14:9; 1 John 3:8). Humanity had been separated from God by sin and could not restore that relationship through human goodness or religious works (Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:8–9).

God did not ignore sin. In His love, He dealt with it through His Son. Jesus lived the righteous life humanity could not live and willingly offered Himself in our place. He bore our sins in His own body on the cross and became the sacrifice that satisfied the righteous requirement against sin (Isaiah 53:5–6; Romans 3:24–26; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:2).

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16

The cross reveals both the seriousness of sin and the depth of God’s love. Jesus did not die because His life was taken from Him against His will. He laid it down willingly (John 10:17–18). He died for us while we were still sinners, demonstrating God’s love before we could earn or deserve it (Romans 5:6–8).

His Resurrection and Our Salvation

Jesus did not remain in the grave. God raised Him from the dead, proving that sin and death had been defeated (Acts 2:23–24; Romans 6:9–10; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, 20–22). Christianity does not rest upon the memory of a dead teacher. It rests upon the living Christ.

Through His death and resurrection, Jesus provides forgiveness, righteousness, reconciliation, eternal life, deliverance from the authority of darkness, and entrance into the Kingdom of God (Romans 5:17–19; 2 Corinthians 5:18–21; Colossians 1:13–14).

Salvation is received through faith in Jesus Christ. To believe in Him is not merely to agree that He existed. It is to trust who He is, rely upon what He accomplished, and confess Him as Lord (John 3:16; Romans 10:9–10).

Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father, and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:20–23). He intercedes for believers, governs His Church, and will return as King (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; Revelation 19:11–16).

Jesus is the promised One of the Old Testament and the revealed Christ of the New Testament. He is the eternal Son who became man, the sinless Lamb who died in our place, the risen Savior who defeated death, and the King whose Kingdom will never end.