A Summary of Christian Doctrine
An Adult Bible Study on the Basics of the Christian Faith

Lesson 5 — Jesus Christ, His Person and Work

Is Jesus Christ the promised Messiah?

Luke 2: 11
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord."*

Acts 10: 38
"how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."

John 4: 25-26
"The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.' 26. Then Jesus declared, ‘I who speak to you am he.'"

Luke 24: 44
"He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.'"

Matthew 1: 21
"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Acts 4: 12
"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

What does the Bible teach about the person Jesus Christ?

Jesus Christ is one person with two natures; He is at the same time true God and true man. True God (Divine Nature)

John 1: 1-3
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. He was with God in the beginning. 3. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

I John 5: 20
"We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true — even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."

Hebrews 13:8
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."

Matthew 9: 6
"‘But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....' Then he said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, take your mat and go home.'"

John 5: 23
"that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him."

True Man (Human Nature)

John 1: 14
"The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

I Timothy 2:5
"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"

Luke 24: 39
"Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

Luke 2: 7
"and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

John 11: 35
"Jesus wept."

Matthew 27: 50
"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit."

Why did our Savior from sin have to be both man and God?

True man that He might take our place under the Law and suffer and die in our place.

Galatians 4: 4-5
"But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons."

Hebrews 2: 14
"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil"
True God so that what He did would be sufficient to pay for the sins of all people.

Romans 5: 19
"For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous."

Mark 10: 45
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

He accomplished all this with His perfect life, obedient death, resurrection and ascension.

Hebrews 7: 26
"Such a high priest meets our need — one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens."

John 19: 16-18
"Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the Place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18. Here they crucified him, and with him two others — one on each side and Jesus in the middle."

II Corinthians 5: 21
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

I Corinthians 15: 4-8; 12-14
"that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5. and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8. and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born....12. But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."

Romans 4: 25
"He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."

John 11: 25-26
"Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, 26. and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'"

Acts 1: 9-11
"After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11. ‘Men of Galilee,' they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.'"

* Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture readings are taken from The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.