What Did Jesus Emphasize in His Teachings?
What Did Jesus Emphasize in His Teachings?
When you think about what Jesus emphasized in His teachings, what comes to mind? Is it to be an upright citizen? Is it to love people? Is it to live your best life now? A growing number of people think that the teachings of Jesus are primarily intended to help people increase in morality, or to be a better version of themselves. Yet, this isn’t what Jesus emphasized. Jesus’s teachings were much deeper than that.
So, what did Jesus emphasize? Jesus taught on many different topics. Love, the kingdom of heaven, prayer, hypocrisy, marriage, stewardship, sin, and so on. These topics weren’t isolated themes that Jesus sprinkled together or which had no unifying purpose. Instead, His teachings always emphasized two main things: 1) Jesus is the Promised Messiah declared throughout the Scriptures; and 2) All must repent, believe, and follow Him to have eternal life. The Old Testament authors, specifically Moses, the Psalmists, and the Prophets, bore testimony that God was going to send forth a Savior to redeem sinners to the praise and glory of God. Many of these testimonies were recorded hundreds of years before the incarnation of Jesus. For example, Zechariah wrote, “Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). Jesus fulfilled this declaration—about five hundred years after Zechariah wrote it—as He entered Jerusalem prior to His crucifixion. Fulfilled prophecies like these were done to demonstrate that He is the Savior that God promised would come. Jesus taught in connection with these prophecies. He came to command people to repent, believe, and follow Him to have eternal life. It is no coincidence that the first words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Mark are, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). It is also no coincidence that John wrote his Gospel with the express purpose, “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).
Let’s spend some more time on each of these teachings.
Jesus is the Promised Messiah
Some of Jesus’s teachings are very popular. Others… not so much. The teaching emphasis that Christ had on His own divine nature and the exclusivity of His ability to forgive sins alone are among His least popular teachings.
Many question, “Why would Jesus spend so much time demonstrating that He is the Messiah?” That question can be raised because people do not have a solid understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures. There are many who believe that Jesus came out of nowhere. That His incarnation was a reactionary plan by God. A decision made in the moment that seemed right and good. However, the coming of the Messiah is declared all throughout the Old Testament. Jesus’s ministry is a continuation and fulfillment of what God declared from the beginning.
From Genesis to Malachi, God is making it known that a King and Savior who reigns forever and ever is coming through the genealogy of David. As a result, God’s faithful people (primarily Jews) were waiting and looking for this King.
Keep in mind, not everyone agreed about what this meant. Some thought Jesus was coming to restore the physical nation of Israel to the prosperity that it once had (Acts 1:6). Others, like Simeon rightly identified Jesus,
“Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A Light of revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29–32)
Simeon made this declaration while Jesus was still a young child. Before Christ healed a single leper, multiplied a single loaf, or raised anyone from the dead. How could Simeon make such a claim? Because He believed God was faithful to do what He had promised.
And so, Jesus emphasized that He was the Messiah to show the faithfulness of God to keep His promises. Seeing God’s faithfulness to bring His words to pass, His people (the nation of Israel) were called to respond by turning back to Him in faithfulness. They were commanded to go, and likewise bear witness of Jesus in Jerusalem, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
This helps to shed light on certain teachings like when Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Israel was best prepared through their knowledge of the Scriptures to understand, recognize, and believe that Jesus is the Messiah. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). By knowing this, they themselves would repent, believe, and follow Jesus. Then, they would bear witness to the ends of the earth, to both Jew and Gentile, that Jesus is both Lord and Christ.
By demonstrating that He was the Promised Messiah in His teachings, the lost sheep of Israel would turn to the True and Living God through belief in Him. Then, in obedience to Him, and in accord with the primary purpose of His teaching, they would take His gospel to the ends of the earth so that all who would repent and believe in Jesus (both Jew and Gentile) would have eternal life to the praise and glory of God.
Repent, Believe, and Follow
As discussed earlier, Jesus taught many different things. He taught about fasting, relationships, service, charity, judging others, and so on. Many of His teachings referenced the Law that God gave the nation of Israel since His audience was primarily Jewish.
In these teachings, Jesus reiterated that the Law is right and good. He taught that it is right and good to uphold it. He also demonstrated that no one upholds the Law perfectly (except for Jesus who knew no sin and perfectly fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law). He demonstrated this, because many whom Jesus interacted with thought that they were justified by God because of their perceived ability to uphold the Law and traditions. However, while the Law that God gave is right and good in its intent, it was never intended to justify one through adherence. In fact, the purpose of the Law was to show that no one can have a right standing with God by their own merits.
As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” (Romans 3:10–12)
Therefore, apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:21–24)
Jesus didn’t come to teach people how to live more moral lives. Jesus came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10), and true life is found in Christ. Therefore, Christ commanded people to repent (turn from their former life of wickedness to a life of righteousness), believe in Him, and follow Him to the end.
Christ emphasized that eternal life is not found in adherence to the Law but that it is found in Him through belief. For the Apostle John writes, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:11–12).
While it is true that Jesus taught many things, the emphasis of His teaching was not a more moral way of life. Instead, Christ emphasized a demonstration that all have rebelled against the True and Living God, the One who gave them the very air that they breathe, that all stand before God condemned, and that all must repent, believe, and follow Jesus to have eternal life.
Is the Law No Longer Relevant?
Many people argue that the Law is not relevant now that Christ has come. Jesus says,
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17–19)
Believers are not supposed to forget the Law. Christ came and fulfilled the righteous the requirements but that does not imply that the Law is no longer relevant. God hasn’t changed His mind about the Law. He still finds it right and good for people to adhere to it. Adherence to the Law won’t earn anyone salvation and it never has. Salvation has always been through belief. Therefore, believers should desire to uphold the Law, while recognizing that their salvation is by grace through faith in Christ.
Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. (Romans 3:31)
nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly. (Galatians 2:16–21)
Related Questions
What teaching of Jesus is the Golden Rule? The “Golden Rule” is: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This popular teaching isn’t a teaching of Jesus. It most closely resembles what Jesus taught was the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus was quoting from Leviticus 19:18.
What instructions did Jesus give us? Jesus gave many instructions. John’s Gospel records people asking what they should do to work the works of God. Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:29). If we believe in Jesus, we should constantly seek His instruction through the Bible and seek to put into practice what we read by the grace of God.