My Jesus

Christ Jesus has made me his own. (Philippians 3:12)

 

Let me tell you ’bout my Jesus.

 

By any sober evaluation, he is the most famous person in human history. No one has been more frequently painted, written about, or worshiped. For two millennia, no one has affected the course of human events like this man.

 

But who is Jesus, really? Many have their own ideas of him. And there’s no shortage of people today wanting to make Jesus in their own image. But who did Jesus say he was? It’s only fair to let him speak for himself. He was a great teacher, no doubt, but he didn’t think about himself as just a teacher. He claimed to be more. 

 

What He Taught Most

 

His friends Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record three times each that Jesus told his disciples beforehand that he was going to be killed and then rise again. Matthew’s sixteenth chapter is the first place Jesus explicitly talks about his death and resurrection: “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must . . . be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

 

Then again in the next chapter, Jesus says that he “is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

 

Then a third time — this one in Matthew, chapter 20: “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem [the city where he would be killed]. And the Son of Man [talking about himself] will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over . . . to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.’”

 

And again, not only Matthew, but Mark and Luke also record Jesus clearly teaching about his death and resurrection at least these three times each before he died — notably more than he teaches on any other subject. He went to great lengths — and the Gospel writers with him — to tell us that he came to earth to die and rise from the dead.

 

Why Did He Die?

 

But why did he die? The religious and political leaders couldn’t find any real fault in Jesus, so why did they kill him? The ultimate answer is that God planned it this way, and orchestrated the details to bring it about. That’s why Jesus knew it was going to happen.

 

But why in the world would God want that — and why did Jesus not only willingly comply but actually choose this course? The reason is this: Because humanity as a whole, and every individual human, has rebelled against God by not living how God, our Maker, intended. Because of this, we all deserve to be punished forever — that’s the appropriate punishment for belittling a God who deserves infinite respect.

 

But in his perfect love, God made a way to save rebellious humans — without compromising his perfect justice — by sending Jesus, who is his eternal divine Son, to 

 

• share in our humanity,
• live flawlessly in step with God’s intentions,
• then die to cover our rebellion,
• and finally rise again in victory over our damnable failures.

 

This is what Christians call “the good news” or the gospel. The good news is that there is a way out of the punishment we deserve. And the way out is not only the most famous but also the most spiritually attractive person who has ever lived: Jesus — the same Jesus who said that he came to earth “to his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

 

My Jesus

 

So when we call him “my Jesus,” we do not mean my version of Jesus, or the one I might imagine or want for myself, or someone I can own in a way others are not invited. 

 

Rather, first and foremost, we mean that Jesus first has made us his, and now he too is ours. As the apostle Paul writes, “Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12). In Jesus, we come to know the true God — “or rather to be known by God” (Galatians 4:9). First, the eternal divine Son comes to earth and dies for his people. Then, he makes us hisby faith, and in our coming to him to receive his grace we too make him ours — and then can say “my Jesus.”

 

My Jesus can handle your weariness. He can handle your emptiness, your regrets, your wrong turns. And more than that, he can handle your sins — the ways you’ve failed and rebelled against God — because he died and rose to make us his own by faith.

 

Let my Jesus change your life.