Bible Study › Lesson 3 of 5
Who Is Jesus, and Why Did He Come?
The Scriptures have all authority, and Jesus holds all authority. This lesson asks who He is and why He came... because everything we are asked to do depends on the answer.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
Who is "the Word," according to these verses, and what part did He have in creation?
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The Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and nothing was made without Him. John is describing Jesus before He was ever born in Bethlehem... not a created being, but the Creator.
14The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
What did the Word become, and what did John say he saw?
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The Word became flesh and lived among us. John says he saw His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father. God Himself took on a human body and walked among men.
10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
In Jesus' own words, why did He come?
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To seek and to save the lost. That is His stated purpose, in one sentence. He did not come mainly to teach morals or to set an example, though He did both. He came to save people who were lost... which means people were lost and needed saving.
3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
What three facts does Paul say he delivered as the gospel, and what does he say each one was "according to"?
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That Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day... each one "according to the Scriptures." The gospel is not a feeling or a philosophy. It is three events that happened, exactly as God had said they would.
6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
How many ways does Jesus say there are to the Father?
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One. He says He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. He does not say He is a way, or the best way. He leaves no room for another.
8Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. 9And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him
Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to whom?
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To all who obey Him. Notice the condition. Salvation comes through Christ alone, and it comes to those who obey Him. What that obedience looks like is exactly what the next lessons will take up, one step at a time, from the Scriptures.
In short
Jesus is God, who became a man. He came for one stated reason, to seek and save the lost. The gospel is that He died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He is the only way to the Father, and He is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
That last phrase is where a lot of people stop reading, and it is where this study keeps going. If salvation is for those who obey Him, then the honest question is: what did He tell us to do? Not what a church has added, and not what tradition has trimmed away. The next lessons walk through His answer in the order the Scriptures give it.
Go deeper: Do You Really Want To Go To Heaven?