By Grant Hawley

Jesus, our Savior, is the Messiah promised to the Jewish people, who will restore the promises and rule on David's throne over the whole world when He returns. His rule will be forever, and righteousness and goodness will reign.

He is a man, born of a virgin woman. He got hungry, He needed sleep, He wept, and He lived His life depending on the Father for all of His needs.

Jesus is a man in every sense. But He is also more than a man.

John wrote of Him:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)

Jesus is the Creator of all things that are made, and He is both the life and light of men.

Paul wrote:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (Col 1:15-18)

When Paul wrote that He is "the firstborn over all creation" he means that Jesus is preeminent over all things. He has the position of the firstborn Son.

Jesus is God manifested in the flesh. God is beyond our comprehension, so the Son became a man so that we could see and understand Him. Again, Jesus is the Creator-God, but more than that, He is the purpose of Creation. All things were made for His pleasure. And when Paul wrote that "in Him all things consist" he meant that Jesus maintains the existence of everything that exists. We exist because He wills it so.

As the head of the Body, Jesus is the Preeminent One over the New Creation, the Church, just as He is of the old, the universe.

The Author of Hebrews said of Him:

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the [ages]; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high... And: "YOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORK OF YOUR HANDS. THEY WILL PERISH, BUT YOU REMAIN; AND THEY WILL ALL GROW OLD LIKE A GARMENT; LIKE A CLOAK YOU WILL FOLD THEM UP, AND THEY WILL BE CHANGED. BUT YOU ARE THE SAME, AND YOUR YEARS WILL NOT FAIL." (Heb 1:1-3, 10-12)

When the Apostle John saw the ascended Christ, Jesus said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End...who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

John then wrote:

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. (Rev 1:12-18)

As you can see, Jesus, while He is a man, is far more than a man, too. That this great Person died for us, because He loves us, should give us pause. And because He became like us and underwent suffering Himself, He knows our weakness and can sympathize with us (Heb 4:15).

We have a wonderful Savior.