Grounded · Week 2 · 27 min read

Who is Jesus?

If you get Jesus wrong, you get everything wrong.

By Kevin Thompson · Licensed minister, Assemblies of God

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In this lesson:

Key Scripture

John 1:1–14
Colossians 1:15–20
Philippians 2:5–11

As I was writing this lesson, I got to a point where I thought I had finished, but I felt the Holy Spirit say I hadn’t. There was something important missing. And then I realized that, to really know who Jesus is, the most important and obvious truth we must establish today is that Jesus loves you. We have to remember this! He loves us. It’s just that simple. It’s literally who He is. John 4:8 tells us, “God is love.” Love is where it starts. The very foundation of Jesus is love. When you start to grasp the depth of His love, it makes it easy to trust and obey. Love is the reason to worship Him. Love is the reason to give your life to Him.

Then I remembered this song that I used to sing as a child in Sunday school. Sing it with me if you know it…

Jesus loves me, this I know.

For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong,

They are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me.

The Bible tells me so.

Why am I singing songs to you today? It’s because these next 8 weeks are going to be a lot like going to Sunday school, although we’re going to do it on an adult level. Why else is this song relevant to us today?

Mark 10:13-16 (NIV) The Little Children and Jesus

The Little Children and Jesus

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

What’s Jesus telling his disciples here?

He’s telling them that no matter if you’re 3 or 30, 4 or 40, 5 or 50, 6 or 60, or whatever age you might be today, we must approach Jesus with Childlike faith! That song we just sang is childlike faith that declares to everyone listening that we know that Jesus loves us.

Childlike faith demands that we approach Jesus with humble, open hearts and open hands, with complete dependence. We believe Him at His Word and we trust Him for who He is. And we must toss aside any foolish pride or misconception of self-sufficiency. We just come to Him, and He is ready to receive us. This is how we discover who He really is.

So let’s find out who Jesus is. Let’s destroy the lies of the enemy and let’s correct things that religion may have taught us in the past.

Let’s answer… Who is Jesus?

Throughout history, people have had many different answers. Some say He was a great teacher. Others say He is a legend or He was a myth that grew over time. But as believers, we know He is the Christ, the Son of God, and King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Last week we talked a little about salvation. When Jesus becomes Lord of our lives, we are no longer bound in slavery to sin. We have a hope and a future. For the life of a believer, you must understand that Jesus changes everything for us. Jesus first came to this Earth to serve, to suffer, and to die for our sins. He’s coming back again as a conquering King to judge the living and the dead. This life that we live right now will be like a blink of an eye compared to the eternity that we will spend with Him.

1 Corinthians 2:8-10 (NIV)

8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,

what no ear has heard,

and what no human mind has conceived”

the things God has prepared for those who love him—

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

Jesus is not a ticket to heaven. To know and understand who Jesus is requires a relationship with Him. The great part about this is that Jesus is personally inviting us all to walk with Him and talk with Him. He invites us to cast all of our cares on Him. He wants us to understand how high, how wide, and how deep His love is for us.

Let’s start with what Jesus said about Himself.

1. The Claims of Jesus

A. Jesus Claims to be God

The Trinity: A Divine Mystery

How can Jesus be God when God is God? And what about the Holy Spirit? Who is He?

Answering these questions requires some understanding of theology, or the study of the nature of God.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons, but also one. They are never confused, never divided in their divine nature, and always united in purpose.

The Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son, sharing an eternal relationship. Neither is a created being. They are with one another in perfect fellowship. The Son comes from the Father in authority, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, sharing fully in their nature and work.

Therefore, each Person of the Trinity exists and works in complete unity with the others, never separately or independently.

See Appendix 2 at the end of this document for a graphic representation.

Here is an example where we can see the Trinity at work when John the Baptist baptizes Jesus.

Matthew 3:16-17 (NIV) 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

We see Jesus in the water. The presence of the Holy Spirit falls on Jesus. The voice of God is heard speaking.

Here are Jesus’ direct claims of being God…

John 8:58 (NIV) “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

John 10:30 (NIV) I and the Father are one.”

John 14:9 (NIV) Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Jesus claims to be God because He wasn’t just pointing people to God; He was revealing God Himself. He spoke and acted with authority, and that only belongs to God: forgiving sins, judging the world, and giving eternal life. When He used phrases like “I AM” and said He and the Father are one, He was clearly identifying Himself with God’s own identity. Jesus claims to be God because He was God in human form, sent to save us from sin and restore our relationship with Him.

