Who Is Jesus Christ – A Biblical Look at His Life & Identity

Let’s be blunt. He’s the most famous person who has ever lived. His name is a constant, spoken billions of times a day—in prayer, as a casual word, or as a curse. More art, more music, more books have been dedicated to him than any other figure in human history. His birth literally split our calendar in two (B.C./A.D.). You just can’t escape him. And yet, for all that noise, the core question is as sharp today as it was two thousand years ago: Who Is Jesus Christ?

Is he just a historical footnote? A good moral teacher? A prophet? A myth? Or is he what his followers have claimed for millennia: the Son of God, the savior of the world? This isn’t just a question for theologians in dusty libraries. It’s a personal question. It hits right at the heart of how we see the world, our purpose, and our future. We’re going to take a journey, a biblical look, to try and uncover the identity of this man who changed everything.

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Did Jesus Christ Exist

Is Jesus Christ God

Key Takeaways

• He Actually Lived: Overwhelming historical evidence, both in and out of the Bible, confirms a man named Jesus from Nazareth was a real person in first-century Judea.
• His Birth Was… Different: The Bible’s claim of a virgin birth is central, fulfilling ancient prophecies and signifying he was both fully God and fully man.
• His Teachings Weren’t ‘Nice’: He taught about a “Kingdom of God” that flipped worldly values upside-down, demanding humility, forgiveness, and a radical, all-in love for God and others.
• He Claimed to Be God, Point-Blank: Jesus didn’t just claim to show the way; he claimed to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life, equating himself directly with God in ways that were unmistakable.
• His Death Was a Purposeful Sacrifice: The Bible presents his crucifixion not as a random tragedy, but as a planned, purposeful sacrifice to pay for the sins of humanity and restore our relationship with God.
• The Resurrection Is the Whole Point: The Christian faith stands or falls on the biblical claim that Jesus physically rose from the dead three days later, proving his identity and conquering death.

But Really, Did a Man Named Jesus Actually Walk the Earth?

Before we get to the “who,” we have to tackle the “if.” Did this man even exist?

In our skeptical age, it’s the first hurdle. Was Jesus just a legend, a composite of other ancient myths?

The short answer? No.

Our main info, of course, comes from the four Gospels in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). But he doesn’t only show up in Christian writings. That’s key. Non-Christian historians from the era mention him too. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing around 93 A.D., mentions Jesus twice. The more significant passage calls him “a wise man… a doer of wonderful works” and notes he was the “so-called Christ” who was crucified by Pilate and whose followers reported he had appeared to them alive.

Another Roman historian, Tacitus, writing around 116 A.D., described Nero’s persecution of “Christians.” He identifies the source of the name, stating that “Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.”

These non-biblical sources lock in the core facts: a man named Jesus (Christus) lived in Judea, was a known teacher, was executed by Pontius Pilate, and had a following that exploded after his death. The historical record is clear. He existed. The real debate isn’t about his existence. It’s about his identity.

Where Did He Come From? The Story of a Manger and a Miracle

The Bible’s story of Jesus doesn’t start in a palace. It starts in a stable.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke lay out a detailed picture. Hundreds of years earlier, the prophet Isaiah predicted a “virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” That’s a Hebrew name that literally means “God with us.” This prophecy set the stage for something utterly unique.

It all starts with a young woman named Mary in the town of Nazareth. She was engaged to be married to a carpenter named Joseph. But before they were married, the Gospel of Luke says the angel Gabriel appeared to her with a staggering message: she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit. This child would be the “Son of the Most High.”

Joseph had a problem. His fiancée was pregnant. Understandably, he planned to divorce her quietly. But an angel appeared to him in a dream, telling him not to be afraid. The child was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and his name was to be “Jesus” (a common name, Yeshua, meaning “The Lord saves”) “because he will save his people from their sins.”

A Roman census then forced the couple to travel to Joseph’s ancestral home, a small town called Bethlehem. There, with no room in the local inn, Mary gave birth to her son. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger—a feeding trough for animals.

This is not how you’d expect a king to arrive.

