Jesus was the name given to the second member of the Trinity, God the Son, when He was born as a human baby boy to His mother Mary and stepfather Joseph (Matthew 1:25). His name in Hebrew is Yeshua and in Greek is Iesous, which in English we have translated as ‘Jesus’. Jesus means ‘the Lord saves’. It is the same name as Joshua, who led the people of Israel into the Promised Land, and of a High Priest who restored the worship of God after the exile (see especially Zechariah 3:8). The Angel Gabriel told Joseph that he was to give the child this name because ‘He will save His people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:20-21). Jesus is fully man and fully God, and has been given the title ‘Christ’ (in Greek) or ‘Messiah’ (in Hebrew), both of which mean ‘the anointed one’. The Bible tells us that Jesus is the great king who was promised in the Old Testament from the line of David, who will establish an eternal kingdom and will shepherd His people forever with justice (Matthew 2:6, Luke 1:31-33). Jesus lived a perfect life on earth, without ever sinning (1 John 3:2-5). Because of this, He was able to bear the sins of the world on Himself as an atoning sacrifice. Jesus was crucified at the age of 33. He died in our place that we might be made righteous in God’s sight and therefore be reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5: 18-21). But Jesus did not stay dead. On the third day, He rose again from death, proving that He had defeated its power, and appeared to many people (1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 54). After Jesus rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of the Father and rules over all things including the church, which is His representative in the world (Ephesians 1:18-23). One day, Jesus will return from heaven to claim His people for Himself, and will establish a new heaven and a new earth - the home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:10-13).