B. Jesus Claims to be the Messiah (Christ)

Matthew 16:15-17 (NIV) “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Mark 14:61-62 (NIV) 61 But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

What does Messiah mean?

The word Messiah is Hebrew. It means “the Anointed One.” When you cross it over into Greek, the language of the New Testament, that same word becomes Christ. So Messiah and Christ are not two different things. They are the same word in two different languages. Anointed One.

And what did it mean to be anointed? In the Old Testament, when God set someone apart for a holy purpose- a king, a priest, a prophet- they poured oil over their head. The oil was the sign. It meant this one is chosen. God Himself sets this one apart.

But the people weren’t just waiting on any anointed one. They were waiting on the Anointed One. The promised King from the line of David. The Deliverer. The One every prophet pointed to, and every generation longed for—the One who would come and finally make it all right.

So when Jesus stands up and says, “I am the Messiah,” He is not making a small claim. He is saying, “I am the One you have been waiting for. The promise is standing right in front of you.”

Jesus didn’t just teach about God’s kingdom; He said He was the one bringing it (Luke 17:21). When people spoke about the coming Messiah, Jesus openly identified Himself as that person. He backed his words through His actions, in the teachings He gave, the miracles He performed, and ultimately His death and resurrection. Jesus claims to be the Christ because He was the one sent by God to rescue and restore His people.

C. Jesus Claims to be the Son of God

John 5:18 (NIV) For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
John 10:36 (NIV) What about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?

Jesus claims to be the Son of God to show that His relationship with God was unique, not like a prophet or teacher, but equal with God Himself. He spoke of God as His Father in a way that shows He shares nature and authority, not just closeness. The people around Him understood this and saw Jesus equal with God. Jesus called Himself the Son of God because He was claiming an equal share in God’s identity, not just a representative of Him or for Him.

D. Jesus Claims Authority to Forgive Sins

Luke 5:20-24 (NIV)

20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

Additional references:

Jesus claims authority to forgive sins because He wasn’t just pointing people to God’s forgiveness; He was personally granting it. Instead of telling people to go to the temple or follow a process, He directly said, “Your sins are forgiven,” which shocked the religious leaders since they thought that only God could do that. Jesus did not back off the claim that He has authority to forgive sins. He confirmed it and even proved it through miracles. He claimed the authority to forgive sins because He was claiming the authority of God Himself.

E. Jesus Claims Authority to Judge the World

Matthew 25:31-32 (NIV) “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Jesus claims authority to judge the world because He taught that all people would ultimately stand before Him. He spoke about separating people based on their response to Him and their lives, placing Himself in the role of final judge over all humanity. This was not a minor claim, since judgment belongs to God alone. Jesus claims the authority to judge the world because He was claiming a role that only God has.

Philippians 2:10-11 (NIV) 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

F. Jesus Claims Power Over Life and Death

John 11:25 (NIV) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;

John 10:17-18 (NIV) The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Jesus claims power over life and death because He said He had the authority not only to give life, but also to lay down His own life and take it up again. He spoke of Himself as the source of eternal life and proved it by raising others from the dead (Lazarus) and ultimately rising from the dead Himself. This is something that no one else has ever been able to claim AND accomplish. Jesus claims power over life and death because He was claiming authority that belongs to God alone.

G. Jesus Claims to Be the Only Way to God

John 14:6 (NIV) 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus claims to be the only way to God because He taught that access to the Father comes through Him alone, not through religion, good works, good behavior, or any other path. He did not present Himself as one option among many, but as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus claims to be the only way to God because He was the only one who can restore the relationship between God and humanity.

H. Jesus Claims to Be the Source of Life

John 6:35 (NIV) Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

John 8:12 (NIV) When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 10:11 (NIV) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

John 15:5 (NIV) “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Jesus claims to be the source of life because He teaches that true life, both now and forever, comes from Him. He describes Himself as the one who gives spiritual nourishment, light, and connection to God, using images like bread, light, and the vine. He does not just offer guidance; He is saying that life itself flows through Him. Jesus claims to be the source of life because He is the one who gives and sustains real eternal life.

