Session 2 of 9

Foundations

Who is Jesus?

Read

¹⁵who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. ¹⁸He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. ¹⁹For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him; ²⁰and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

Colossians 1:15–20

Think

Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith. He was a real man who lived in first-century Israel, taught, healed, was executed by the Romans, and, his followers insisted, rose from the dead.

But the New Testament claims far more than that he was a good teacher. Jesus forgave sins, accepted worship, and spoke as one with God the Father. Paul writes that he is “the image of the invisible God”: if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

Christians believe Jesus is fully God and fully human. He didn’t stop being God when he became a man, and he didn’t only appear to be human. He was hungry, tired and tempted, and he wept.

C. S. Lewis pointed out that Jesus’ claims leave us few options. Either he was deluded, or deceiving people, or he is who he said he is. A merely “good teacher” is the one option he doesn’t leave open.

Talk it over

1. Before now, who did you think Jesus was?
2. Which phrase in Colossians 1:15–20 stands out to you, and why?
3. If Jesus really is God, what difference does that make?

Learn by heart

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

John 14:6

Pray

Lord Jesus, I want to know you as you really are. Open my eyes.