We become children of God as soon as we are forgiven after receiving Jesus. God's word says that this is the way we are adopted as God's children. We are special to God, as we become part of him, but Jesus is not only special, he is UNIQUE. Jesus is God's only Son, who exists forever and through whom all the world was made.

Colossians 1:16-17
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Jesus, the Son of God, is the second person in the Trinity and He is the most powerful expression of God's love for us.

John 3:16
“For 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.”

The Jewish High Priest did not believe it:

Matthew 26:63
But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, [Or Messiah] the Son of God."

But demons recognised Him:

Matthew 8:29
"What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"

His diciples knew it:

Matthew 14:33
Then those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

God himself confirmed it:

Mark 1:10-11
As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

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Since God is perfect, then ALL and EVERY word coming out from him is perfect. The Bible is the WRITTEN Word of God and it says that Jesus Christ is the Word of God who came from heaven to live on earth:

John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

If we believe in Jesus' word we have LIFE!

John 5:24
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

John 6:63
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life.

John 8:51
I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."

Jesus explained things through words, and all His words come from God the Father.

Mark 4:33
With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand.

John 12:49
For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.

We need FAITH to be saved. Faith comes through the Words of Jesus.

Romans 10:17
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

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Jesus is the perfect image of God, for us to see (becasue God is invisible). Jesus has all the fullness of God in Him, He reflects God's own glory:

2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Colossians 1:15-20
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Hebrews 1:3 (NLT)
The Son reflects God's own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly. He sustains the universe by the mighty power of his command. After he died to cleanse us from the stain of sin, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God of heaven.

Jesus said himself that to see Him is the same as to see the Father:

John 14:9
“He who has seen Me, has seen the Father”

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Jesus not only redeemed us through his suffering but is now always interceding in our favour!

Our intercessor, who is with the Father, is the One who protects us from the accuser, He speaks on our behalf and in our defence.

1 John 2:1
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Colossians 3:1-2
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Job 16:19-21
Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.

Job 19:25
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

Romans 8:33-39
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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God says through John, that from the beginning, the Word [Jesus] was with God, and the Word [Jesus] was God:

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Thomas called Jesus «My God», Jesus would have rebuked him if this was incorrect ... just as he rebuked Peter (Mark 8:33)

John 20:28
Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Jesus has titles and attributes that only belong to God. This is because He is God:

Every knee will bow to God...

Romans 14:11
It is written: " 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.' " [Isaiah 45:23]

Philippians 2:10
...that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth...

God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords:

1 Timothy 6:14-16
...to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

Revelation 19:16
On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

When Moses asked God for his name, God replied that his name is «I AM»

Exodus 3:13-14
Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.* This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

John 8:58
"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

Only God can be the absolute Truth - Jesus did not just teach the truth but He claimed HE is the truth.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, “ I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

God will not give His glory to anyone else but Himself:

Isaiah 42:8
“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

John 17:5 (Jesus' words)
“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

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John 1:29
The next day John ([the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

Why is Jesus called the Lamb of God?
This has a root in sin and sacrifice, and can be better explained if we start by looking at the Old Testament words of God to the Israelites.

The sin is from man. Sin is what God does not approve. This can be men's actions, thoughts, dreams, or words. Sin separates mankind from God because God's holy nature cannot even look at sin, He will punish sin.

Isaiah 13:11
I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.

It is God's justice that demands that sin must be punished, therefore no sin can go unpunished. He also gave us the concept of justice embedded in our human nature and we can see this expressed in our desire to punish the bad things people do to hurt others, and even in our conviction that we deserve punishment when doing wrong ourselves.

In the Old Testament it is explained that the cost of salvation is much too high for man to purchase for himself.

Psalms 49:7-9
No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him- the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough- that he should live on forever and not see decay.

These could be verses of despair, but there is hope because God, instead of letting us sinners be banished without him, will provide a way to save all people.

Psalm 49:15
But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.

It is God's grace and mercy which provides a way to escape punishment. His plan is perfect because:

• it does not contradict His words nor His laws
• it does not nullify his justice (sin doesn't go unpunished)
• it is perfectly inkeeping with His nature of goodness and mercy and love
• and yet... it offers a complete change from our destiny of death (because of sin) into a full new life (because of His salvation plan)

Sacrifice is the way from God to take the sins away and restore people to be close to Him again. Since sins have to be punished, God provided a supreme plan for sins to be punished in some supreme way, which would save us from being punished. Through His way of sacrifice we are made clean and FORGIVEN.