Why Is His Birth Story So… Unusual?

The virgin birth is, without a doubt, a stumbling block for many. It’s a miracle. It defies our understanding of biology. So, why is it so essential to the biblical answer to “Who Is Jesus Christ?”

It’s not just there for shock value. It’s theologically critical. The Bible teaches that all humans are born with a sinful nature, a separation from God passed down from the very beginning. For Jesus to be the perfect, sinless savior who could bridge that gap, he had to be different. He had to be human, yes, but without that inherited sin.

The virgin birth is the Bible’s answer to this puzzle. He was fully human, through Mary, and yet fully God, through the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t just a son of God, like we might all be in a general sense. He was the one and only Son of God. His origin story immediately sets him apart from every prophet or teacher who came before. He is, as the prophet said, “God with us.”

He is the “Incarnation,” a fancy word that simply means God taking on human flesh.

What Was He Like Before His “Career” Started?

The Bible is surprisingly quiet about Jesus’s childhood. We know he grew up in Nazareth. We know he worked as a carpenter, likely alongside Joseph, and lived a normal, obedient Jewish life. But Luke gives us one fascinating snapshot when Jesus was 12 years old.

His family had traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. On the way home, Mary and Joseph realized Jesus wasn’t with their group.

Panic.

They rushed back to Jerusalem and, after three days of searching, found him. Where was he? In the temple, sitting among the religious teachers, “listening to them and asking them questions.” The text says everyone who heard him was “amazed at his understanding and his answers.”

I have to laugh when I read that. I remember being 12. I’d be sitting in a hard wooden pew, and my mind was anywhere but church. I was worried about the clock, what was for lunch, the scuff on my shoe. I was there, but I wasn’t there.

When his frantic mother asked, “Why have you treated us so?” Jesus’s reply was telling. “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Even at 12, he had a profound sense of identity and purpose. He was already light-years ahead, focused on his “Father’s business.” It’s a stark contrast that hints at the singular focus that would define his life. After this, the text simply says he went home, was obedient to his parents, and “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

Then, for about 18 years… silence.

So, What Did Jesus Actually Teach?

Around age 30, things change. Jesus’s public ministry began, launched by his baptism by his cousin, John the Baptist, in the Jordan River. From there, he began to travel and teach, and he had one central message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

This “kingdom” was the heart of his message.

But it was not the kingdom people wanted. They wanted a military messiah to kick out the Roman occupiers. Jesus spoke of a spiritual kingdom, an “upside-down” kingdom where the first are last, the greatest is the servant, and you love your enemies.

His most famous collection of teachings is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). It’s a masterpiece of moral and spiritual instruction. He said it’s not enough to just not murder; you must not even hate. It’s not enough to just not commit adultery; you must not even look with lust.

He taught in parables—simple stories with deep spiritual meanings. The Good Samaritan. The Prodigal Son. The Sower. These stories revealed the heart of God: his relentless pursuit of the lost, his unconditional love, and his demand for mercy over judgment.

Weren’t His Teachings Just Good Moral Philosophy?

This is a very common, and very modern, way to view Jesus. He’s often lumped in with Buddha, Confucius, or Socrates as one of the world’s great moral teachers.

The problem is, his own claims make this a very difficult position to hold.

The other great moral teachers all pointed away from themselves. They said, “Here is the path” or “Here is the wisdom.”

Jesus pointed to himself.

He didn’t just say, “I can show you the truth.” He said, “I am the truth.” He didn’t just say, “I can show you how to find life.” He said, “I am the life.” He didn’t just say, “I’ll show you the way to God.” He said, “I am the way… no one comes to the Father except through me.”

This is a radical, exclusive claim. He repeatedly forgave sins, something that, in the Jewish mind, only God could do. When he did this, the religious leaders were furious, accusing him, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

That was exactly the point he was making.

