Jesus Christ - Jesus of Nazareth - Son of God

[Mary Naeem]

Jesus Christ - Jesus of Nazareth - Son of God

King of Kings - Christus Vincit - Christus Regnat - Christus Imperat

Jesus of Nazareth 7-2 BC-BCE to 30-36 AD-CE, commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity. Most Christian denominations venerate him as God the Son incarnated and believe that he rose from the dead after being crucified. The principal sources of information regarding Jesus are the four canonical gospels, these outline the key beliefs held by Christian about Jesus, including his divinity, humanity, and earthly life. Generally speaking, adhering to the Christian faith requires a belief that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah or Christ. Jesus refers to himself as the Son of God in the New Testament.

[Mary Naeem]

Christ is the English term for the Greek Χριστός (Khristós) meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Māšîaḥ), usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach. In popular modern usage-even within secular circles-the term usually refers explicitly to Jesus of Nazareth. The word is used as a title, hence its common reciprocal use Christ Jesus, meaning "The Messiah Jesus". Followers of Jesus became known as Christians (as in Acts 11:26) because they believed Jesus to be the Christ, or Christos, or Christian Messiah, prophesied in the Old Testament - therefore they often call him Jesus Christ, meaning Jesus is the Christos.

[Mary Naeem]

Since the Apostolic Age, Jesus has never been accepted by most of the Jews as their Messiah. Many Christians, however, await the Second Coming of Christ when they believe he will fulfill the major rest of the Christian Messianic prophecy. The area of Christian theology focusing on the identity, life, teachings and works of Jesus, is known as Christology.

[Mary Naeem]

Christians consider Jesus the Christ and believe that through his death and resurrection, humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life. These teachings emphasize that as the willing Lamb of God, Jesus chose to suffer in Calvary as a sign of his full obedience to the will of the Eternal Father, as an "agent and servant of God". The choice Jesus made thus counter-positions him as a new man of morality and obedience, in contrast to Adam's disobedience.

[Mary Naeem]

Most Christians believe that Jesus was both human and the Son of God. While there have been theological debate over the nature of Jesus, Trinitarian Christians generally believe that Jesus is God incarnate, God the Son, and "true God and true man" (or both fully divine and fully human). Jesus, having become fully human in all respects, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, yet he did not sin. As fully God, he defeated death and rose to life again. According to the Bible, God raised him from the dead. He ascended to heaven, to the "right hand of God," and he will return again for the Last Judgment and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

[Mary Naeem]

"But who do you say that I am? Only Simon Peter answered him: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" - Matthew 16:15-16" Christians generally consider Jesus to be the Christ, the long awaited Messiah, as well as the one and only Son of God. The opening words in the Gospel of Mark (1:1), namely "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" provide Jesus with the two distinct attributions of Christ and the Son of God. The divinity being again re-affirmed in Mark 1:11. Matthew 1:1 also starts by calling Jesus Christ and Matthew 1:16 explains it again with: "Jesus, who is called Christ".

[Mary Naeem]

In the Letters of Saint Paul the word Christ is so closely associated with Jesus that it is apparent that for the early Christians there is no need to claim that Jesus is Christ, for that is considered widely accepted among them. Hence Paul can use the term Christos with no confusion as to who it refers to, and as in 1 Corinthians 4:15 and Romans 12:5 he can use expressions such as "in Christ" to refer to the followers of Jesus.

[Mary Naeem]

In the New Testament, the title "Son of God" is applied to Jesus on many occasions. It is often used to refer to his divinity, from the beginning in the Annunciation up to the Crucifixion. The declaration that Jesus is the Son of God is made by many individuals in the New Testament, and on two separate occasions by God the Father as a voice from Heaven, and is asserted by Jesus himself.

[Mary Naeem]

In Christology, the conception that the Christ is the Logos (i.e. The Word) has been important in establishing the doctrine of the divinity of Christ and his position as God the Son in the Trinity as set forth in the Chalcedonian Creed. The conception derives from the opening of the Gospel of John, commonly translated into English as: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In the original Greek, Logos (λόγος) is used for "Word," and in theological discourse, this is often left untranslated.

[Mary Naeem]

The pre-existence of Christ refers to the doctrine of the personal existence of Christ before his conception. One of the relevant Bible passages is John 1:1-18 where, in the Trinitarian view, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos or Word. However, other non-Trinitarian views question the aspect of personal pre-existence or question the aspect of divinity, or both. This doctrine is reiterated in John 17:5 when Jesus refers to the glory which he had with the Father "before the world was" during the Farewell discourse. John 17:24 also refers to the Father loving Jesus "before the foundation of the world".