Who is Jesus?

The Good News of Jesus Christ

With a lot of confusion and cynicism towards the Christian Gospel today, many people wonder, just who was Jesus Christ, and how can we know if he is a lunatic, liar, or the one true God?

God Exists

What’s actually going to happen when we die? Do we simply cease to exist? Are we reincarnated? Is there a heaven or hell? What is truth? How should we live? At some point these questions should occupy our thoughts because they are of the greatest importance.

Faith in God isn’t a conspiracy theory. Empirical evidence throughout the history of mankind has pointed us to a Creator. All forms of knowledge from philosophy to the biological sciences to natural law and morality have the mark of a higher power in the universe.

Man has always found himself fascinated by God, but God himself needed to reveal himself to man. It is the highest pursuit of man to know why he is made. Atheism states that man’s existence is absurd and without any meaning. This sits well with few people. God can reveal why it is we are here.

It is Reasonable to Say So

Christianity makes the audacious claim that the God of the Jews and Christians is real, is the only true God, and Christianity is a result of God revealing himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Catholicism makes an even more grandiose claim. Catholicism claims to be the fullest expression of the Christian faith and the one true Church of the one true God. She claims that everything she officially teaches is infallibly true pertaining to beliefs and morals, protected by God. She claims to have the means to help us spend eternity in heaven. And then there is the biggest claim of all: All of this is perfectly reasonable.

Faith is Not Opposed to Reason

St. Theophilus of Antioch taught us: “And why do you not believe? Do you not know that faith is foremost in all matters? For what farmer is able to reap, unless first he have faith, and trust the seed to the earth? Or who is able to journey across the sea, unless first he have faith to trust himself to the ship and to the pilot? If, then, the farmer believes in the earth, and the sailor believes in the ship, and the sick man believes in the physician, will not you yourself wish to believe in God?”

Let’s say that there is a chance this claim is true. That one day you will either receive mercy from God or justice from God. We are asking you to give the evidence fair hearing because of the consequences of your decision.

The Questions We All Ask

Most of our movies today are about the battle between good and evil. In our cultural mythology the good people always seem to have similar habits: they are meek and humble of heart, faithful, peaceful, joyful, practice self-control, intelligent, forbearing, sacrificial, and loving. They are portrayed as beautiful.

Why do we even have something called “good” or something called “evil”? You cannot test goodness and badness by using the scientific method, and yet for some reason we all think what the Nazis did in the Holocaust is horribly “evil”. Why?

Christianity is a call to be fully who you are meant to be, and in being that person, you can be truly satisfied, happy, and at peace. The Bible tells a story of the unfolding drama of real human history filled with good and evil people. It tells the story of a real man, Jesus Christ, who lived in Roman times and claimed to be God.

Those who follow Jesus to the fullest are called saints. The saints throughout history are not different than you or I. What sets them apart is that they realized nothing this world had to offer gave them peace. St. Augustine uttered the famous lines: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, oh God.”

The Plan

God the Father created us out of love and has a wonderful plan for your life. The Bible is one way in which we know this plan. When Nicodemus, a teacher, asked Jesus about following Him, Jesus replied: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

God created you and wants you to be at peace, even when life is difficult. Some people think that following God is all about rules and being oppressed. Instead, following God is all about being free.

The Bad News

Mankind is separated from God because of sin, and sin leads to hell. St. Paul tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 3:23, 6:23)

We were created to have a peaceful relationship with God, but instead we are born broken and sinful. We live self-centered lives. Without a relationship with God we will experience eternal death in hell. Hell is something we choose for ourselves.

God loves us and wants us to live with Him forever in heaven. His love is perfect, and he wants a relationship with us. If we choose to live apart from Him in our words and actions, he will honor our choice.

The Good News

Jesus Christ became man, died for our sins, and rose again so that we might know and experience God’s love and plan for our life. “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

God knew that apart from His abundant love we would each end up in hell by our own choices. God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ to be incarnate in the womb of Mary some 2,000 years ago.

God is a Trinity of Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father, through the power of God the Holy Spirit, sent God the Son to take on flesh and become a man. He was born, he grew up, and he ministered for 3 years before being sentenced to death under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate.

Jesus was crucified between two thieves. One asked for mercy and received it. One did not. Jesus is God. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his followers, especially Peter, the 12 apostles, and more than 500 witnesses. He is the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, except by Jesus Christ. (John 14:6)

The Invitation

We must receive Christ in faith for our salvation. The Holy Spirit will help us with this. Jesus Christ established the Church as the normal means to receive God’s grace.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

Jesus does not want just a part of our heart, but wants us to surrender ourselves to his love. However, he won’t force us to do so. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Believe & Be Baptized

C.S. Lewis pointed out that since Jesus claimed to be God, he must be a liar, a lunatic, or God. The sayings of Jesus are not the teachings of a lunatic. To become a Christian we have to believe in Jesus Christ for our salvation. When you are baptized your sins are forgiven, you become a new creation in Jesus Christ, and you become a member of the Catholic Church.