What is the message of Jesus?
(Reading time: 18-28 minutes).
The answer to this question is of the utmost importance to us today.
No one in history has had a greater importance to mankind than Jesus.
When he walked on this earth Jesus himself said:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35. See also the parallels in Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33)
And this prophesy has most assuredly been fulfilled. No book or no message has been spread wider than the words spoken by Jesus. His words have been preached, proclaimed, and spread by the written word in many, many parts of the world.
To the remotest parts of the earth
I have personally traveled to some pretty closed countries where it’s strictly forbidden to be a Christian. But even there the words of Jesus have been spread. There are people there who believe his words and his message. And they have been changed by them. Even in the remotest parts of the world, you can often find the Bible or parts of the Bible.
And yes, it is true that there still are many people who have not personally heard the message of Jesus. But year by year his message is spread to more and more places of the earth.
A visit in a maximum-security prison …
Visit a prison, and you can often discover how the words of Jesus, in the Bible, has changed prisoners and given them a new life.
For example, a few years ago I visited a top secured prison in Mexico. The prison was protected by heavily armed guards. My friends and I were carefully searched before we were allowed to enter the prison. But when we walked through the prison camp, I noticed three or four large gatherings of prisoners around the camp. “What are they doing,” I asked our guide. “Oh, they are prisoners who have become Christians,” he said. “And now they worship Jesus.”
Yes, the message of Jesus is everything but a theoretical, dry message. It is a living message that has the power to open the door into God’s kingdom and give you eternal life.
Even the most stubborn atheists, agnostics and non-Christian believers must admit that. It’s simply a fact.
Voltaire’s prediction about the Bible
The Bible God’s word
The famous anti-Christian author Voltaire (1694-1778) apparently once predicted that the Bible would soon be wiped out:
“One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker”
(Source: CrossExamined.org)
Voltaire seemed very confident about this, just like many other people have been through the centuries. But less than fifty years later the very home of Voltaire, in Geneva, was being used by a Bible Society to both print and store Bibles (source: CrossExamined.org). And today there are more bibles more spread over the world than ever before.
Why the message of Jesus is so important
So, the message of Jesus has been spread all over the earth, just like Jesus said it will. But why is it so widespread. What is so important about the message of Jesus? Why should people today, about two thousand years after Jesus walked this earth, read, and listen to the message of Jesus?
One very important reason is that Jesus says that he is the only way to God and eternal life.
Jesus is the only way to God
If you read what Jesus himself says, you will also soon notice the strong claims he makes about himself. He says bluntly that he is the way to God:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).
In other words, Jesus says is not just one possible way to get to God. No, he is the way to God – the only way. Without him it is not possible to get near God without being condemned forever.
This was also the message that Jesus’ apostles preached after Jesus was raised from the dead:
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Jesus is the solution for desperate people
Jesus promised what people all over the earth have desperately tried to accomplish. People have tried to find the way to God, but have never been able, with certainty, to know if they have succeeded in their pursuit. This is also what the apostle Paul said in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus. Before these Christians found salvation in Jesus Christ, they were far away from God. They groped around in the dark without being able to find God. And just like many modern people, they had no hope to live for:
… Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (Eph 2:12)
But they, Paul says, were saved through Jesus who suffered for their sins. And now they are reconciled with God and have peace with him. Now they have a true hope:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Eph 2:13)
So, the message of Jesus is indeed extremely important. But what is his message, then?
First, there are many wrong answers to that question.
Many wrong answers
There are many suggestions as to what the message of Jesus actually is. But unfortunately, many of these answers are wrong.
Recently I read several such suggested answers. I made a search on Google about the message of Jesus. And I read all kinds of wrong answers to the question.
Several people answered that Jesus’ main message is that we should love both other people and God.
A woman answered that Jesus’ central message is that we should repent because the kingdom of God has come near.
A man claims that Jesus first of all wants us to love God and other people. Then he mentions the golden rule:
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 7:12).
Therefore, we should also forgive each other, this man claims.
Yet another man suggests that what Jesus wanted to say is summarized in the Sermon on the Mount.
Now, there is some truth in what these people say; Jesus does indeed mention all these things. But if we are talking about what his central message is, then they are wrong.
But how can I know that these answers are false? Well, you will find the answer by listening to Jesus’ own words. Instead of guessing what the message of Jesus was and is, why not go directly to the source, Jesus himself, and hear what he says?
What Jesus himself says
Jesus died at the cross for our sins
Jesus himself summarizes his message this way:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
This verse is part of what Jesus said to the pharisee Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a pharisee who came and visited Jesus by night to talk with him about what he was doing and teaching.
Nicodemus asks how he can be born again (John 3:4). Jesus says to Nicodemus that it happens by faith in him:
“… whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:15)
Without Jesus we would perish because we are sinners. We have all sinned against God and are all guilty before him. Therefore, without Jesus, we would not have eternal life, but rather eternal condemnation.
