Who is Jesus, What Does it Mean to Believe on Him, and What Happens When We Do?

Who is Jesus, What Does it Mean to Believe on Him, and What Happens When We Do?

Jesus Christ is the man Jesus of Nazareth, Christ the anointed one, God in the flesh. He is both fully God and fully human. He is the Word who was in the beginning with God and who is God. He is the exact image of the invisible God. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is the source and sustainer of all things without whom nothing was made that has been made, whether visible or invisible.

To believe on, or in, Jesus means to believe in or on His name. To believe on His name means to believe that He is who He says He is and has done what He says He has done, to wit, that He gave His life as the full and sufficient payment of the wages of the sin of all humanity across all of time, that in dying He took away the sins of the world, that He rose from the dead and thereby made it possible for us to be born of the Spirit. This rebirth occurs when we respond to Him in faith, believing in Him as our only hope of righteousness. It makes us the children of God fully righteous accepted by and compatible with God.

Being born of God, we are recreated at the level of our spirit. Our old self, the nature inherited from Adam, dies and we are immersed into Christ. We are made righteous, blameless, and above reproach in our spirit and our old sinful heart is thus replaced with a new loving heart that shares in the nature of our heavenly Father. From Him we inherit godly traits. This does not in any sense make us gods, but it does result in us desiring godliness in actions and attitudes. While we still falter and stumble in many ways, we naturally mature as Holy Spirit within us causes us to grow in the grace and knowledge of God.

Knowing God is eternal life, God’s life, life without end.

Grace and peace to you.

Larry