Who is Jesus?

Almost everyone has heard of Jesus. Some picture a gentle teacher, some picture a figure on a cross, and some only know his name from a swear word. This guide is a short introduction to who Christians say he is and why they build their lives around him. You don't have to believe any of it to keep reading.

He was a real person

Jesus of Nazareth lived in the first century in what is now Israel. He grew up in a working family, spent about three years teaching and healing, and was executed by the Roman authorities in Jerusalem. Historians of many backgrounds accept that much.

The best sources are four short biographies called the Gospels, named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Their authors knew Jesus or gathered the memories of people who did. If you want to meet him for yourself, that's where to start.

Who he said he was

Jesus gave advice about how to live, but he also made claims about himself, and those claims are why people have argued about him for two thousand years.

The Gospel of John opens by describing him as the Word, present with God before anything was made.

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²The same was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.

Christians read that as saying Jesus is God the Son. He forgave sins, which the people around him said only God could do. He accepted worship. He said that knowing him is the way to know the Father.

⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.

You can disagree with that claim, but Jesus leaves little room for treating him as a nice moral example and nothing more. Either he is who he said he was or he isn't, and he asks the reader to decide.

What he did

The Gospels show a man who was kind to people others avoided. He ate with tax collectors, who were hated as cheats. He spoke with women and foreigners as equals in a world that often didn't. He touched people whose diseases made them outcasts. He healed the sick and gave sight to the blind, and the writers present these as signs that God's kingdom had begun to break into the world.

He told stories called parables that turned expectations upside down. In one, a father runs to welcome a son who has wasted everything. In another, a shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to find the one that is lost. The picture of God that comes out of these stories is of someone looking for you, and not of a distant judge waiting to catch you out.

Jesus also spoke plainly about sin and pride, and about how easily people put themselves in God's place. He was warm and he was direct, and the people who held power didn't like it.

The cross and the empty tomb

The Gospels spend a surprising amount of space on the last week of his life. Jesus was arrested, put on trial, and crucified. Christians see this as the point of his coming. In the words of the early church, Christ died for our sins, taking on himself what we deserved so that we could be forgiven.

³For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

The second half of that passage matters as much as the first. Christians believe that on the third day Jesus was raised bodily from the dead. His followers had scattered in fear, and afterward they were bold enough to face prison and death for saying so. Something happened that changed them. The resurrection is the center of the Christian faith. If it did not happen, Christians say, the rest falls apart, and if it did, everything changes.

Why he matters

If Jesus is who he claimed to be, he is the one who makes it possible to know God, to be forgiven, and to begin again. Christians call this good news, which is what the word "gospel" means. God comes down to us so that we don't have to climb up to him.

That is why Christians say faith is mostly about trusting a person, and only secondarily about being good. Many who follow Jesus describe it as being found more than as joining a club.

Where to read more

If you want to meet Jesus in his own story, two chapters make an easy start:

• Mark 1. Mark is the shortest and fastest Gospel, and it reads like a news report. Read Mark 1.
• John 1. John is more reflective and explains most clearly who Jesus is. Read John 1.

Read a chapter at a time and notice what surprises you. Write down what you don't understand. Confusion is a normal part of this.

A gentle next step

Take as long as you like. Some people read for months before they decide anything. If you have a question, ask it, and a real person will reply with no pressure and no sales pitch. When you're ready to keep going, the guide on what Christians believe is a good next read.