I. Jesus Claims Authority Over Scripture and Law

Matthew 12:8 (NIV) “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus claims authority over Scripture and the Law because He speaks as the one who can correctly interpret, fulfill, and even redefine it. Instead of simply teaching what is already written, He said things like “you have heard it said… but I say to you,” placing His own words above traditional understanding. He also calls Himself Lord of the Sabbath, which was a central part of God’s Law. Jesus claims authority over Scripture and the Law because He was claiming the right to define and fulfill what God had given.

J. Jesus Claims Pre-Existence (Eternal Nature) Before the Universe was Created

John 8:58 (NIV) “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

John 17:5 (NIV) And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

John 17:24 (NIV) 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Jesus claims preexistence and eternal nature because He speaks of Himself as existing before His birth on Earth and even before the world began. He talks about sharing glory with the Father before creation and uses language that places Him outside of time. This is not something any ordinary person could claim and be true. Jesus claims eternal existence because He did not begin at His birth but has always existed.

K. Jesus’ Unspoken Claim of Accepting Worship

Unlike prophets and angels, He did not reject people worshiping Him. Jesus accepted worship because He understood it was rightfully directed toward Him, not something to reject or redirect. Throughout His life, people worshiped Him after witnessing who He was and what He had done, and He did not stop them. Jesus received worship, showing that He is worthy of it.

There are 10 instances in Matthew alone where Jesus appears to be worshipped by people. Matthew 2:2, 8, 11; 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 20:20; 28:9, 17.

More here: https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-worshipped.html

So What Do We Do With All of These Claims?

Some people say Jesus was just a prophet or a teacher because He taught about love, forgiveness, and how to live a good life. But look at what we just read. Jesus did not leave any room to argue what His real identity is. He made very bold claims about Himself. He is the Son of God, the only way to the Father, and the one who will eventually judge the world. He predicted His death on the cross and His resurrection to life. A person who makes these kinds of claims cannot possibly be reduced to only a prophet and teacher. CS Lewis said, either Jesus is a lunatic, liar, or He is Lord.

2. Jesus as the Christ: Fully God and Fully Man

Jesus as the Christ means He is both fully God and fully man at the same time. He is not partly one or the other, but completely both. As God, He has all authority, power, and eternal nature. As man, He lived among us, experienced human life, and could truly represent us. This is what made it possible for Him to accomplish what no one else could. Jesus is the Christ because He is God who became man to save humanity.

Hebrews 4:14-16 (NIV) Jesus the Great High Priest

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Fully Human: He experienced all the things that we do or will eventually: hunger, thirst, fatigue, the loss of a parent, and physical death. This allows him to relate to us and know what it is to be both human and God.

3. If Jesus is God…

If Jesus Christ is truly God, then His words are not suggestions or recommendations; they are the truth. He has the authority of our Creator. He is not just a prophet or teacher we can pick and choose from, but Lord over everything.

His death and resurrection aren’t just a great story, or an event in history. It is the very foundation of forgiveness and eternal life.

If Jesus is the Christ, everything He said carries the ultimate weight, and it demands a response from each of us.

If Jesus is God, then Jesus is Lord.

Saying “Jesus is Lord” recognizes that He has ultimate authority over everything and over our lives. It is more than a title; it is a declaration that He is not just a teacher or leader, but the One who deserves obedience, trust, and worship. When Jesus is Lord, it means acknowledging Him as God and choosing to follow Him completely.

This argument of believing that Jesus is Lord requires faith. It requires that we place our trust in Him. It also requires that we take a risk to discover the truth. But the evidence is there if we look for it.

As we come to the end of Week One, everything comes back to one question: “Who do you say that He is?” Is He Lord of your life? This is the journey that you’re on. Jesus desires a relationship with you. He is inviting you to discover that He is who He says He is, and He can do what He says He can do. (Read Matthew 16:13-20 to see what Peter’s response was)

Again, I want you to remember… Jesus loves you. This is why He died for you and me.

Making Jesus Lord of your life means more than believing in Him. It means having a relationship with Him, loving Him because He first loved you, trusting Him, turning from sin, and choosing to follow Him with your whole heart. It means placing Him above your plans, your preferences, and your priorities. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, then the right response is to surrender to Him, receive His forgiveness, and begin walking with Him. Make Jesus the Lord of your life. The invitation is open, and the decision is yours. Let’s pray.

Week One Challenge (and extending through Week Four):

To explore who Jesus is, start reading the book of John. Read one chapter per day. (Don’t read ahead! Give yourself time to really contemplate what John is communicating.) Then, ask God what He wants to show you about what you just read. Be silent for two minutes, then write down in your journal what came to mind.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV) 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Let’s pray.

