Who Is the Messiah? Part 1: What Did Jesus Say?

Some people are confused about who the Messiah would be. Who did the Judeans in Jesus’ time think that the Messiah would be? They knew the promised savior would be God’s Son who would save the world.

This series of articles quotes from larger passages of scripture to give context to what is being said. Two of the great keys to understanding the Bible is to get the scope and context of what God is revealing. Scope is the “big picture” of how concepts and truths all fit together in the whole Bible. Context is the “closer picture” of what is going on around a certain scripture. The scope of Bible truths shows that God is the Creator, that He is Spirit (John 4:24), and that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem all people who believe.

Start at the Beginning

There is only one true God, and He is the Creator. He alone has always been. He alone created our world at the “beginning” time that He chose.

Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Was Jesus with God in the beginning? A good place to find out is in the gospels, which tell about our Lord Jesus, the Christ. The word “Christ” means the anointed one, the Messiah.

Mark 1:1:
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. Mark says it began with his ministry and service to mankind. That beginning was when Jesus was born and lived on earth.

But did God know ahead of time that Jesus would be born? Didn’t God overshadow Mary so that she would be pregnant? Isn’t Jesus literally the Son of God? Absolutely yes! John describes God’s foreknowledge of His Son’s birth.

John 1:1,2:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.

God gave His “Word” to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15) that He would send the “seed” of the woman. A woman has no sperm or seed. This is a figure of speech showing that the promised Messiah would not be born by human sexual relations, but miraculously. Whereas all other people share fully from both earthly parents, Jesus only “took part” from Mary (Hebrews 2:14). God was his literal Father.

John 1:14:
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

When Mary conceived and later delivered a son at Bethlehem, God’s Word—His great promise to all people—literally became flesh. This baby grew into a man who “dwelt among us.” Jesus knew that God had planned to send him because of his Father’s great love for people. He knew that his Father had planned for his birth before the “foundation of the world.”

John 17:24:
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

The Apostle Peter knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. He also knew when Jesus’ beginning was.

I Peter 1:20:
Who [Christ] verily was foreordained [the Greek word means “foreknown”] before the foundation of the world, but was manifest [the Greek word means “be manifest, come into existence”] in these last times for you.

This is very clear. Jesus was in God’s foreknowledge for all time, before the foundation of the world. But Jesus came into existence when he was born of Mary. He was not part of some three-in-one being that foreknew that part of itself would someday be born.

God says that born-again believers were also in God’s foreknowledge for all time. And yet, we are not part of some “God being.” Through what Jesus Christ has done for us, we spiritually are children of God.

Ephesians 1:4,5:
According as he [God] hath chosen us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

Jesus Said He Was One with the Father

Modern religious people try to say that the Judeans of Jesus’ time thought the Messiah was God. That is contrary to all Biblical and Judean thought. They knew there was only one God. That is the foundation of the law that God gave to Moses (Deuteronomy 6:4).  Jesus believed this and even quoted it. “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29).

John 10 is one of the clearest exchanges in the Bible showing what Jesus said about himself. In this conversation with some Pharisees, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God. These religious leaders considered it blasphemy for anyone to claim such a thing. They wanted to know if he was claiming to be the Christ.

John 10:24-29:
Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.
But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

Jesus said the proof he was the Messiah was the way that God worked in him. People were amazed at the miracles Jesus did by the power of God. Here was a man with God’s power at work within him.

Matthew 9:8
But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

Jesus also said that his Father was greater than he was. God would protect all those who relied upon His Son, Jesus Christ. No one could take them out of the Father’s hand. Jesus and his Father had a common purpose.

John 10:30:
I and my Father are one [the Greek word hen, in the neuter gender].

It is important to understand how the Greek language is used here. The word for “one” can be either masculine (heis), feminine (mia), or neuter (hen) in Greek. It depends on what the “one” is describing. In this case, it is neuter, showing that Jesus and his Father are single-minded, having the same purpose.

What was their common purpose? To bring eternal life, as the Messiah was promised to do.

John 10:31-33:
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself [equal to] God.

Jesus claimed that God was his Father. This meant he was the Messiah, with all God’s power and authority backing him up. He was equal to God in authority. The Judeans wanted to kill Jesus for claiming to be the Messiah. They considered this blasphemy.

