What Manner of Man

(A weekly program for knowing and following Jesus Christ)

By Richard M. Eyre

Month 1: His Roles
“I am the light and the life of the world”

WEEK 1: EVERY CRUCIAL ROLE

All true Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Savior of all mankind. These truths bloom into even greater reality when woven into the organized tapestry of eternity and when knit into the texture of the other roles that Jesus Christ has taken in the Father’s eternal plan.

Through his revealed word, we can know the Lord as:

1. A great intelligence prior to the creation of this world.
2. The firstborn spirit son of our Heavenly Father.
3. A great and loyal leader in the spirit world.
4. The leading advocate of the plan of agency and redemption for this mortal existence, and the one who insisted that all credit and glory be given to the Father.
5. The accepted volunteer for the supremely difficult and self-sacrificing implementation of that plan of agency and redemption.
6. The creator of this world.
7. The light of this world.
8. Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament.
9. The Only Begotten Son of the Father in the flesh.
10. The only perfect being ever to live.
11. The head of the original Church of Jesus Christ.
12. The teacher of the full gospel (“good news”).
13. The Savior and Redeemer of the world who willingly gave his life for us all.
14. The first fruits of a glorious resurrection, which, because of him, will apply to us all
15. The direct, resurrected teacher of the gospel to his “other sheep”—in other parts of this world, in the spirit world, to the lost ten tribes
16. The Mediator with the Father.
17. The revealer and restorer of the fullness of his gospel.
18. The Lord who will come again and reign during the Millennium.
19. Our judge.
20. Our father, if we accept him and live his commandments.

Sometimes little children (whom Christ told us to be like) can say simply what we try to say complexly, as when I asked my four-year-old daughter:
“Who is Jesus?”
“Our brother.”
“Why did he come to earth?”
“To show us how to love each other and to show us how it works when we die.”
“What is he doing now?”
“Taking care of us from way up there.”