Who Do You Say Jesus Is Essay PDF

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essay where we were assigned a topic on who Jesus is and had to examine specific questions to incorporate that information into our essay...

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Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

Ryan Duarte Grand Canyon University CWV 101 Professor Koontz 28 February 2021

Reading through John 15:1-11, and seeing that within this whole chapter, Jesus is the only one that is talking and tells us the true meaning of who He really is. In the beginning of this chapter, verse 1, Jesus states that He is the true vine and that His Father is the Gardner, meaning that Jesus is the only way to know the Father because God sent His one and only Son down to Earth so that many would come to believe in Him. Moving onto verse 4, Jesus say’s to remain trusted in Him as he remains in our walk-through everyday life, protecting and watching over us. Verse 4 also states that without Him, we cannot bear any fruit and are lost in life and can do nothing, but with Him in our lives, we will bear much fruit and live a joyful life. In the next couple of verses, 5-8, he restates what He said in verse 4 but emphasizes and stresses what can happen if you choose to not follow Him. He compares Himself to a vine and compares us to branches and says that those who remain in Him may also ask for whatever they wish, and it will be done. Now this doesn’t mean that He is a Genie and will grant every wish we ask of Him, but may we pray what we wish for and if it glorifies Him and His word then He may grant that wish. He adds onto this by saying that if we do not remain in Him then we are like a branch that is thrown away and withers which then leads to such branches being picked up and thrown into the fire and burned. So, to explain what Jesus is saying within that verse, He pretty much say’s that if we may not come to know Him within this life and do not believe that He is the way to an everlasting life in heaven, then we may be cast out into the burning fires of hell. He concludes his teachings of verses 1-11 by saying that this is His father’s glory, so that many may come to bear much fruit through Him, showing that we are disciples and children of God. Through this teaching, it is revealed that Jesus really does love everyone no matter what and wants to see all of His children have an everlasting life with Him in heaven and not have to see them rot and suffer in hell. So after having walked through just about each verse and dissecting what John

15:1-11 really means, we can say that Jesus’s point in teaching this portion of the chapter is to remain trustworthy in Him and spread the good news of God so that others may come to know who Christ is and see why He died on that cross for us because of how much he loves and cares for us. Looking at a big portion of John 10, specifically verses 25-38, there is so much to be said and explained about Jesus’ multiple statements that He makes about His nature and purpose. Within verses 25-30, Jesus talks about how He has told the people many times that He is the Son of God, but the people will not believe Him, “The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep” (Holy Bible, New International Version, 1973/2021, John 10:25). What Jesus also say’s about His nature and purpose within these 5 verses is that His sheep listen to His voice and that He will give them eternal life and shall never perish as long as they follow Him for all the days of their lives. Through verses 3133, His Jewish opponents picked up stones with the intentions of stoning Him where he stood because of His statements, but before they attempted to do so, Jesus asks the question “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” (Holy Bible, New International Version, 1973/2021, John 10:32). This question had the Jewish people questioning themselves wondering and they replied by saying that they are stoning Him for the good works that He has done, but for blasphemy, because in their eyes, He was just a man who claimed that He was God. In the last few verses of this portion, verses 34-38, Jesus had quite the answer in response to the Jews. To summarize, Jesus asks them “Do you not know about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?” He then asks them and leaves them puzzled as to if He truly is the Son that God had talked about. The last thing said by Jesus to the Jews and He leaves them with this statement that really blew me away, “even though

you may not believe in me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” Someone from an atheist or pantheistic worldview may see the concepts of this passage differently and say that there was no evidence in this passage that Jesus is the Son of God and that He really was making false claims to be the Messiah. So, through the entirety of this portion of John 10, what Jesus is saying about His nature is that He is the Son of God and that Him and God are one and the purpose of His ministry down on Earth is to appoint others to God so that they may come to believe in Him and have an everlasting life. So, who really is Jesus? Well to me, Jesus is the one I trust in, the one that I will follow for the rest of my life until the day that I die, the one I spend building a better relationship with every day, because he died on the cross for us which proves to me that He loves and cares about all of us and want’s everyone to come to know Him because we are His children. Ever since I was little, I have been attending a private Christian school, and at the age of 7, I accepted Jesus into my life but didn’t really come to know what that really meant until high school. Things took a turn during sophomore year and from then on, I have learned that I can’t live life on my own and have let Him take the wheel on my life and let Him guide me in my everyday life. Through writing this essay and re reading some passages in which I have read in the past, this just teaches me to remain trustworthy in God because without Him, we are lost, and like the branch that will get thrown into the fire and burn, or we can choose to have that everlasting life that He was talking about and bear much fruit in heaven, your choice.

References

New International Version. (1985). (Original work published 1973). Koontz, M. (2021a). The Wisdom and Mercy of God [PowerPoint slides]. https://lms trad.gcu.edu/learningPlatform

Home. https://www.bibleref.com/John/10/John-chapter-10.html....