Jesus believed in Jesus

Maybe you believe in Jesus. Maybe you won’t. Oh sure, almost all sane and educated people believe that Jesus was a real person, a religious teacher, who lived about 2000 years ago. Even the Qur’an mentions Jesus 25 times. Although Islamic scriptures do not portray Jesus as the Apostles did of him, they do not question his existence. There is too much evidence for anyone who wants credibility to deny the existence of Jesus.

In fact, the existence of Jesus is rationally undeniable. However, what is routinely questioned are facts related to his identity. Who was Jesus? Who is Jesus? His Apostles provided the answers to these questions in his preaching. And fortunately, the message they preached has been faithfully preserved in their writings. They shamelessly, and at great personal cost, called people to believe in Jesus.

Believing in Jesus, as His Apostles believed and encouraged others to believe, certainly means more than simply believing in His existence. Clearly, before Jesus was crucified, his existence was never in question. His identity it was the problem then and it remains the central problem to this day. Thus, the Apostles faithfully presented Jesus to the world as he himself had presented himself. They were eyewitnesses to the things that Jesus said and did. What they saw and heard convinced them to believe in Jesus.

Give the New Testament scriptures a fair reading, and you will find that before the Apostles believed in Jesus, Jesus believed in Jesus. That is, Jesus believed in his glorious identity. Before they believed that He was the Son of God, He believed that He was the Son of God. Before they believed that He was the Christ (Israel’s Messiah), He believed that He was the Christ. Before they believed that He was the Savior, the Lord of Life, Lord of lords and King of kings, He believed all these things.

One day, while traveling with his disciples, Jesus asked them this question: “Who do people say I am?” Please note that this is an identity question. They told him that various ideas were being floated. “Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” they responded (Matthew 16:14). Then the Master asked this, “But who you To say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15 emphasis mine). Pedro spoke for the group, “You are the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Although Jesus was pleased with the answer and claimed it was accurate, he instructed his disciples to keep this information among themselves for a while.

Jesus obviously knew that Mary was His mother, but He also knew that God was His Father in a unique way. When Jesus was 12 years old, he went to Jerusalem with his family for one of the major Jewish festivals. On the ride home, Mary discovered that Jesus was not in the group of friends and family traveling from Jerusalem. Rather in a panic, she returned to Jerusalem to find Jesus in the Temple speaking with the religious leaders about spiritual truths. When Maria rebuked him, he asked her “Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s House?” (Luke 2:49). Although most people probably thought that Joseph was his father, Jesus and Mary knew better. God was his Father. And his public references to this fact created quite a few problems for the Master.

Once a man who was too short to see Jesus approaching climbed up a tree to see over the crowd that blocked his view. Not only did he see Jesus, Jesus saw him and invited himself into the man’s house. It was in the house of Zacchaeus that Jesus said that He “he came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus believed that people were lost and needed a Savior. He believed that He was that Saviour. He believed that he had been sent by the Father on a rescue mission.

Dying on the Cross as a sacrifice for sin was an integral part of the mission that Jesus believed to be his. Just hours before his death, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he agonized over this important part of the mission. There, in prayer to his Father, he made peace with this costly final step of obedience, which was for our benefit. Listen to his words in the Garden: “My Father, if this cup cannot pass from me without my drinking it, your will be done.” (Matthew 26:42).

Jesus believed that we could not save ourselves; we needed a savior. If we could have saved ourselves, He could have stayed in heaven and left us. But we could not; we can’t You and I, because of our sin, have contracted a debt with God that we cannot pay. He believed that He was that Saviour. He believed that he was qualified to pay our debt; that is, He was without sin. Therefore, He was able to shed his blood for our sin, since He had no sin debt of His own. His bold profession of that truth is on record for us: “I always do what I please [the Father](John 8:29). An Apostle expressed it thus: “God made it [Jesus] who was without sin so that he might be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

There, in that garden where Jesus met his disciples for the last time, the traitor led the soldiers to arrest him. One of his followers began to fight the arrest. In fact, he drew his sword and cut off the ear of one of those men. Jesus clarified the situation to his followers. They only arrested him because he was part of that plan that they still didn’t understand. After telling his disciple to put away his sword, and after healing the man whose ear had been cut off, Jesus told his followers: “Do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he will immediately place more than twelve legions of angels at my disposal? But how, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it should be so?” (Matthew 26:53,54).

Jesus certainly believed in Jesus. His Apostles came to believe in Him. The question is, who does? you Do you believe that Jesus is? who is he for you? Do you believe in Jesus as Jesus believed in Jesus? He invested his entire life in that belief. He suffered rejection and ridicule for that belief. He suffered physical torture for that belief. That, dear friend, is precisely the kind of belief that salvation requires. It is betting your life on the facts of the Gospel. It is to be, in game terms, “all in”. Now, don’t get confused by what I just said: we don’t necessarily suffer in the same way as the Master, but we do have to share the same deep conviction about who He is. And sharing that conviction about Jesus will probably bring us some kind of suffering in this life.

Before Jesus died for us, He vivid for us. From the womb to the grave, Jesus “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That qualified him to be the sacrifice we need: a perfect one. And, on the cross, he made that sacrifice. To believe in Jesus, as Jesus wanted to be believed, is to believe in your goodness and his sacrifice for our wickedness The Apostle Paul, writing to the young preacher Timothy, made this statement: “Here is a faithful word that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). The “faithful word” that Paul wanted to convey was that “Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” We could debate Paul regarding his claim to be the “worst”. You can consider your sins much worse than Paul’s. Maybe you are right. But the trustworthy saying is not “Jesus came to save the worst sinner”; is that he came “to save sinners!“Whether you are the worst sinner or the best sinner, you need to be saved. Fortunately, Jesus came for this very reason.

To be saved, you must face the first truth of the Gospel. It is “only for sinners,” for those who have failed in God’s standards of right and wrong. What Jesus did on the Cross is available to all, but applicable only to the admitted and repentant sinner. Until we realize our need for salvation, we cannot see our need for the Savior. The final component of the Gospel is that we receive Christ our Savior. There is only one catch: Jesus not only believed that He was and is the Savior, He believed that He was and is the Lord of all. So, receiving him as Savior requires that we also receive him as Lord. I encourage you to receive the Savior’s forgiveness, but I also plan to surrender and follow the Lord of lords. It’s a package. I pray that you will be encouraged to live this way: believing in Jesus as He believed in Himself. (All Biblical references in this article are from the New International Version.)