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Text of brochure:
WHO IS JESUS?
If you are wondering about Jesus, you are not alone. Even when Jesus walked the earth people wondered about him. Aware of this, he asked his twelve disciples one day: “Who do you say that I am” (Matthew 16:15)? The disciple Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16). Was Peter correct?
GOD’S SON, THE CHRIST
The Bible says that there is only one God in three eternal, almighty persons: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. (See John 1:18; John 5:23; John 10:29-38; Matthew 28:18-20). The Son of God came into the world as Jesus Christ. The term “Christ” means anointed or chosen. Therefore “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name, but his title. He is “the Christ,” the chosen one. God the Father chose his one and only Son to be the Savior of sinful human race.
BORN THE CHRIST
How did God’s Son enter the world as Christ and Savior? The Scriptures say that he was born into the world, human and sinless. It happened like this. The angel Gabriel appeared to a virgin named Mary and said: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Nine months later, in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to this holy son. That very night an angel appeared to nearby shepherds announcing, “A Savior has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord” (Luke 2:11)!
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
We cannot appreciate Jesus Christ without understanding sin. Sin is not a mere mistake. Sin is rebellion against holy God and his Ten Commandments. This rebellion occured at Adam’s fall into sin. It makes sinners of us all (Romans 5:12). Sin causes us to dishonor our parents, to hate and hurt, to lust and lie, to covet and steal, to refuse to trust in God and the Bible. We deserve hell.
THE CHRIST, FOR YOU
Have you ever asked someone to help you move a piece of furniture? What led you to ask for help? The furniture was too heavy to move on your own. God’s Ten Commandments are like ten heavy pieces of furniture that we needed to lift, move, arrange, and set in their right place. In other words, God requires us to love and keep them perfectly if we are to enter heaven. But we can’t do it. We can’t even begin to try. Enter Jesus Christ. Being God in sinless human form he perfectly loved and obeyed the commandments for you and me. Then he went to the cross and offered his sinless life as payment for our sins against the commandments. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:2).
THE PROOF
On the third day after his death Jesus rose again bodily! This is the crowning proof that he is God’s Son in human form (Romans 1:3,4), who atoned for all our sins (I Corinthians 5:19). He is the Christ.
BELIEVE!
Jesus says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).
