Who is Jesus?
An in Depth Teaching of the Characteristics of Jesus Christ
Overview
The Bread of Life
In John 6, Jesus declares Himself the “Bread of Life,” revealing a profound spiritual truth that led to a stark division among His followers. Initially, a large crowd followed Jesus, drawn by His miracles and hoping for more physical sustenance. However, Jesus emphasized the need for spiritual nourishment over physical food, challenging the crowd’s motives and understanding. This teaching resulted in a mass departure, leaving Jesus with only His closest disciples. By worldly standards, this would be seen as a failure, but Jesus’ message achieved its divine purpose by revealing the true commitment of His followers.
The crowd’s response highlighted a common issue: people often seek Jesus for immediate, temporal benefits rather than eternal, spiritual ones. Jesus confronted this by asserting His divine authority and the necessity of complete dependence on Him for eternal life. He emphasized that no one can come to Him unless drawn by the Father, underscoring human inability to achieve salvation through their own efforts. This message of total reliance on divine grace was difficult for many to accept, leading to widespread rejection.
Ultimately, the chapter reveals three types of responses to Jesus’ message. The deserters abandoned Jesus, unable to accept His spiritual demands. The true disciples, represented by Peter, acknowledged that Jesus alone has the words of eternal life and remained committed despite the difficult teaching. The deceivers, like Judas, pretended to follow Jesus for personal gain but ultimately revealed their true nature. Jesus’ declaration as the “Bread of Life” forces every listener to make a decisive choice: to fully depend on Him for eternal sustenance or to walk away in pursuit of temporal desires.
The Light of the World
In John 8:12, Jesus declares Himself the “Light of the world,” offering spiritual illumination and life to those who follow Him, freeing them from walking in darkness. This self-revelation is situated within the context of the Feast of Booths, where light was a significant symbol, underscoring the profound nature of Jesus’ statement. Despite the crowd’s resistance and the religious leaders’ hostility, Jesus emphasizes the spiritual truth that He alone can provide eternal life and enlightenment, challenging people to recognize their spiritual blindness and turn to Him for salvation. This theme is vividly illustrated in John 9, where Jesus heals a blind man, symbolizing His mission to bring light and truth to a spiritually dark world.
The healed blind man’s journey reflects the transformative power of encountering Jesus, progressing from physical blindness to spiritual insight and faith. Despite facing rejection from his community and religious authorities, his understanding of Jesus deepens, culminating in a full confession of Jesus as the one sent from God. This narrative highlights the contrast between those who acknowledge their need for Jesus’ light and those who remain in spiritual darkness due to their self-righteousness, like the Pharisees. For believers, this account serves as a reminder that despite the challenges and rejections faced in a dark world, the ultimate reward is seeing and worshiping Jesus, the Light of the world, who brings eternal life and truth to His followers.
The Door of the Sheep
People have long sought true life, experimenting with various pleasures and pursuits such as food, drink, sex, work, and family. These are gifts from God, but when pursued as ends in themselves, they ultimately lead to emptiness and death. False religions also offer no true life, as they cannot earn favor with God. Jesus addresses this quest for true life in John 10:7-10, where He declares Himself to be the door of the sheep, the only entrance to eternal life and true fulfillment.
Jesus’ statement as the door of the sheep symbolizes nourishment and protection. He contrasts Himself with thieves and robbers, such as the Pharisees, who mislead people into false religion and condemnation. Jesus highlights that His true sheep recognize His voice and follow Him, rejecting false teachers. This emphasizes that salvation and eternal life are found exclusively through Jesus, who provides protection and spiritual nourishment for His followers.
Ultimately, Jesus contrasts His mission with that of false teachers, who bring destruction and death. Jesus, the door to eternal life, came to offer life in abundance, as described in John 17:3, through knowing Him and being reconciled to God. This true, satisfying, and eternal life makes life worth living, highlighting the importance of turning away from sin and entering through Christ, the only source of genuine life.
The Good Shepherd
In John 10, Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd, a profound declaration that encapsulates His sacrificial love and care for His followers. This statement underscores Jesus’ unique role as the promised Messiah who lays down His life for His sheep. Unlike the hired hand who flees in the face of danger, Jesus remains steadfastly committed to His sheep out of genuine love. His sacrifice on the cross is not merely an act of love, but a necessary atonement for the sins of humanity, ensuring eternal life for those who believe in Him. Jesus’ intimate knowledge of His sheep further illustrates His personal investment in each believer, knowing us completely and loving us unconditionally despite our flaws and weaknesses. This deep relationship with Jesus as our Good Shepherd calls us to reciprocate that love within the body of Christ, demonstrating unity and care as we follow Him obediently, knowing that His obedience to the Father’s will secured our salvation.
