Who is our Lord Jesus Christ

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace – Isaiah 9:6

Describing the personality of Jesus, we will begin with this most asked questions.  Is Jesus man or God? We’ll try as much as possible to be realistic and literal so as to gain the real source and attributes of this subject.

Fallen man’s experience, as described by Paul in Romans 7:21, has been that divinity (spirit) and humanity (flesh) are in a state of war. But in Jesus, his war does not take place. Jesus is the harmony of spirit and flesh, and therefore his divinity manifests perfectly through his humanity. We have tried to understand the personality of Jesus by stressing divinity and ignoring his humanity. But the result is a very unrealistic, ethereal, other-worldly, spaced-out vision of Jesus. As a result, the deepest heart of Jesus has remained hidden.

The Personality of Jesus expressed in the New Testament:

1.      Jesus was a carpenter, not a slight figure but actually very strong and muscular as was required to do the work of a carpenter in Jesus’ era.

2.      Jesus spoke to large crowds, sometimes of several thousand. He was able to keep their attention and interest, which meant he must have been a very dynamic speaker. Also, without a PA system, Jesus must have possessed a very strong and loud voice.

3.      Jesus cleared the temple of the money changers. He used a whip (which he made himself, according to (John 2:15). He turned over tables and dumped the merchants’ money onto the floor. No merchant stoop up or challenged him. This reveals the zeal and imposing strength that Jesus possessed. It is hardly the spaced-out Jesus we see in the movie King of Kings, for instance.

4.      But this same Jesus had another side, the sensitive, the poetic. “Consider the lilies and the birds of the air…” is one of Jesus most poetic and sensitive parables.

5.      This very same poetic Jesus is also the man who could relate with and understand the fisherman. Fishermen through history have always been the tough-minded individuals, who give their respect only grudgingly. But they respected Jesus because he showed them how to fish! Jesus helped them get a big catch, enough to fill two boats.

6.      Jesus was a man of many practical skills and understandings. His parables reveal a man who has a fair knowledge of agriculture, of fishing, of the weather patterns, of building. He was well versed in the Old Testament, as well as showing a familiarity with Greek philosophy. Jesus was home on the sea (during a storm at sea, he was asleep on a pillow).