Encounter II lesson 2




There has been a continuous debate about the understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ in church history. At the centre of it is the uni-personality of Christ— Jesus being both God and human at the same time. This debate continues to date.

There are Christians who are not bold enough to testify of their faith with fear of how to comprehensively present Christ with His seeming mysterious nature. This lesson helps us to single out and piece together the person of Jesus Christ as the foundation of our faith and practice.

Misconceptions about Christ

In the historical raging debate about Christ, various misconceptions have been presented about Christ. We consider a few of them that are quite fundamental.

  1. Jesus in not God

This position holds that Jesus was an ordinary human possessing unusual but not super human or supernatural gifts of righteousness and wisdom.

  1. Jesus is a demi god

Here Jesus is presented as an intermediate being between God the Father and the rest of the creation. He is supposed to be the agent by whom the Father had created them and continued to relate to them, but not God in the full sense.

  1. Jesus in not human

This view says Jesus only seemed to be human. Because all matter is evil, God could not really have become material since he is perfectly pure and holy.

  1. Jesus was a compound unity

This argues that only some elements of Jesus were human, the rest were divine. What the Word took was not the whole of humanity but only flesh, so he had a human body but not soul.

  • The Designations Of Jesus Christ

There several names/titles that are used in scriptures in reference to Christ. The names speak about His nature, His official position and the work he came to accomplish here on earth.

  1. His personal name is ‘Jesus’

This is the Greek form of the Hebrew Jehoshua, Jeshua (Joshua); meaning salvation- Yahweh saves (God saves).

Matthew 1:21


  1. 2. His official name (title) is ‘Christ’

His official name is Christ. It means the anointed one.

  • (This is Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Mashiach– meaning ‘to anoint’). As is common with titles, the name Christ, when referring to his official position is preceded with the definite article ‘the’.

Matthew 1:17


Matthew 11:2-3


Matthew 16:15-16


John 20:31


  1. His reverent and authoritative name is ‘Lord’

It is an expressive of the highest form of respect, authority and exalted character of Jesus that brings him to be equivalent to God. This same title ‘Lord’ is applied to God (the equivalent of Jehovah/Adonai).

Luke 2:11


Matthew 8:2


Acts 2:36


  1. His common Self-designation is ‘Son of Man’

In making reference to himself in relation to his ministry, Jesus often referred to himself as the ‘Son of Man’. This self-designation occurs in four classic passages:

  1. i) To express the future coming of the Son of Man

Matthew 16:27-28


  1. ii) To show Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection

Matthew 17:22-23


iii) To convey Heavenly super human side and pre-existent of Christ

John 3:13


John 1:51


  1. iv) As a reflection of Jesus as a man with authority

Mark 2:27


John 5:27

“And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man”.

  1. His office is the ‘Son of God’

This describes His office as messiah and God.

Mathew 11:27


Mathew 14:33


  • The Personality Of Jesus Christ

In spite of the misconceptions about Christ, the Bible is very clear on the personality and nature of Christ.

  1. Jesus is human

Any attempt to deny the humanity of Christ is a denial of the real life and historical facts.

  1. i) He had a human birth and death

Mathew 1:1


Luke 2:7


Luke 2:52

‘And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man’.

John 19:33-34


  1. ii) He had human experiences

John 4:6

‘Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well’.

Matthew 21:18

‘Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry’.

Mark 3:5

‘He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts’

iii) Exhibited a full range of human emotions

Luke 10:21


Matthew 26:37


Matthew 9:36



Jesus shows the true nature of humanity and can therefore be our example as a model of the Christian life. In our human nature he can sympathize with us and intercede for us since he fully understands human experience having gone through it.

  1. iv) He was truly human, yet sinless

John 8:46

‘Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me’?

John 8:29


Jesus’ humanity is the standard by which we measure ours. His is true, pure and unadulterated man. The rest of the human race have been corrupted, twisted and broken as a result of sin and hence cannot provide the standard of judgement on how we ought to live our lives in this corrupt generation. Let the man Jesus be your true role model.

  1. Jesus Christ is God

Jesus’ self-awareness and how others referred to him in scripture leaves no doubt about Jesus Christ being God.

  1. i) He is one with the Father.

John 10:30

“I and the Father are one.”

John 14:7-9

“If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” …. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’

  1. ii) He has power over life and death

John 5:21


John 11:25


iii) He has power to forgive sins

Mark 2:5


  1. iv) He was involved in creation

John 1:1-3


Colossians 1:16


  1. v) He pre-existed humanity: He came down from heaven

John 8:53-58



John 3:13


  1. vi) He is openly referred to as God

John 20:28

“Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God’!”


forever praised! Amen”.

Hebrews 1:8

Romans 9:5


vii) He is both Lord and Saviour

Romans 10:11-13


1 Peter 3:15

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” [KJV uses the Lord God].

viii) He receives worship

Luke 24:51-53


Revelation 5:12-13



Through Christ, human beings have access to the true knowledge of God. The love, holiness and power of God are demonstrated in Christ, for to see Christ is to see God (John 14:9). Worship of Christ as God is therefore appropriate and expected.

How do the two natures in one person work?

  1. It is a physical union of two natures so as to make one person.

The union means that God is Man and man is God in the person of Jesus Christ alone. No other man can claim to be God

John 1:1-3; 14


Matthew 1:22-23


  1. 2. God became man

The second person of the Trinity assumed human nature without in anyway changing His original nature.

Philippians 2:6-7


  1. The two natures did not function independently

His actions were always those of God and Man.

1 Timothy 3:16



May the reality of Christ intersect with our lives in a deeper experiential way as we desire to know him intimately the rest of our lives. The more we know him, our knowledge of God will be impacted, our understanding of ourselves will be enlightened, and our understanding of the world and his calling on us to serve him faithfully in this world will be divinely oriented.

Let us make Paul’s prayer our personal prayer, every day we live:

Philippians 1:9-11


Class Discussion

  1. Share any specific insights in which this lesson has enlightened your view of Jesus Christ?
  2. What is the one thing about the person of Christ that has stood out for you in the lesson?
  1. How does this influence your perspective of the Christian faith in general and your personal relationship with Christ as an individual?