Who Is Jesus? Part 1Sample

With One Sentence

Chapter 7 concludes the Sermon on the Mount, this riveting message in which Jesus has been showing us the new kind of relationship we get to have with God. One marked by trust instead of worry. One that is based not on our religious actions, but on our adoption into His family. It’s a new identity. With this new identity come new motivations. And with new motivations, new practices. Jesus explains it like this:

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12 NIV

Wow. Jesus sums up the Law and the Prophets (pretty much the entire Old Testament) with one sentence. What does that mean? Well, Jesus is saying that all the rules the Israelites were trained to follow and all the messages from God that the prophets brought were trying to accomplish this one purpose: teaching us to become the kind of people who could love others the same way that God has loved us. That is what it’s all about. That’s what it’s always been about. 

It’s about God pursuing humanity with relentless love, grace, and mercy, despite the fact that we constantly turn our backs on Him. His love for us is so intense that He literally put on human flesh, died a brutal death, and rose again to reconcile us to Himself. And now, as followers of Jesus, we have the high calling of reflecting that kind of love to the world. Jesus said this: 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 NIV

The world will know who He is by how we love. 

It’s interesting to note that at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew tells us that the crowds were amazed by Jesus’ teaching, not just because of what He taught, but the way He taught it. He taught with authority, unlike any of the other religious teachers of His day. How could Jesus speak with so much authority when it came to God’s love, the purpose of the entire Old Testament, and humanity's role in all of it? Because He is the God who put on flesh, who died a brutal death, and who rose again so we could have life. He showed us, not just told us, what it would look like to be the kind of person who loves others the same way that God has always loved us.

What’s next? Let’s continue to discover more of who Jesus is together! Start Who Is Jesus? Part 2 with your friends today. You can find it in the Switch Bible Plan collection at www.go2.lc/SwitchBiblePlans.