JESUS CHRIST – Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Who became man for our sakes. The Word, begotten of the Father from all eternity, Who took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost; Who lived in Galilee and Judea, preached the Kingdom of God, did miracles and established the Church; Who suffered and died on the cross for the sins of mankind. He was buried and on the third day rose from the dead, and forty days later ascended into Heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life for all Christians.
Jesus is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. He is the I AM revealed to Moses (Ex. 3:2-14). He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). He is the God before the ages who came to Earth as a little child. He and the Father are one (John 10:30), for he is of one essence with the Father. During his passion and death on the cross, one of the Trinity suffered in the flesh.
As described in the Gospels, Jesus Christ was born of a woman, grew into a man, preached, healed, taught his disciples, died in physical reality on the cross, and then rose bodily from the dead on the third day. He then ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:9) and sat down at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19). Of all mankind, he alone is without sin.
Jesus is the Theanthropos, the God-man. He is not half God and half man, nor is he a hybrid of the two. Rather, he is fully God and fully man, perfect in his divinity and perfect in his humanity. He is one Person in two natures, joined together in the Incarnation without mixture, division, or confusion. This is the doctrine of the Incarnation, that God became a man. He is the Messiah, the Christ—the Anointed One of God, foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament.
His work on Earth was for the purpose of saving mankind, for the life of the world. Everything he did was for our salvation, whether it was being baptized, relating parables, healing the sick, or his glorious death and resurrection. Because of who he is and of what he did for us, we have the opportunity to become by grace what he is by nature, to the fullness of the stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13). That is, we can put on the divine, becoming partakers of the divine nature (II Pet. 1:4).