Going deeper

Notes and appendices

Optional deeper material lives here, collapsed by default so the main lesson stays clean. It opens automatically when the page is printed.

Appendix: For Those Who Want to Dig Deeper

If you’re wrestling with questions about whether what we covered today is really true, then this part is for you. Some of you may be sitting on the fence and need to work through some hard questions before you can place your full trust in Jesus. That’s okay. God can handle your questions.

Below are some of the most common arguments people raise about Jesus and the evidence behind the answers. Read what speaks to where you are. Bring your questions back to class. Don’t let unanswered questions keep you from a relationship with the One who is inviting you to know Him.

Jesus: The Man, The Myth, The Legend, The Son of God

Some people say Jesus is just a myth or a legend, meaning His story was made up or exaggerated over time. However, the Gospels of the Bible present Him as a real person in a specific time and place, and even non-Christian sources acknowledge His existence. More importantly, the earliest followers were willing to suffer and die for what they claim to have seen and experienced, which is not how myths or legends ever spread. The idea that Jesus is just a myth or legend does not fit the historical evidence or the impact He had far beyond His death and resurrection.

Was Jesus a Real Person?

In written sources other than the Bible, there is overwhelming evidence that a Jewish man named Jesus existed in first-century Palestine. He was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by Pontius Pilate.

Roman historian: Tacitus (c. 116 AD). One of Rome’s most respected historians wrote: “Christus” was executed under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius.
Titus Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (c. 93 AD). Writes about Christ.
Pliny the Younger (c. 112 AD). Christians worshipping “Christus as a god.”
Suetonius (c. 121 AD). Jews expelled from Rome over “Christus” disputes.

Is it Rational to Believe in Miracles?

Claims make it difficult for people to believe. When you read about someone performing miracles like turning water into wine, healing the sick, and raising the dead. A natural question is, “How did He do it?”

A good resource: “Miracles” by Craig Keener. (There is a massive 2-volume edition for our most skeptical intellectual friends, and a shorter “Miracles Today” version.) He makes the excellent point that most cultures around the world and throughout history have believed in the supernatural – Western civilization is the outlier. He goes on to provide documentation for miracles around the world today.

When someone hears about a miracle, the first instinct is to say, “If you can’t explain that with natural causes, then it must just be a story. Fantasy. Fiction.” But notice the issue in that. It assumes there are only two options. Either nature did it, or nobody did it.

There’s a third option. God did it.

That’s what a miracle is. It’s not nature breaking its own rules, and it’s not a fairy tale. It’s the Author of nature reaching into His own creation and doing something only He can do. The Maker is not bound by the thing He made.

So why do miracles feel so hard to accept? Because we want every explanation to fit inside what we’ve already seen with our own eyes. If it’s never happened to me, my mind says it can’t happen at all. But understand what that really is. A miracle is, by definition, the thing outside your experience. If it happened all the time, we wouldn’t call it a miracle. When we demand that a miracle match our everyday life before we’ll believe it, we’ve already decided the answer before we ever asked the question.

There is a commonly cited argument by David Hume (1748) that because miracles “violate” the laws of nature, and because science has shown that nature follows repeatable laws, therefore miracles cannot exist. Note, however, that miracles are, by their very nature, single events in the past that are not directly testable via the scientific method, which requires controlled conditions and repeatability. The right way to test a claim about an event in the past is through standard historical means, or those used by detectives: evaluate the evidence supplied by witnesses.

The Argument of the Accuracy of the Bible

Some of the content of the Bible was first relayed through oral transmission. Things were communicated by speaking. In most cases, the biblical text was put into written form at the time of, or soon after, the events described.

Regarding accuracy of transmission of the texts, we have abundant manuscript evidence – multiple copies, no originals – to be quite certain of the text in most places. Textual variants exist, but do not bear on the question of who Jesus is, or how we reconcile with God.

Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-oral-tradition.html

How could a book this old maintain accuracy when it has been copied by other humans writing everything out by hand?

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of nearly 900 ancient Jewish manuscripts discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near Qumran, an archaeological site in geographic Palestine, managed by Israel’s Qumran National Park Authority. The collection includes copies of every Old Testament book except Esther, community rule documents, hymns, and apocalyptic texts. It is most significant for biblical scholarship because it pushed the oldest known Hebrew manuscripts back by roughly 1,000 years, with the famous Isaiah Scroll showing the text had been transmitted with remarkable accuracy across that entire span.

