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May.16.06: Light for the Day -
"Who Was JESUS?"
-- Isaiah 9:6
For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given,
And the Government will be on His Shoulders.
And He will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
--
Matthew 1:21
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His
Name JESUS, for He will Save His people from their sins.
-- John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His Only
Begotten Son, that whoever Believes in Him should not
perish but have Everlasting Life.
17 For God did not Send His Son into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world through Him might be
Saved.
-- Matthew 5:17-18
17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or
the prophets; I have come Not to abolish
but to Fulfill.
18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not one Letter, not one stroke of a Letter,
will Pass from the Law until All is Accomplished.
-- John 20:31
But these are Written so that you may come to Believe
that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God,
And that through Believing you may have Life in His Name.
-- John 1:17
For the Law was given through Moses;
Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ.
----------------------
The Christian Faith is centered in Jesus Christ, who lived
some two thousand years ago in an obscure corner of the
Roman Empire. Historians -- whether they are religious or
not -- almost unanimously agree that no other individual
has make such a lasting impact on the world. He is the
foundation and focal point of the Christian Faith, and He
always will be. Whenever Christians have lost sight of His
teachings,
they have betrayed their Lord and brought
dishonor to His Name. When they have honored and
followed Him, however, their lives have been changed
and so has their world.
But Who Was Jesus, and why after two thousand years is
He still the most important person who ever lived?
Was He just a great man? Or was He more?
The Bible (the source of our information about Jesus) tell
us something that staggers our imagination. It tells us that
Jesus Was God In Human Form. He was a man, fully and
completely. But He was more than that: He was also God.
He was not just a godly man; He Was God Himself,
Wrapped
In Human Flesh. The Bible put it this way: "In the
beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God ... The Word became flesh and made His dwelling
among us." (John 1:1, 14).
This is a staggering claim, but Jesus affirmed it repeatedly
during His public ministry. "I and the Father are
One," He
declared (John 10:30). "Anyone who has seen Me has seen
the Father," He told His disciples (John 14:9).
On one occasion
Jesus' appearance was transformed before the eyes of His
closest disciples, and for a brief moment His heavenly glory
shone through. Then a voice came from heaven saying,
"This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased"
(Matthew 17:5).
This also was the consistent witness of the earliest Christians.
The apostle Paul put it this way: "He is the image of the invisible
God ... For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him"
(Colossians 1:15, 19).
Jesus Christ Was Both Fully Man And Fully God.
.... Never forget: That baby born in Bethlehem's stable was not
a son of God (only one among many) -- He was the SON of GOD,
uniquely sent from the Father to become our Savior from sin.
He was both fully human and fully divine.
Why is this important? Because Only A Divine Savior
Can
Save Us From Our Sins. A mere man could not save us
because, like us, he would be a sinner needing God's
forgiveness. But because He was God as well as man,
Jesus was without sin -- thus He alone could bear our sins.
-- Billy Graham -- "The Journey"
-----------------------------
-- Mark 1:1
The Beginning of the Gospel about Jesus Christ,
the Son of God.
-- Matthew 1:1
The book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:
-- John 1:1-5, 14,
18
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through Him all things were made;
without Him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of men.
5 The Light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness has not understood it.
14 The Word became Flesh and made His dwelling among us.
We have seen His Glory, the Glory of the One and
Only,
Who came from the Father, full of Grace and
Truth.
18 No one has ever seen God. But His Only Son,
Who is
Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart;
He has told us about Him.
--
Philippians 2:6-11
6 Though Jesus was in the Form of God, did not Regard
Equality with God as something to be exploited,
7 But Emptied Himself, taking the Form of a Slave, being
born in human likeness. And being found in human form.
8 He Humbled Himself and became Obedient to the point
of death -- even Death on a Cross.
9 Therefore God also Highly Exalted Him and gave Him
the Name that is Above every name,
10 so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in Heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the Glory of God the Father.
-----------------------------
-- John 14:6
Jesus answered,
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life.
No one Comes to the Father Except through Me."
-- John 8:58
Jesus answered,
"The Truth is, I Existed before Abraham was even born!"
-- Revelation 22:13, 16
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.
16 I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this Message
for the churches. I am Both the Source of David and the
Heir to his Throne. I am the Bright Morning Star.
-- John 16:28
I Came from the Father and Entered the world;
now I am Leaving the world and Going Back to the Father.
-- John 3:13
No one has ever gone into Heaven except the One
Who came from Heaven -- the Son of Man.
-- 1 John 5:11
And this is what God has Testified:
He has Given us Eternal Life, and This Life is in His Son.
-- 1 Timothy 3:16
Beyond all question, the Mystery of Godliness is great:
God was Manifested in the Flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.
-- 1 John 1:1-2
1 The One who existed from the beginning is the One we
have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and
touched Him with our own hands.
He is Jesus Christ, the Word of Life.
2 This One who is Life from God was shown to us, and we
have seen Him. And now we Testify and Announce to you
that He is the One who is Eternal Life. He was with the Father,
and then He was shown to us.
-- 1 John 5:20
And we know that the Son of God has come, and He has
given us Understanding so that we can Know the True God.
And now we are in God because we are in His Son,
Jesus Christ. He is the only True God, and He is Eternal
Life.
-- 2Timothy 1:9-10
9 It is God who Saved us and Chose us to Live a Holy Life.
He did this not because we deserved it, but because that
was His Plan long before the world began -- to show His
Love and Grace to us through Christ Jesus.
10 And now He has made all of this plain to us by the Coming
of Christ Jesus, our Savior, who Broke the power of death
and showed us the Way to Everlasting Life through the Gospel.
------------------------------
-- Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He (Jesus) will Crush your head, and you will strike His
heel.
-- Mark 3:11
Whenever the evil spirits saw Jesus, they fell down before
Him
and cried out, "You are the Son of God."
-- John 3:14-15
14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the
wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole,
15 So that everyone who Believes in HIM will have Eternal Life.
-- John 12:32
And when I am lifted up on the Cross,
I will Draw everyone to Myself.
-- Hebrews 2:14
Because God’s children are human beings -- made of flesh
and blood -- Jesus also Became Flesh and Blood by Being
Born in human form. For only as a human being could He die,
and only by dying could He Break the power of the Devil,
who had the Power of Death.
-- 2 Corinthians 5:21
For God made Christ, who Never sinned, to be the Offering for
our sin, so that we could be Made Right with God through Christ.
-- John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
"Look! There is the Lamb of God
Who Takes Away the sin of the world!"
-- Matthew 5:17
Don’t misunderstand Why I have Come.
I did not Come to abolish the Law of Moses
or the Writings of the prophets. No, I came to
Fulfill them.
-- Romans 8:3
3 The Law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful
nature. But God put into effect a Different Plan to
Save us.
He sent His own Son in a human body like ours, except that
ours are sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by
Giving His Son as a Sacrifice for our sins.
4 He did this so that the Requirement of the Law would be
Fully Accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful
nature but instead Follow the Spirit.
-- 2 Corinthians 3:6
He has made us Competent as Ministers of a New Covenant
--
not of the Letter but of the Spirit;
++ for the Letter Kills, but the Spirit Gives
Life. ++
------------------------------
-- Romans 8:1-2
1 Therefore, there is now No Condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the
flesh,
but according to the Spirit.
2 For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has Set you
Free from the Law of Sin and of Death.
-- Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been Justified through Faith,
we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
-- Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the Same Yesterday and Today and Forever.
-- Isaiah 45:22
Let all the world look to Me for Salvation!
For I am God; there is no other.
-- 2 Corinthians 13:14
May the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
And the Love of God,
And the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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