Jesus’ identity as the Good Shepherd in John 10 reveals the heart of the gospel message: that through His death and resurrection, He provides the way to eternal life. His obedience to the Father’s will, motivated by His perfect love for His sheep, demonstrates His authority and divine purpose. This declaration challenges us to recognize our dependence on Christ, who alone offers true life and redemption. As believers, our response is to know Jesus intimately, to love Him wholeheartedly, and to reflect His love and unity in our relationships with one another. This profound truth of Jesus’ sacrificial love as the Good Shepherd is not just a theological concept, but the foundation of our faith and the source of our hope, guiding us to live in obedience and unity under His loving care.
The Resurrection and the Life
In the Gospel of John, Jesus reveals Himself through profound metaphors that illustrate His essential role in the lives of believers. From being the bread of life in John 6, to the light of the world in John 8-9, and the door and good shepherd in John 10, each image portrays aspects of Jesus’ care, provision, guidance, and sacrificial love for His followers. However, it is in John 11 that Jesus declares Himself as the resurrection and the life, marking a profound shift in understanding His identity. The narrative of Lazarus’ resurrection unfolds in five poignant scenes, revealing Jesus’ deep empathy, His authority over life and death, and His ultimate triumph over the grave.
Through His interactions with Martha and Mary, Jesus not only demonstrates His power to raise the dead but also reveals His heart for those who suffer. His tears at Lazarus’ tomb affirm His solidarity with humanity’s grief and His determination to conquer death itself. This miraculous event not only points to Jesus’ divine identity but also foreshadows His own impending resurrection, offering believers the assurance of eternal life through faith in Him. Ultimately, Jesus’ declaration as the resurrection and the life challenges us to confront the reality of death with hope, knowing that He has overcome it and promises resurrection to all who believe in Him. His victory over death ensures that those who trust in Him will experience life eternal, where sorrow and suffering will be no more, and His glory will be fully revealed.
The Way, the Truth, and the Life
In John 14, Jesus prepares His disciples for His imminent departure, assuring them that His going away is not the end but a pathway to eternal fellowship with the Father. He comforts them with the promise of preparing a place for them in His Father’s house and emphasizes that He will return to bring them to Himself, ensuring an everlasting union. Thomas, grappling with the uncertainty of the way forward, seeks clarity, prompting Jesus to declare, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Jesus asserts His exclusive role in leading humanity to God—He is not merely a guide or one of many options but the singular path to the Father. This statement encapsulates His divine authority as the source of truth and the giver of eternal life, challenging the world’s rejection of absolute truth and asserting His unmatched sufficiency for every human need.
Christ’s declaration in John 14:6 confronts the relativism and spiritual pluralism of our age with uncompromising exclusivity. He is the exclusive means by which humanity can access God, embodying truth itself in a world rife with falsehoods and deceptions. Moreover, Jesus offers life—eternal and abundant—to all who believe in Him. His words resonate with a call to repentance and faith, urging unbelievers to turn to Him as the sole Savior and Lord. For believers, Jesus’ assertion reaffirms that He alone satisfies every spiritual need, providing solace and assurance amidst life’s trials. As Christ continues to be the way, the truth, and the life, His followers find unwavering confidence in His sufficiency and exclusivity as the foundation of their faith and hope.
The True Vine
In John’s Gospel, Jesus reveals Himself through seven profound “I am” statements, each shedding light on His identity and mission. The culmination in John 14:6, where Jesus declares, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” underscores His exclusivity as the all-sufficient Savior. This declaration is pivotal as Jesus prepares His disciples for His departure, reassuring them that He remains their source of eternal fellowship with the Father. Understanding who Jesus is through these statements is foundational for believers, guiding them to depend on Him completely in their daily lives, even in His physical absence. The call to abide in Christ as the true vine (John 15) emphasizes this dependency, highlighting that apart from Him, believers cannot bear fruit. Abiding involves saturating oneself with Scripture, persisting in prayer, and obeying His commands, all leading to the abundant joy and fulfillment found only in Christ.
As followers of Jesus, recognizing Him as the bread of life, the light of the world, the Good Shepherd, and ultimately as the true vine who provides everything necessary for life and godliness, shapes our understanding of discipleship. Living out our faith means abiding in Him continually, allowing His Word to transform us, praying without ceasing, and aligning our lives with His commands. This abiding relationship not only marks us as genuine disciples but also leads to a life characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, worship, godly living, and effective witness to the world. Ultimately, abiding in Christ is not merely a duty but a pathway to experiencing His infinite joy and fulfilling His purpose for our lives, demonstrating His sufficiency in every circumstance and glorifying God in all we do.