You see, his core teachings weren’t just a new rulebook. They were an invitation to a relationship—with him. It all boiled down to a few core ideas:

• Radical Love: He condensed all 600+ Old Testament laws into two: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself.”
• Total Forgiveness: He taught his followers to forgive endlessly, just as they had been forgiven.
• Inner Righteousness: He focused on the heart, the motivation, not just the external actions.
• Servant Leadership: He redefined greatness as service, culminating in him, their master, washing his disciples’ dirty feet.

This is far more than just “be nice.” It’s a total reordering of reality with himself at the very center.

What’s the Deal with All the Miracles?

You can’t read the Gospels without tripping over miracles on every page. He turns water into wine. He heals people who were blind, deaf, and paralyzed. He cures leprosy. He calms a raging storm with a single command. He feeds over 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. He even raises the dead, like his friend Lazarus, who had been in a tomb for four days.

In our scientific, modern world, these stories are often the first to be dismissed. They’re seen as myths or legends added later.

But in the context of the Gospels, they are essential. The Apostle John called them “signs.” They weren’t just magic tricks to “wow” a crowd. They were powerful, tangible demonstrations that his teachings were true. They were actions that backed up his identity.

When he calmed the storm, his disciples were terrified, asking, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” The implied answer: Only the God who created the wind and the sea.

When he healed the paralytic man, he first said, “Your sins are forgiven.” The leaders grumbled. So Jesus, to prove he had the authority to do the invisible (forgive sins), did the visible. “That you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And the man did.

The miracles were not the point of his message; they were the proof of it.

But Can We Trust These Miracle Stories?

Skepticism about supernatural events is not a new thing. Even people in the first century knew that people don’t just rise from the dead. So, how do we approach these claims?

The Gospels present themselves as eyewitness (or based on eyewitness) testimony. Luke, a physician and historian, begins his Gospel by saying he has “investigated everything carefully from the beginning” to write an “orderly account… so that you may have certainty.” John ends his Gospel by stating, “This is the ‘disciple who is bearing witness about these things… and we know that his testimony is true.”

They were not writing “once upon a time” fairy tales. They were writing what they claimed to have seen and heard, and they were writing it for an audience that could have easily fact-checked them. Many of these stories were written and circulating within the lifetimes of other eyewitnesses.

Look, the existence of miracles is a philosophical question as much as a historical one. If you start from a place that says, “The supernatural isn’t real,” then no amount of evidence will ever be enough. But if you’re open to the idea that a God who made the universe could act within it, then it just becomes a question of evidence. For more on the philosophical arguments, Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a thorough entry on miracles.

The Gospel writers are essentially betting their entire reputation on these claims. They are saying, “This happened.”

Why Did They Kill Him? He Seemed Like a Good Guy.

This is the great paradox. If Jesus was going around healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and teaching about love, why did he end up on a cross?

Because he was dangerous.

He wasn’t dangerous to Rome (at least, not in the way they thought). He was dangerous to the religious establishment. He relentlessly challenged the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees. He called them “blind guides” and “whitewashed tombs”—beautiful on the outside, but full of “dead men’s bones” on the inside.

He directly challenged their authority and their money-making system. The breaking point came when he entered the temple in Jerusalem, the center of Jewish worship, and found the outer courts turned into a noisy, corrupt marketplace. He flipped over the tables of the money-changers and declared, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.”

This act sealed his fate. But the official charge they finally got to stick was “blasphemy.” During his trial before the high priest, he was asked directly, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”

Jesus’s reply was direct. “I am.”

That was all they needed. Claiming to be God was a crime punishable by death.

It reminds me (in a much smaller way) of a time I pitched a disruptive new idea at a big corporate meeting. The old guard, the guys who built the system, were furious. The pushback was personal. It was immediate. It gave me this tiny, microscopic peek at what it feels like to stand against the grain. Now, multiply that by a billion, and you have Jesus confronting the entire religious and political power structure of his day, not with a new business model, but with a claim to be God himself. That was his reality.

The Crucifixion: Why Is This Event So Central?

The religious leaders couldn’t execute him themselves, so they handed him over to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, on a trumped-up charge of treason—claiming to be a king, a rival to Caesar. Pilate could find no fault in him, but to avoid a riot, he “washed his hands” of the matter and handed Jesus over to be crucified.

