Who Is Yeshua?

Who is Yeshua, and why is He so important to our beliefs and our faith? Yeshua is Hebrew for salvation and is actually the Hebrew name for the one known throughout the world as Jesus. We can say, without exaggeration, that Yeshua is truly the central figure of the entire Bible. He is also the most influential Jewish person in history.

God's intent, as expressed through the Scriptures, is to bring redemption to Israel and the nations. All humanity stands guilty before a holy God, as our sins leave us deserving of His righteous judgment. However, the Bible tells us the story of God's process for redeeming mankind, or bringing mankind back to Himself. God devised a plan by which He would provide a sinless substitute who would willingly take upon Himself the guilt of man’s sin. This one is known in the Scriptures as the Messiah, or the anointed one. This Messiah would take man’s sin and guilt upon Himself, and then, His life, death and resurrection would enable those who believe in Him to receive Messiah’s own righteousness, thus experiencing true forgiveness and cleansing from sin.

Yeshua is the Messiah to whom the T’nach or Jewish Bible (Old Testament) points. He was a Jew, living in a Jewish land among Jewish people. His initial followers were all Jewish, recognizing Him to be the one who came to save His people from their sins. Yeshua’s life and ministry fulfilled hundreds of prophecies from the T’nach. These prophecies were inspired by God and written by the ancient Hebrew prophets over many generations of Israel’s history. The mathematical odds of one person fulfilling even a few dozen Messianic prophecies are amazingly low. However, Yeshua fulfilled over 300 such prophecies.

Yeshua’s followers saw Him as a great rabbi and teacher. He perfectly lived out the standards of Torah, and His teachings revealed the true meanings and goals of Torah. He also performed great miracles out of His love for those in need. Yeshua came to His people Israel as a servant, representing to a broken world the vast and eternal love of God. His life, death and resurrection allows for us to experience real transformation as we turn to Him. He frees from guilt and from the power of sin to control us.

For some 2000 years, Jewish people have not rightly understood our connection to and need for this Messiah Yeshua. The religious leaders of His day did not embrace Him, perhaps because His life and ministry exposed the corruption and religious hypocrisy that prevailed among those leaders. Their rejection of Him, sadly, has been passed down from generation to generation. However, many Jews today are discovering that Yeshua truly is for the Jewish people, and for the entire world. Perhaps this is your time to discover how Yeshua desires to impact your life as well.