The life of Jesus

Who is Jesus? This lesson follows four stages: his birth, Israel’s expectation, the purpose of his coming and the meaning of his death.

An extraordinary birth

Jesus is different from his conception. The Gospels report that Mary had not had relations with a man before his birth:

“His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:18)

Matthew specifies that Joseph “knew her not until she had given birth to a son” (Matthew 1:25). And the angel says to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

The birth of Jesus therefore has a miraculous character. He is not one prophet among others. He was not born of human will, but of God himself.

According to the evangelical position of this course, this does not lead to worshipping Mary. Mary is a believer remarkable for her faith and her obedience. But the Bible attributes no power over us to her. Jesus was not born thanks to any particular quality of his mother: it was God who acted, and he could have chosen another woman. In this sense, Mary is a woman like any other. That is why evangelical Churches do not pray to Mary. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches have a different tradition on this point.

Foretold by the Old Testament

An expectation that divides

The growing fame of Jesus and his many miracles divided his contemporaries. Some saw in him the promised liberator. Others took him for an impostor, or even accused him of acting through demons. The Pharisees say: “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons” (Matthew 12:24). Jesus replies that if Satan drives out Satan, his kingdom is divided and cannot stand (Matthew 12:25-26).

A balanced reading

It must be acknowledged that the Old Testament is not always clear about the Messiah to come. Some Christians see Jesus everywhere in the Old Testament. This reading sometimes leads to excessive allegory, that is, turning every detail of the text into an image of Christ.

Yet the Old Testament really does foretell Christ, provided we keep a sense of proportion. Here are a few examples:

• Genesis 3:15, often called the “protoevangelium” (the first gospel): “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
• Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
• Isaiah 9:6 (9:5 in some Bibles): “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.”

The New Testament confirms this expectation. Simeon “was waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). John the Baptist sends to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). And Peter explains that David was a prophet: “he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:31).

Jesus presents himself through the Scriptures

In Nazareth, Jesus reads from the book of Isaiah in the synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18). Then he declares: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). He also says: “I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them” (Matthew 5:17).

Why did Jesus come?

Genesis 3:15 already gives a first answer: to defeat Satan, to crush his head. Isaiah 35:4-6 announces that God himself will come to save his people, and that then the blind will see and the lame will leap.

But who can better explain the coming of Jesus than Jesus himself? He says:

• “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13; Luke 5:32 adds “to repentance”).
• “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me” (John 5:43).
• “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9).
• “I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).

Paul sums it up: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Why did Jesus die?

John the Baptist presents Jesus in these words: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). This image comes from the Old Testament.

The Israelites offered sacrifices to obtain forgiveness for their sins. Leviticus 5:5-6 gives an example: the one who has sinned confesses his wrongdoing, then offers a ewe lamb or a goat, and the priest makes atonement for him. The animal had to be without defect. It was an expiatory victim, which made amends for the wrong, and a propitiatory one, which made God favourable. By its death, it took, as it were, the place of the guilty person.

Jesus too is the victim offered for our sins. But there is a decisive difference. The sacrifices of the Old Testament had to be repeated constantly. That of Jesus was offered once for all (Hebrews 10:10). We no longer have to offer sacrifices, because Jesus has taken our sin upon himself.

He could do so because he was without sin: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21; see 1 Peter 2:22). That is why we can receive God’s forgiveness.