ONE STEP FURTHER • APPENDIX
Who Do You Say Jesus Is?
Who is Jesus Christ?
Primary passage: Matthew 16:13–18
← Read the connected Story from the FieldThere may not be a more important question we can answer than the one hanging in the hallways at Wooster High School: Who is Jesus to you?
It is also remarkably close to a question Jesus Himself asked His disciples.
MATTHEW 16:13–18
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
Matthew 16:13–18 • New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update
Jesus begins by asking what everyone else is saying about Him. Then He makes the question personal: “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter’s answer gets directly to the identity of Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
That same question matters for us. Who do we say Jesus is?
Scripture gives us a clear answer. Jesus is fully God and fully man. The theological terms I learned for this years ago are undiminished deity and perfect humanity. Those may sound like classroom terms, but what they describe is absolutely essential to understanding who Jesus is.
Jesus Is Fully God — Undiminished Deity
Jesus did not become God. He was not merely a good teacher, prophet, or uniquely godly man. Jesus is God.
John begins his Gospel by telling us that the Word was with God and “the Word was God” (John 1:1). A few verses later, John tells us that this same Word “became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
Paul says it just as clearly in Colossians 2:9: “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”
All the fullness of deity.
That is what we mean by undiminished deity. Jesus did not surrender His deity when He became a man. He is fully and eternally God.
John 1:1–3 • John 8:58 • John 10:30 • John 20:28 • Colossians 2:9 • Hebrews 1:1–3
Jesus Is Fully Man — Perfect Humanity
At the same time, Jesus is fully human.
John 1:14 tells us that “the Word became flesh.” Jesus was born. He grew. He became tired. He experienced hunger and temptation. He suffered and died.
Yet His humanity was unlike ours in one crucial respect: Jesus never sinned.
Hebrews 4:15 tells us that He was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
Jesus did not merely appear to be human. He possessed a real and complete human nature, yet without sin. This is what we mean by perfect humanity.
John 1:14 • Luke 2:52 • Philippians 2:5–8 • Hebrews 2:14–18 • Hebrews 4:15 • 1 Peter 2:22
Fully God. Fully Man.
This is the Jesus Peter was standing in front of when he answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus Christ is one Person with two complete natures: undiminished deity and perfect humanity. Fully God and fully man.
So the question on that poster at Wooster is worth asking ourselves too.
Who do you say Jesus is?