Everything in the Christian faith stands or falls with one person. If Jesus of Nazareth was only a good man and a wise teacher, then we may admire Him and move on. But that is not who the Bible says He is, and it is not who He claimed to be. The Bible presents Him as God in the flesh, the Savior of the world, the risen Lord who will judge the living and the dead. That is a claim that no one can be neutral about. Let us see what the Scriptures say of Him.
The Scriptures Foretold Him
Jesus was no accident of history and no afterthought. For hundreds of years before He was born, the prophets foretold His coming, and He said the old Scriptures were all about Him. After He rose, He told His disciples that "all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44). He did not come to set the Scriptures aside. He said, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (Matthew 5:17).
His coming was written long before. He would descend from David and sit on David's throne, the son of whom Isaiah wrote, "the government shall be upon his shoulder" (Isaiah 9:6-7). He would be born of a virgin, for "a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son" (Isaiah 7:14), and born in one small town, since out of "Bethlehem Ephratah" would come the ruler of Israel (Micah 5:2). A messenger would go before Him to prepare His way (Malachi 3:1), and John the Baptist did exactly that.
His suffering and death were written too, in detail no man could have arranged. Isaiah saw Him led "as a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7), seven hundred years before the cross. Zechariah named the price of His betrayal, "thirty pieces of silver" (Zechariah 11:12). David, a thousand years before, described His crucifixion as though he were watching it: "they pierced my hands and my feet" (Psalm 22:16), and "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture" (Psalm 22:18). These words were set down long before such a death was even known in Israel.
And His resurrection was promised. David wrote that God would not leave His Holy One to "see corruption" (Psalm 16:10), and Peter declared at Pentecost that this was fulfilled when God raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:31). No other person who ever lived fits these marks, set down by many men across many centuries. As Peter said, "To him give all the prophets witness" (Acts 10:43). Jesus is the One the whole Bible was waiting for.
He Is God, the Eternal Word
Jesus did not begin in Bethlehem. He is the eternal Word, and the Word is God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). All things were made by Him, and nothing was made without Him. He told the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58), taking to Himself the name of God. The Father says of the Son, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" (Hebrews 1:8), and in Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). He is not a lesser god or a great creature. He is God.
He Became Flesh
Yet the eternal God took on flesh and was born among us. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). He who was in the form of God "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7). He grew hungry and weary, He wept, and He was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He was fully God and fully man, and we cannot give up either without losing the Savior.
He Died for Our Sins
Though He never sinned, for He "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22), He went to a cross. He did not die for His own wrongs, for He had none. He died for ours. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5). God "hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The whole gospel rests on this, that "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3).
He Rose From the Dead
He did not stay in the grave. The same gospel that says He died says "that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:4). He was seen alive by many witnesses, by the apostles and by more than five hundred at once (1 Corinthians 15:5-6). The resurrection is the proof of everything, for He was "declared to be the Son of God with power... by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). A dead teacher could not save us. A risen Lord can.
He Reigns Now and Is Coming Again
The risen Christ was taken up and exalted. "God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:9-10). He sat down "on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3), and Peter declared that God had made Him "both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). He reigns now, and He will come again. The angels promised that "this same Jesus... shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go" (Acts 1:11), for God has appointed a day in which "he will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:31).
He Is the Only Way
Because of who He is and what He has done, there is no other way to God. Jesus said it plainly, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Peter preached, "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). There is "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Not a way among many, but the one and only way.
So the question every person must answer is what he will do with Jesus Christ. He is Lord whether men own Him or not, and one day every knee will bow. The wise thing is to bow now, to believe on Him, to obey His gospel, and to follow Him as Lord. He will be your Savior, or He will be your Judge. He leaves no third option.