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Others said, “This is the Christ.” John 7:41

Some people said that Jesus was the prophet, others said that He was the Christ. The Christ is the promised Messiah, the One who, from the beginning, God said would come to save and deliver His people. You might have assumed He’d be like Moses, but He is more than a prophet like Moses, because He is the Christ. It’s worth thinking about the difference.

At the beginning of his story, John tells us, “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (1:17). Jesus did what Moses could never accomplish and Jesus offers what Moses could never give.

Moses wanted to provide atonement, but he couldn’t do it. When the people sinned, he said, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sins” (Ex. 32:30).

So Moses went up the mountain. He asked God to forgive the sin of the people, and then said, “But if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written” (32:32). In other words, Moses pleaded, “Lord, let me stand in their place. Take my life instead of theirs. Let me bear their sins.” But Moses could not be the sin bearer because Moses had sins of his own, so he could not make atonement. In contrast, Jesus said that He had come “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), doing what Moses could never do.

Jesus offers us something that Moses could never give. Jesus promised, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:38). When Jesus said this, some who heard Him and believed said, “This is the Christ” (7:41). In other words, they were saying, “This is the One for whom the whole world has been waiting, the One who can do for us what no one else can do.”

What is it that Jesus can do for you that no other can do? Why is this good news? Would you want anything different? What would that be?