Source: https://www.neh.gov/article/dead-sea-scrolls

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some skeptics claimed that parts of Isaiah were written after Jesus’ life. This claim was especially common for Isaiah 53, which so accurately describes Jesus’ suffering on the cross. However, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain an entire copy of Isaiah. Various dating methods have been used on that Isaiah scroll (based on the language used, the period appropriate to the type of material it is written on, and radiometric dating of the scroll) – all methods agree that the scroll was written about 100-200 years before Jesus’ life.

The Arguments That We Find in Our Culture

Misinformation. We live in the first generation in history where a person can absorb a hundred opinions about Jesus before they ever read a single word He said—documentaries, social media, a meme. As many know, you can’t trust everything you read on the Internet or what you see on TV. You have to go back to the source (the Bible) and read it for yourself.

The Copycat Myth. This is the claim that Christianity just borrowed its story from older pagan myths. Horus, Mithra, Dionysus, and the rest supposedly had virgin births, were crucified, rose again, and Jesus is just a remix. It sounds similar until you actually read the source material on those figures, and then it falls apart. The parallels are wildly exaggerated or invented. Horus wasn’t crucified. Mithra wasn’t born of a virgin. The “dying and rising” claims get stretched far beyond what the original myths ever said. And here’s the deeper problem with the theory: the earliest followers of Jesus were Jews, and first-century Jews despised pagan mythology. They were the last people on earth who would have dressed up their Messiah in Egyptian or Persian costume. On top of that, these weren’t distant legends written centuries later. They were eyewitnesses willing to be tortured and killed for saying they saw Him alive. People don’t die for a story they know they made up.

Distrust and decline of religion. This one is real, and you should meet it with honesty instead of defensiveness. The Church has hurt people. Cults have abused the name of God. False leaders have used Jesus as a cover for greed and control, and a watching world has every right to be skeptical of all of it. But here’s the truth: all of these issues point to the failure of man, not God. Counterfeit money doesn’t prove that money is not real; it proves the opposite. When you see a corrupt person and something inside pulls back, where did that come from? You’re measuring them against something. You have a standard in your heart of what a man of God is supposed to look like. And that standard? It looks exactly like Jesus.

Being angry at the counterfeit is actually pointing you straight to Jesus.

Don’t walk away from Jesus because of the people who used His name and got it wrong. They are not Him. Judge Jesus by Jesus. By His own words. By His own life. By the way He treated the broken, the forgotten, the ones everybody else gave up on. Read what He said. Watch what He did. And then decide for yourself.

The problem of suffering. This is probably the single biggest reason people in our culture walk away. “If God is good and powerful, why is there so much pain?” You don’t have to solve the whole problem in this appendix, but you should acknowledge it, because for a lot of people it’s the real question hiding under all the others. The short answer worth planting: Christianity is the one faith where God doesn’t stay distant from the suffering. He enters it. The cross is God taking the worst of it onto Himself, so that we didn’t have to.

“All religions are basically the same.” “We’re all on the same journey, but we’re taking different paths.” This idea says, choose whatever you want, do whatever you want, live however you want, and we’ll all be ok.

But here’s the problem. It isn’t true. Not all religions of the world say the same thing. They make contradictory claims about God, about who Jesus was, about what happens when you die. They can’t all be right. Two roads going in opposite directions don’t both end at the same destination.

And there’s one difference over all the rest. Every other religion in the world is focused on works. Do this. Do that. Do more. Earn it. Climb. Perform. Keep the rules, say the prayers, give the money, rack up enough good to outweigh your bad, and maybe, just maybe, if you’ve done enough, you’ll be accepted.

But how will you ever know if you’ve done enough? It’s impossible. You can’t. The bar keeps moving, and the scale is never quite balanced. So you live your whole life wondering, am I good enough yet?

Christianity is not about works because Jesus already did all the work. We receive by faith.

Jesus already did it. On the cross He said, “It is finished.” Paid in full. You don’t climb to God. God came down to you. You don’t earn your way in. You receive what you could never earn. It’s not about what you do for Him. It’s ALL about what He has already done for you. All that’s left is to stop trying to pay a debt that’s already been paid for and trust the One who paid it.

That’s not one path among many. Jesus didn’t say He was a good option. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” That’s not a claim you can fold into all the others. It’s a claim that stands alone, because He stands alone.