That’s the reason why we need salvation, in the first place. We need a completely new life, Jesus says to Nicodemus:
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
Believe in Jesus
Jesus compared Nicodemus’s and our situation with the situation of the Israelites who were bitten by poison snakes.
But despite our sin God loved the whole world so much that he gave his own Son, Jesus, for us, to save us. God loved the world, Jesus says. This means that God also gave his son for you and me.
Based on the context, the word “world” here must mean, all human people (compare verse 19. Compare e.g., also John 1:10, 29).
God will give eternal life to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as his or her savior:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world” (John 3:17)
We are not automatically saved as humans. We can only get saved by receiving Jesus as our savior.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12)
In this last verse from the Gospel of John we also get the explanation of what it means to believe in Jesus: It means to receive him. To believe in Jesus means to believe his message, the Gospel.
This is also in keeping with what Jesus says to Martha when her brother, Lazarus, is dead:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John 11:25-27)
To believe in Jesus Christ is not primarily an emotional matter, even though you will usually be very emotional affected when you believe in him. Instead, to believe in Jesus means to receive the Gospel about him, the message about who he is and what he has done:
“The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:48-49)
But why is Jesus able to save you?
“But,” you may ask, “why can Jesus save those you when you believe in him?”
Because he was punished instead of you and me. He took away our sin:
The next day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
Jesus carried the sin of the world on his shoulders. This means that he, of his own free will, was punished for everything we have done wrong in relation to God. And because Jesus was punished instead of us, God can now forgive us our sin.
On the third day after Jesus died, he was made alive again and rose from the dead. This fact is mighty evidence that he really did pay the price for all our evil acts, thoughts, and words.
So, this is the message of Jesus, that he came from God to save sinners who would otherwise be eternally lost and condemned. And the way to get saved is to believe in Jesus.
The same message in the rest of John’s Gospel
The same message is repeated all the way through the New Testament.
Here are some examples from the Gospel of John:
We have already mentioned:
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12)
And when Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4), he revealed her sin: She had been married five times, and the man she was living together with now, was not her husband.
In the last part of chapter three, in John’s Gospel, Jesus repeats what it takes to get eternal life:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
To have eternal life, you must believe in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus does not demand good deeds, works, or our commitment. Why not? Because we cannot produce any of these. Just like we read in the first part of John 3, we are dead in our sins. And the only solution is to get born again; to get a completely new life. And that life is in Jesus Christ.
Some people have tried to smuggle good works into this verse (John 3:36). They point to the word “obey”. But when Jesus uses this word, it does not contradict the first part of the same verse, where Jesus says that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life“. And remember, to believe means to receive the message of Jesus, the Gospel. When Jesus warns against disobedience here, he talks about those people who will not believe in him. To believe in Jesus is to be obedient to him. To disbelieve him is to be disobedient to him.
This is also in keeping with what Jesus says a little bit later in John’s Gospel:
Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)
And in John 5 Jesus blames the pharisees for not seeing that the Old Testament talks about him and for not believing this message:
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)
Here are some more examples, from the Gospel of John, that clearly preaches the same message that Jesus proclaims in John 3:16:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” (John 6:47)
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) (John 6:63-64)
“I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24)
Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. (John 9:35-38)
So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:34-36)
This is not an exhaustive list, but I hope you get the point, that this is central to the message of Jesus:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
The same message in the other Gospels
And notice how this is confirmed by many scriptures in the other gospels:
”She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt 1:21)
And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2)“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” (Matthew 9:6. See also the parallels in Mark 2 and Luke 5)
“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13)
“… this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28)
And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high” (Luke 1:76-78)
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32)
“Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:47-48)
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)
“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’” (Luke 15:21)
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:9-10)Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:45-49)
Again, in all these verses from Scripture it is evident that the message Jesus is about how Jesus came to this world in order to save every sinner who believes in him as their savior.
The same message in the rest of the New Testament
And the same message, the Gospel about Jesus Christ, is repeated in the rest of the New Testament.
Here are some examples:
“To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:43)
How can you receive forgiveness for your sins? And it happens in his name. This means that it is only because of Jesus that you can get God’s forgiveness. There is no other name through which you can get forgiveness for your sins and eternal life. Only in the name of Jesus. By believing in him, the apostle Peter says here, God can forgive your sins.
Some people claim that we should not preach about God’s forgiveness in Jesus right in the beginning. But this speech by Peter is strong evidence for the opposite. Peter preached that you can get forgiveness by believing in Jesus Christ.
“Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:38-39)
Again we see how God’s forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ is a vital part of the Gospel apostles preached. Paul here preaches the Gospel of Jesus in a synagogue in Antioch, Pisidia. His message for the Jews in this synagogue is the same as Peter preached earlier in the Book of Acts: Through Jesus Christ there is forgiveness for your sin, when you believe in him. The law of Moses, including the ten commandments could not give Paul’s listeners God’s forgiveness, just as it cannot do it for us today. Why not? Because of our sinful flesh (compare Romans 8:3). We should fulfill God’s law, but we cannot do it, because we do not want to fulfill it. But Jesus fulfilled it in our place.
Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:30-31)
How could the jailer get saved? Many preachers today claim insist that bare faith is not enough. You have to several other things, they say. You must show your commitment and have a whole-hearted intent to forsake sin and live a new life. The problem is just that this is not what Paul tells this poor sinner. This man was lost in his sin, and his only hope was to receive salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus. So, what is the message of Jesus? Here again we see that it is the same message that Jesus preached to Nicodemus when he talked about the dying Israelites who were bitten by poisonous snakes: Only by looking unto Jesus, by believing in him and what God has done through him, can you get saved.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Rom 3:21-25)
All of us were lost and condemned in our sins. But Jesus paid the high price for our transgressions and sins by dying a brutal death. And God want to give the gift of forgiveness to all of us. “For there is no distinction,” Paul says here. How can we receive this gift from God? Only by “through faith in Jesus Christ.”
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died (2 Corinthians 5:14)
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
What was the message of Christ that Paul and the other apostles preached? That God “made him [Jesus] to be sin.” Jesus was sinless. He “knew no sin.” But by being “reconciled to God” we can get God’s forgiveness. But how do we get reconciled with God? By receiving “the grace of God”, Paul says in the next verse (2 Corinthians 6:1).
… we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal 2:16)
This is yet another clear example of how the only way to get saved, justified, is “through faith in Jesus Christ.” Jesus did what we could never do. He did what no law can do for us. He made it possible for us to get justified by believing in him.
So, again we see how Jesus’ central message is the same:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Even though the different biblical authors use slightly different words and phrases, it is still the same message that they proclaim.
Entering the kingdom of God
This message, the Gospel, is also the message that can give you access to the kingdom of God. In Jesus Christ, God’s kingdom has come near:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2).
And the only way to enter it is by believing the gospel about Jesus:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
This means that we must receive the kingdom of God just like a child:
“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:15)
Compare, again, what I said above: To believe in Jesus corresponds to receiving him and his message (see John 1:12).
It was only sinners that Jesus came to save
Turn to God in your helplessness
And now we come to something that is very important if you want to understand the message of Jesus:
Jesus says that he only came to save sinners, not people who are righteous:
And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)
The context of this verse shows that by the word “sinners” Jesus means real sinners. He talks about people who, have gross sins on their conscience – just like Levi the son of Alphaeus (the apostle Matthew) and other sinners. They are guilty in God’s eyes, because of all the evil they have done.
Does this mean that some people are sinners, while others are without any sin?
No, it does not.
According to Jesus, we are all born with a nature that loves sin and therefore cannot enter the kingdom of heaven:
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6)
And because, by birth, we have a sinful nature, we also sin against God, says Jesus:
“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matt 15:18-20)
And it is precisely because we are sinners that we are lost without Jesus. But again, because God loved us so much, he gave his only Son, Jesus, to save us from our sins:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
These people, sinners, are the ones that Jesus came to seek and save:
He [Jesus] answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt 15:24)
The Pharisees thought that they were not to the same degree sinners as the many of the people that Jesus ate with and received as his followers. So, they blamed Jesus for receiving sinners. But it is precisely their failure to recognize that they are themselves gross sinners, that makes them guilty to God:
Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” (John 9:39-41)
Why are they guilty?
Because of their sins?
Yes. But even more so because they do not even realize that they are glaring sinners (compare John 16:9). So, they do not think that they have as much to be forgiven for, as other people.
But again, Jesus only came to save people who realize that they are lost in their sins:
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)
When a sinner repents of his or her sin, then there is joy in heaven:
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)
But did you notice how Jesus here says that God rejoice more of one person who realize that he or she is lost and needs salvation in Jesus, than over ninety-nine people who do not think that they are lost and need to repent of their sin?
And Jesus repeats the same words in his parable on the lost sheep (see Matthew 18:13 and Luke 15:7)
And this message is repeated all the way through the Bible. For example, Paul says:
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1 Timothy 1:15)
Do you realize this, that you are also a sinner who is lost without Jesus? Do you realize and admit that you will perish in your sins if not Jesus has saved you?
Just a couple of days ago I tried to handle an old man a Christian tract. But the man refused to receive the tract, while saying:
“I’m too old for that.”
When I heard that I got a bit sad on behalf of this old man, and I answered:
Then you need this message even more.
But again, the man refused to know more about the message of Jesus.
Summary: This is the message of Jesus
Trust in Jesus and you will get eternal life with God
So, if we should summarize what I have written above, we can do it this way:
- Without Jesus, we are condemned eternally because of our sin.
- With Jesus, we are forgiven, justified, and saved to eternal life.
And we can summarize the message of Jesus this way (compare John 3:16):
All people have sinned against God and deserve eternal condemnation. But God loved the world so much that he gave us his own son, Jesus Christ, for our sins. Jesus willingly was punished in our place in order to save anyone who believes in him. And when you believe in Him, you have eternal life.
Now, the question is just:
Do you believe the message of Jesus?
(All Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV)).