Jesus Said He Was God’s Son, Making Him “Equal” with the Father

This confrontation in John 10 was not the first time that these religious leaders in Jerusalem tried to accuse Jesus of blasphemy. Previously, Jesus had healed a man at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. This incensed the religious leaders there. They attacked Jesus for healing this man on the wrong day of the week. But Jesus boldly responded to them.

John 5:17,18:
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal [isos] with God.

To the Judeans, being the Son of God, the Messiah, was making one “equal” to God. The Greek word translated “equal” is isos and means to have the same amount, as in an isosceles triangle or isometrics. As the Messiah, Jesus could claim the full amount of God’s authority. Yet he NEVER considered using this great power for his own ends. He ALWAYS obeyed his Father.

Philippians 2:6 [New International Version]:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality [isos] with God something to be used to his own advantage.

Jesus had God’s nature as His Son. Jesus was filled with holy spirit without measure. God was literally in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19). Yet with all that power and authority, Jesus never “played God” and did things the way he wanted to. The Devil offered Jesus all the power and authority and fame in the world if Jesus would worship him. Jesus refused; he chose to be a servant and to do things God’s way.

Jesus claimed that God was his Father—that he was the promised Messiah. This gave him the full authority of the Father. He was “equal” with God just as the son of an earthly king has the full authority and inheritance of his father. My son and I are very similar. In fact, he was responsible for me writing this article. We are “one” in many opinions and desires. But we are not the same.

John 5:19,20:
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

Jesus explained that although he was the Messiah, without God’s help he could do nothing. He only did what his Father told him to do. He was convinced of God’s love for him.

Jesus Said He Was the Messiah, God’s Son

Later, the high priest had Jesus arrested and then interrogated him. This evil religious leader wanted to know who Jesus thought he was.

Mark 14:60-64:
And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ [the Messiah], the Son of the Blessed [God]?
And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.

Notice that the high priest asked Jesus if he was the Messiah, and the Son of God. That is who the Judeans believed the Messiah to be—God’s Son. They would never have considered that the Messiah was God Himself. The promised redeemer was the Son of God. The Old Testament scriptures confirm this.

Jesus said he would be seated on God’s right hand as the glorified Messiah someday. He claimed to be the Son of God. That was blasphemy to the religious leaders.

Luke 22:70,71:
Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am [Yes, I am].
And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth.

Are We One with the Father?

Those who say that Jesus is God lack scope and context when they read the scriptures. They do not understand what the Old Testament promised the Messiah would be. Jesus clearly explained what it meant to be “one” with the Father. In fact, he prayed that we would also be “one” in the same way.

John 17:20-25:
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

God answered Jesus’ prayer when he raised him from the dead and seated Jesus Christ at the Father’s own right hand. Since Pentecost, anyone can receive God’s gift of holy spirit. Through what God did in Christ, we have access to the Father. We are “one” in Christ by the spirit of God that dwells within us.

Ephesians 2:16-18:
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Ephesians 4:4-6:
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

When it comes to being one with the Father, there is a pair of verses that seem to indicate something as “three in one.” But this is a blatant forgery by religious copyists who tried to manipulate the scripture to their own beliefs.

I John 5:7,8:
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

The boldfaced words above are not in the original Bible texts. There are nearly 25 Greek words that have been changed in this translation and some of it is in a different ink. Without the added forgery it reads: “For there are three that bear record: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”

None of the oldest Greek manuscripts contain this section, and none of the very early church fathers include it when they cite I John 5:7,8.  It does not appear in any manuscripts before the 1400s and then mostly in the Latin, since the forgery agrees with Roman Catholic doctrine. It was not in the original Latin Vulgate written by Jerome. The only exception is a manuscript from the 900s which was later “back copied” by a scribe in the 1500s.

Jesus said he was what the scriptures promised he would be: the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head, the Son of God, the anointed one, the Messiah. Religious leaders tried to kill him NOT because he said he was God, but because he claimed to be the Messiah. This was blasphemy to them.

In Part 2, we will see how the Old Testament, specifically the Book of Psalms, spoke of the Messiah. This promised redeemer was not God, but His Son.