Sacrifice started a long time ago:
The concept of sacrifice is not an easy one.. even today it is not understood by millions of people. God had to teach mankind how this works and He started with the nation of Israel by choosing a man called Abraham and promissing him that from him the Jewish nation would descend. There were no Jews before Abraham. God made the Jewish nation (his chosen people) to reveal himself to the world, preparing them to receive the Messiah.

In the beginnings of the nation of Israel - when they were captives in Egypt, God told the Israelites to kill a lamb so that they might be saved from disaster.

(Exodus 12:21-24 RSV)
"Then Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Select lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, The Lord will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to slay you. You shall observe this rite as an ordinance for you and for your sons for ever."

Here God introduced the idea of "being saved" by the sacrificial blood of someone else (a lamb) protecting his people's life.

This plan which started in the Old Testament times with the slain Passover lamb's blood, became for the Jews the Day of Atonement, as they followed God's further instructions. God gave the Israelites a way to clean their sins: the people’s sin was confessed over a pure animal and then the animal was slain on their behalf.

Leviticus 17:11
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.

Hebrews 9:22
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with
blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

An exchange took place when the animal’s innocent life was transferred to the people, and the people’s impure lives were transferred to the animal. This is known as the “exchanged life” principle.

Since God is immutable, His method of redemption never changes. Believers today are redeemed through exactly the same system that was given to Israel in the past, a substitutionary blood sacrifice using the exchanged life principle from God. However, there is a difference: in the New Covenant, the blood of the sacrifice is God's own blood, and the old system becomes only a shadow of what the REAL sacrifice was to be.

THE LAST SACRIFICE :

This time is not a Lamb from the world, it is the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ who is slaughtered on our behalf as the last and most sublime sacrifice, once and for ever. He was punished for all the sins of the world. His blood is so precious that covers all of mankind from the beginning of the world till the last day!

Hebrews 10 (NLT)
Christ's Sacrifice Once for All

“The old system in the law of Moses was only a shadow of the things to come, not the reality of the good things Christ has done for us. The sacrifices under the old system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.

If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshippers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.

Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or grain offerings or animals burned on the altar or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them" (though they are required by the law of Moses). Then he added, "Look, I have come to do your will."

He cancels the first covenant in order to establish the second. And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

Under the old covenant, the priest stands before the altar day after day, offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honour at God's right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled as a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. First he says,

"This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts so they will understand them, and I will write them on their minds so they will obey them." Then he adds, "I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds."

Now when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. This is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of his death for us. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him.
For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.

Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received a full knowledge of the truth, there is no other sacrifice that will cover these sins. There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible expectation of God's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. Anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant as if it were common and unholy. Such people have insulted and enraged the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to his people.

For we know the one who said,

"I will take vengeance. I will repay those who deserve it."

He also said, "The Lord will judge his own people."

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Don't ever forget those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail. When all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew you had better things waiting for you in eternity.

Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter what happens. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

"For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.

And a righteous person will live by faith. But I will have no pleasure in anyone who turns away."

But we are not like those who turn their backs on God and seal their fate. We have faith that assures our salvation.

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Messiah means = 'annointed one' in Hebrew
Christ means = 'Saviour' in Greek

The Messiah is the Annointed One (chosen One by God) who comes to save.

We can verify if Jesus is the Messiah is by looking at God's promises about the Messiah in the Bible and seeing the evidence in the life of Jesus which shows their fulfillment.

God's promises about the Messiah were written thousands of years before the birth of Jesus. These are called the MESSIANIC PROPHECIES.

In the Old Testament Messianic prophecies, God was certainly writing an address in history that only the Messiah could fulfill.

Luke 24:44 (Jesus speaking)

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

The Messianic Prophecies were all fulfilled in one person: Jesus Christ with 100% accuracy.

Can it be a coincidence?

It may be possible to find one or two of these prophecies fulfilled in other men, but not ALL of them. Using a mathematical analysis based upon thoroughly sound principles of probability,
Professor P.W. Stoner says that the chances that one man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled just EIGHT of these prophecies is 1 in 10¹⁷ .
This means: 1 chance in 100,000,000,000,000,000

There are over 300 Messianic prophecies which come true in Jesus Christ. God provided a way for us to be certain that He is the Messiah.

>>> CLICK here

to see the evidence of the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies, listed in categories.

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John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, “ I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 10:7
Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.”

John 10:9
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.”

John 10:11
“ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

John 10:14
“ I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me ...”

John 11:25
Jesus said to her, “ I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies...”

John 14:6
Jesus answered, “ I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 15:1
“ I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”

John 15:5
“ I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Revelation 1:8
“ I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 1:17
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.”

Revelation 1:18
“I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

Revelation 21:6
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”

Revelation 22:13
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

Revelation 22:16
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you [ The Greek is plural.] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

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