Jesus Christ

WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD
Christianity has always professed belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, true God and true man. He existed with the Father from all eternity and all that exists was created through Him (cf. John 1:2-3). At a certain point in time, He came to earth to take on our human nature, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He came to reveal the truth about God, to willingly offer Himself to God as an atoning sacrifice for sins, and to conquer death through His bodily resurrection on the third day. Forty days after the Resurrection, He ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father as Lord and King of heaven and earth. He will come again on the Last Day to judge all humanity, taking the just with Him to heaven and condemning the reprobates to hell.

WHY DO WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD?
Jesus, the Only-Begotten Son of God and second person of the Most Blessed Trinity, is referred to early in the Book of Genesis in God's plan to redeem fallen humanity through the birth of a Child (3:15). It is said the Redeemer shall come from the lineage of Abraham (cf. Gen. 12:3; Deut. 18:15; Matt. 1:1ff.), being born of a Virgin (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23). The prophet Daniel speaks of "one like the son of man" coming with the clouds of heaven to be presented before the Ancient of Days. "And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him" (Dan. 7:13-14).

The divinity of Jesus, of course, is strongly professed in the pages of the New Testament, where He is identified as the Incarnate Word of God. Saint John states in the opening lines of his Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father (1:1-5, 14).

At the end of John's Gospel, the Apostle Thomas, having seen the wounds of the Risen Christ, addresses Him as "My Lord and my God!" (20:28). Saint Paul says that Jesus, "though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6-7). Jesus' miracles, recorded in the Gospels, are proof of His divinity as well, most especially the Resurrection, His return from the dead.

We find references to Christ's divinity in the writings of the Early Church Fathers. Saint Ignatius of Antioch, for instance, a disciple of the Apostle John, writing around the year 107 A.D., says to the Christians in Rome, "I wish [you] unalloyed joy in Jesus Christ, our God" (Letter to the Romans, Address). In about 150, Saint Justin the Martyr writes, "They who assert that the Son is the Father are proved to know neither the Father, nor that the Father of all has a Son, who is both the first-born Word of God and is God" (First Apology 63).

While in passages of Scripture, Jesus appears to deny His divinity — saying for example, "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28) — at other times He declares, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). In the first case, Jesus is speaking in an exaggerated way to underscore the obedience of His human will to the Father. Moreover, He reveals His divinity in an unambiguous way to the Jews in the Temple, taking for Himself the divine name, I AM WHO AM. "Truly, truly, I say to you," He declares, "before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58; cf. Ex. 3:14). It is clear His hearers understood this as a claim of divinity, a blasphemy, for "they took up stones to throw at him" (John 8:59).

WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD
Christians believe that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah and Savior of all mankind. We believe, moreover, that it would be impossible for a human being to be saved apart from Jesus. Through His sacrificial death on the Cross, He made atonement for all sin for all time. In willingly dying for us, He earned for us the divine grace to be reconciled with God, to be sanctified, justified, and saved. While Christ died for all, it is clear from Scripture that not all will be saved (cf. Matt. 22:14). For while Christ opened the doors to heaven for us, one must accept His offer of salvation to be saved.

WHY DO WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD?
Jesus proclaims, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16-17). The sin of Adam and Eve, which the Church calls original sin, was foremost a transgression of pride, the desire not to serve the Creator but to become like Him (cf. Gen. 3:5). The guilt and effects of this sin were passed down through Adam and Eve to the entire human race (cf. Gen. 3:16-17; Rom. 5:12-19). Man, the once-favored creature of God, found himself doomed to suffer in disgrace, utterly incapable of restoring the friendship with His Maker that had been ruined by disobedience. In His infinite mercy, however, God promised to send His own Son in the form of a man to redeem His lost children (cf. Gen. 3:15). In turn, the Son would freely offer Himself as a sacrifice to God, rectifying man's defiance with an act of perfect obedience to the will of God (cf. Rom. 5:15 ff.). To be effective the Incarnation needed to be real, which is to say the Son had to truly take on human nature, becoming Emmanuel, "God with us" (Matt. 1:23). Had He merely become the semblance of a man, as some heretics have maintained, His sacrifice on our behalf would have been a facade as well.

The death of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross is the paradox of all paradoxes, for it is nothing less than the death of the Author of Life (cf. Acts 3:15). "He who suspended the earth is suspended," wrote Saint Melito in about 170 A.D.; "he who fixed the heavens is fixed; he who fastened all things is fastened to the wood; the Master is outraged; God is murdered" (Paschal Homily). The Crucifixion is prophesied and foreshadowed in the pages of the Old Testament, where Isaiah writes:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed (Isa. 53:4-5).

Demonstrating His total dominion over death, Christ Jesus returned from the grave on the third day. Just as His death is proof of His humanity, so also is His resurrection proof of His divinity (cf. Matt. 12:38ff.; 27:62ff.; John 2:19, et al.). His dying is our redemption; His rising, our assurance we, too, shall rise again (cf. Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 5:15; 1 Pet. 1:3-4, et al.).

The merits of Christ's saving death are applied to mankind solely by the grace of God (cf. Rom. 3:24). We are unable to approach Him in our wounded condition. He must first approach us, empowering us with the gift of faith that will enable us to serve Him (cf. 1 John 4:19). Salvation, therefore, is rightly called God's gift to man. For it would be impossible to merit or earn on our own (cf. John 6:44; 1 Cor. 12:3). Having been called by Him, however, we remain obliged to respond to His grace, primarily through repentance and Baptism (cf. Acts 2:38; cf. Mark 1:15; 16:16; John 3:5, et al.).

Learn more about Jesus Christ in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.