If someone walked up right now and asked “Who is Jesus?” how would you respond?

Your answer to this question is critical to your future. Many people are confused about who Jesus Christ is and what it means to follow Him. While most believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, for instance, 42% of Americans believe that when He lived on earth, “Jesus Christ was human and committed sins, just like other people.” How contrary to the facts!

WHO IS JESUS?

The message of classic Christianity is centered in a person—Jesus Christ. You can have Confucianism without Confucius, Buddhism without Buddha, and Judaism without Abraham or Moses. But Christianity is different.

Relationship with Jesus Christ is the origin, motivation, and goal of the classic Christian faith. Everything about Christianity is determined by the person and work of Jesus Christ. Its teachings are teachings about Him. He is the source of its ideas.

He was the origin and will be the fulfillment of its hopes. Christianity includes belief that Jesus Christ is alive, that He is divine, and that He is still inviting us to know Him personally.

Jesus Christ’s claim of divinity is the most extreme claim anyone ever made. Of all the great sages and prophets throughout world history, Jesus alone claimed to be God-become-man. Other religions are a matter of man seeking and struggling toward God. Christianity is what God has done for man in seeking him and reaching down to help him.

WHAT EXACTLY DO CHRISTIANS BELIEVE ABOUT JESUS?

First, Christians believe in Christmas. When Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary’s womb and born nine months later, God Himself entered human history.

Second, Christians believe in Good Friday. After three to four years of ministering throughout Palestine, Jesus Christ told His disciples that He would be arrested, convicted, and crucified on a Roman cross.

Jesus willingly died to bring people into a right relationship with God by satisfying the wrath of God by paying the penalty for their sins, granting them the promise of eternal life, making them part of God’s family forever, and giving them free access to God through prayer.

Third, Christians believe in Easter. After three days in a tomb Jesus Christ rose from the dead, appeared to His disciples repeatedly over a period of forty days, then met together with hundreds of followers before ascending back to heaven.

According to a Newsweek cover story: “By any measure, the resurrection of Jesus is the most radical of Christian doctrines. His teachings, His compassion for others, even His martyr’s death—all find parallels in other stories and religious traditions. But no other historical figure has ever claimed to be God and risen from the dead.”

To truly experience Jesus Christ’s divinity, one has to believe what the apostle Paul wrote:

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures...He was buried...and He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6a) and “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men” (1 Timothy 2:5-6a).

ONE OF US?

We believe that, in Jesus, God became one of us. God incarnate or "in flesh" (Jesus) shared a common name with thousands of other Jewish boys—yet for all practical purposes He remained a stranger. For thirty years almost no one outside Nazareth knew Him, let alone grasped His divine identity.

To be certain, Jesus’ manner and character impressed many in His town. He epitomized the Jewish ideals of truthfulness, wisdom, reverence, and love. But no one—perhaps only His widowed mother—knew He was God in a human body.

Shortly after turning thirty years of age, however, Jesus embarked on a most difficult task—revealing His true identity to a people long convinced that God was in His heaven, period.

Jesus revealed God’s desire for nearness to us. How much closer could He have come than by becoming one of us? Jesus was perfect. Without sin. Full of emotion. Fully God and at the same time fully human.

We reject the misconception popular in certain pseudo-religious circles that Jesus was passionless, mild, weak. How pathetic—and how utterly unsupported by the earliest historical records, which paint vivid pictures of Jesus’ emotions. Here is a man who loves and rebukes, who laughs and cries. Far from a caricature, we see Jesus four-dimensionally and fully alive.

Jesus wasn’t simply a first-century wonder-worker, either. He didn’t perform magic shows. Jesus’ earthly miracles were pointed and purposeful because they were all related to the kingdom of heaven.

In his gospel, St. John calls these miracles “signs.” Signs of what? Signs of God’s mercy and power. Signs that demand a response: Do you believe Jesus is God-become-man, or not?

Understanding how Jesus Christ impacts your life rests largely upon how you view yourself. A wrong view of who you are can lead to a misconception of your need for Jesus.

The Bible paints a picture of humanity that is fair, honest and authentic. We are all sinners. We aren't just sinners because we do wrong....we are sinners because we ARE wrong. Our very nature is at odds with God. The Bible tells us that 'there is none righteous, not even one' (Romans 3:10). Even the people who you think are moral and do well with themselves have a significant issue....SIN.

The sin of mankind is made known to him through the Law of God, also known as the Ten Commandments. Mankind's inabilty to keep the Law reveals his inability to meet the righteous standard of God, and removes any illusion that he can make himself "good enough" to be accepted by Him.