Crucifixion was a Roman method of execution designed for maximum pain, humiliation, and terror. It was reserved for the lowest of criminals.

The biblical accounts are brutal and unsparing. He was beaten, mocked, and forced to carry his own cross to a place called “The Skull.” There, he was nailed to the wood and hung between two thieves.

But for Christians, the cross is not a symbol of tragedy. It’s a symbol of triumph. The Bible teaches that this wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t “plan B.” It was the entire reason he came. Jesus called it his “hour.” He came “to give his life as a ransom for many.”

While he hung there, he spoke his last words. One of them was, “It is finished.”

This wasn’t a cry of defeat. It was a declaration of victory. The “it” that was finished was the work he came to do.

But Why a Sacrifice? Isn’t That… Ancient?

The concept of sacrifice feels foreign, even barbaric, to many of us. But to understand the biblical answer to “Who Is Jesus Christ?” we have to understand the cross.

The Bible’s core narrative is this: God is perfectly holy. Humanity, through sin (a word that just means ‘missing the mark’ or ‘rebellion’), is separated from him. This separation is a chasm that we can’t cross on our own. No amount of “being a good person” can fix this fundamental break. The “wage” of this sin, the Bible says, is death—spiritual separation from God.

This is where the sacrifice comes in. In the Old Testament, a temporary covering for sin was made through animal sacrifice, symbolizing that something innocent was dying in the place of the guilty.

The New Testament presents Jesus as the ultimate and final sacrifice. He was the one, perfect, innocent “Lamb of God” who came to “take away the sin of the world.” On the cross, the Bible says, Jesus, who was sinless, took on the sin of the entire world—past, present, and future. He took the punishment, the separation, the death—that we deserved.

It’s not that God is a bloodthirsty tyrant. It’s that he is a just judge who must deal with sin, but who is also a loving Father who would rather pay the penalty himself than be separated from his children. The cross is where God’s perfect justice and his perfect love meet.

The Resurrection: Did It Really Happen?

The crucifixion is where the story should have ended. His followers scattered. Their leader was dead and buried in a borrowed tomb, a heavy stone rolled in front, and Roman guards posted outside.

But the story didn’t end.

On the third day, Sunday, a group of women went to the tomb to anoint the body. They found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. An angel told them, “He is not here. He has risen, just as he said.”

Over the next 40 days, the Gospels and other New Testament writings record that Jesus appeared alive to his followers. Not as a ghost, but in a physical, resurrected body. He ate with them. He talked with them. He let them touch his wounds.

He appeared to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and to the 10 disciples huddled in a locked room. He appeared to Thomas, who had doubted, and invited him to put his finger in the nail marks. He appeared to over 500 people at one time, as the Apostle Paul records.

This is the lynchpin. Everything hangs on this.

The Apostle Paul, in a letter to the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 15), puts it bluntly: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins… If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

The Christian faith is not based on a lovely set of teachings. It is based on a historical event: the resurrection.

Think about what this event did:

• It changed everything. The disciples, who were cowardly and in hiding, were transformed overnight into the boldest proclamations of his name, willing to be tortured and killed for their message. What could possibly account for that change other than seeing their master alive?
• It wasn’t a stolen body. The disciples couldn’t have overpowered the guards, and they had no motive to. They wouldn’t die for a lie they knew was a lie.
• It wasn’t a hallucination. 500 people don’t have the same group hallucination.
• It was the ultimate proof. The resurrection was God’s “AMEN” to Jesus’s “It is finished.” It was the ultimate vindication of his identity. It proved he was who he said he was and that his sacrifice had been accepted. He had conquered sin and death.

So, Who Did Jesus Claim to Be?

We’ve seen what he taught and what he did. But who did he, himself, claim to be?

He didn’t walk around yelling, “I’m God!” His claims were often more subtle, but for his first-century Jewish audience, they were unmistakable.

And explosive.

He used the “I AM” statements, found in the Gospel of John. This “I AM” (Greek: Ego Eimi) was a direct echo of God’s personal name revealed to Moses at the burning bush. When Jesus used it, he was making a direct claim to divinity.

