The man Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, many things.
He was a great preacher whose words, such as the Sermon on the Mount, still
seize human imagination two thousand years later.
He was a healer who worked great miracles, healing the sick, bringing sight
to the blind, making the lame to walk again, and even raising the dead.
He was a troublemaker whose criticisms of the powerful and wealthy were matched
by his compassion for the weak, vulnerable, and outcasts of society.
He was crucified on a Roman cross as a danger to the Empire as "King of the Jews."
This was no accident, because . . .
Jesus was sent by God to die on purpose as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the
world by taking upon himself the divine curse of God's wrath.
He is the one whom God raised from the dead after three days in the grave, and who
now rules heaven and earth and is present with his people through his Spirit.
He is the one who will one day return, to bring both judgment and mercy.
He is the Christ, the Jewish Messiah: the one to whom dozens of prophecies in
the Old Testament point, the fulfillment of all of God's promises to Israel.
He is the divine Son of God. The one and only God-Man.
This man, Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, died for your sins and ours, in order
that we might be saved from sin and judgment by believing in him. By his sacrifice,
Jesus brings us, by God's design, into a supremely satisfying joy in God that is
beyond anything we can imagine. That's good news. It's called the gospel.
