Jesus Christ

    Jesus Christ was born in a town called Bethlehem, in the country Israel. We know about Jesus who was instrumental in the development of the religion called Christianity. Most people think like that. Well, we see many religions around the world are not named after the founders. Christianity is not founded by Jesus. The early followers of Jesus, known as disciples, were called as 'Christians', to be differentiated from other religious priests and teachers. Jesus belonged to a community called 'the Jews'. The Jews are a special people, when it comes to God and religion.

     The Jews had many teachers and other religious persons, who handled their law, often known as the Torah. The Jewish people were very conservative with respect to what they believed to be religion and godliness. They performed various rituals and offerings to please God, whom they worshipped.

     Jesus was born and raised up in this community. He grew up strong in spirit and wisdom. He was liked by all. By the age of thirteen, He was able to speak to scholars and reason out the scriptures with them.

     Although we saw about the life of Jesus till now, w have to understand the purpose for which He was born.

     Jesus Christ, was not called as how we call Him now. He was just Jesus! The Christ which is after His name which was given initially, was based on the work which He was to complete. The purpose of Jesus Christ was clearly predicted in the following verse spoken by a prophet named Malachi.



Malachi 4:2
     But to you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.


     Before Jesus was born, the Jews worshipped 'Jehovah'. The Jews believed that God would send His 'Sun of Righteousness' to this world, as said by the above verse. They believed that a Holy One would be born to save the world from their sins. The people had to follow religious laws and restrictions to clense themselves, so that they can become acceptable to God. They found it very difficult to complete the law, which God gave them through a man called Moses. Now, God wanted to give them the Way, so that they would keep the law, without going through the hardships of bearing it.
     God sent His only Son, which He had begotten, to this world. The Scripture John 3:16 tells us about this.



John 3:16
     For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

      As I said, the people found it difficult to keep their law. We all know that sin is something which is based on a moral code, which comes on failing to fulfill. The problem is that, int eh law itself, is given a condition. If one fails in keeping even one law, then it is a transgression or sin. Then imagine, how difficult it would have been to those who were under it?
     Jesus was born and through His death on the cross, and the resurrection on the third day, we have been saved from all sins. For more on sin, read the article titled 'Sin' in this blog.



All scriptures in this article are taken from the American King James version of the Bible.