• “I AM the Bread of Life.” (He’s our spiritual fuel.)
• “I AM the Light of the World.” (He’s our guide in the dark.)
• “I AM the Good Shepherd.” (He’s our protector.)
• “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.” (He’s our only hope against death.)
• “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (He’s the only path to God.)

When religious leaders challenged him, he told them, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” They immediately picked up stones to kill him for blasphemy. They knew exactly what he was claiming.

This leaves us with the famous “trilemma,” popularized by C.S. Lewis. A man who says the things Jesus said is not a great moral teacher. He’s either:

1. A Liar: He knew he wasn’t God but said it anyway, deceiving everyone.
2. A Lunatic: He actually believed he was God, but he was insane.
3. Or… Lord: He was exactly who he claimed to be.

The “good moral teacher” option isn’t on the table.

Son of God? Son of Man? What’s the Difference?

Jesus used two titles for himself more than any others: “Son of God” and “Son of Man.”

“Son of God” was a clear claim to his divinity. While “sons of God” could refer to angels or even the nation of Israel, Jesus used it in a unique, exclusive way. He claimed a special intimacy and equality with God, calling him Abba (an intimate ARAMAIC word like “Papa” or “Daddy”). This, again, was seen as blasphemy. It pointed to his divine nature.

“Son of Man” was his favorite title for himself. It sounds like a claim to humanity, and it is—it emphasizes that he was truly human. But it’s also a powerful messianic title. It comes from a vision in the Old Testament book of Daniel (Daniel 7), where “one like a son of man” comes on the clouds of heaven and is given everlasting “dominion, glory, and a kingdom” by God.

When Jesus used this title, he was claiming to be that very figure: the long-awaited, divine, and eternal king.

He was, in short, claiming to be both. Fully God and fully man.

What Does “Christ” Even Mean?

We say “Jesus Christ” so often that “Christ” sounds like his last name. But it’s not. It’s a title.

“Jesus” was his human name. “Christ” is his job description.

“Christ” comes from the Greek word Christos. It means “Anointed One.” It is the direct equivalent of the Hebrew word Mashiach, or “Messiah.”

In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were “anointed” with oil, signifying they were set apart by God for a special task. The Jewish people had been waiting for the Anointed One, the Messiah, who would come and fulfill all three roles: the ultimate Prophet (speaking God’s word), the ultimate Priest (connecting us to God), and the ultimate King (ruling over us).

The problem was, they were expecting a political king to save them from Rome. Jesus came as a spiritual king to save them from their sins.

When his disciple Peter first had the revelation, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” it was the “Aha!” moment. He was finally seeing Jesus for who he truly was: not just a teacher, but the fulfillment of all God’s promises.

What Does Any of This Mean for Me, Today?

We’ve covered 2,000 years of history and theology. So what? What does this mean for you, right now, in the 21st century?

The Bible’s answer is that Jesus is not just a figure to be studied. He is a person to be known.

The Gospel message isn’t “try harder, be a better person, and maybe you’ll earn God’s favor.” The message, called the “gospel” or “good news,” is that we can’t earn it. We are all separated from God by our own sin.

But God, in his love, did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He sent Jesus.

Think about it: His life showed us what God is like. His teachings revealed the truth. His death paid for our sins. And his resurrection defeated our greatest enemy, death.

The biblical claim, bottom line, is that Jesus is alive right now, and he offers a full pardon and a new life to anyone who will accept it. This isn’t about joining a religion. It’s about entering a relationship. It’s about repenting (turning away from our own way) and putting our trust in what Jesus did for us.

Who Is Jesus Christ?

The Bible’s answer is clear. He is the most important person in the universe. He is the Creator who stepped into his own creation. He is the perfect prophet, priest, and king. He is the sinless sacrifice. He is the risen Lord.

He’s what his disciple Thomas, seeing him alive, declared: “My Lord and my God.”

The Bible’s answer is written. But it’s the one question, in the end, that everyone has to answer for themselves.

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