The picture above describes the impact Jesus Christ has had upon humanity. He is the bridge that closes the gap between us and God, who is completely Holy and without any sin. He is the means by which we can be made righteous apart from the Law (Romans 3:21-22).

Without recognizing there there is a gap between you and God because of your sin, you'll never understand how necessary faith in Jesus is. Christianity is honest and authentic about humanity. Christianity helps each of us come to grips with the fact that we are desolate people. We do not have any righteousness within us. Even the good things that we are able to accomplish are considered as 'filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6) when placed next to the righteous standard of God. While some religions try to persuade people that they are essentially good people, Christianity presents us with the truth...we need help because we are sinners by nature.

As a matter of fact, the Bible clearly addresses this need:

'For while we were still HELPLESS, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly...God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' (Romans 5:6)

The bottom line is that you and I are all in the same boat. We desperately need a qualified Savior. If this page is all you read, you might be discouraged. Your experience of life, both with yourself and others, reveals that we are not naturally HOLY. But, don't stop reading here. Make sure you discover the facts about JESUS, because He is the answer to our SIN problem.

WHAT WILL YOUR RESPONSE BE?

The irony in choosing Jesus is that Jesus Himself revealed 'You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.' Do you realize that Jesus is pursuing you? Imagine that, the Creator of the world is pursuing YOU! You haven't stumbled onto this website by accident.

Every person’s story is different, but there arrives in each life a moment in which a man or woman takes a position, deciding either for or against Jesus Christ.

How can we know with certainty that we can have eternal life? It centers around a choice, a choice the Bible says we’re all invited to make. That choice is to humble ourselves before God and in repentance and prayer:

• Tell God that we believe in the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ—all that Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter really mean.

• Repent, or turn away, from your sins and ask God for His free gift of salvation—complete forgiveness of sins, an absolutely cleansed conscience, a new heart, God’s indwelling presence, eternal life, and a warm welcome into God’s family forever.

Have you decided for or against JESUS yet?

Suppose you were to die tonight and, upon arriving at the gate of heaven, the Lord asked you, “Upon what basis do you request entrance into My heaven?”

Perhaps your answer would be, “I confess I’m not perfect. I’ve mistreated lots of people, as well as myself. But I’ve done some good as well, Lord. Doesn’t that count for something?”

Or maybe you would answer, “Lord, I wasn’t too bad. I didn’t murder anyone or cheat on my spouse. My children didn’t end up in jail, and I was promoted at my company because of my honesty and hard work.”

Either way, the Lord would have to answer, “Good works are good, but not good enough. No one who is impure in any way can enter here.” The only way God will allow us into heaven is if we confess our sins and by faith accept the forgiveness He has provided for us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus paid for our sins by His blood shed on the cross, and we can live eternally with Him in heaven because He conquered death. God loves us so much He sacrificed His own Son so we could live with Him forever. But you must respond. You must make a choice. You must “confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” to be saved (Romans 10:9; John 3:36).

Are you ready to accept God’s gift of eternal life in heaven? The Bible teaches that if you make that choice, Jesus will come into your heart, you will become a child of God, your sins will be forgiven, and you will be spotless in the eyes of the holy God. He will say to you, “Welcome! Welcome to My family! I have a home ready for you in heaven, and you will live with Me for eternity.”

How do you trust Jesus Christ? How can you express that inner choice? You can pray a simple prayer of faith. Saying a prayer won't make you a Christian. Placing your faith in Christ as your savior makes you a Christian. Prayer is just a way of expressing to God that you have come to the conclusion that Jesus is in fact his son and your savior. The following is a sample prayer. You can repeat it verbatim or ignore it. What matters is that you believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be and that you are no longer trusting in what you have done, or will do, to get you to Heaven.

“Thank You, Lord, for preparing a place for me in heaven. Thank You that Jesus died on the cross and took away all my shame and guilt and forgave all my past, present and future sins by His shed blood. Thank You most of all that Jesus rose from the dead. I believe Jesus is alive today, reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords. I confess and repent of my sin this day. Wash me from all my sins, fill me with Your presence, and make me Your child. I will serve You for the rest of my life until You take me home to heaven and I see You face to face.”

Again the important thing isn’t saying the right words, but, perhaps for the first time in your life, talking heart to heart with the Lord Jesus Christ and inviting Him in. If you’ve never done so, I urge you to give your life to Jesus right now, in the quietness of your heart.

Don't keep your decision to yourself! Click here to respond to this message and let someone know what you've decided to believe about Jesus.