The true vine
The theme of the vineyard is frequent in the Bible.
Jesus uses it to make understand who he is and the nature of his Kingdom. He says for example:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit [...] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing [...] You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another" (John 15, 1-17).
"A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, `Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' And he answered, `I will not'; but afterward he repented and went. And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, `I go, sir,' but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you" (Matthew 21, 28-31).
The Word
John begins his Gospel thus : "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". Also, almost at the end of the Bible, Jesus whose name is "God's Word" appears as the Lord of everything, the King of kings and Lord of the lords (Revelation 13).
Indeed, having often spoken by the prophets, God "in these last days has spoken to us by a Son" (He 1,1-2). He sent his Son, the eternal Word, to light all the people and make them known the secrets of God (Jn 1,1-18). Jesus Christ, the incarnated Word "utters the words of God" (Jn 3,34) and finish the work of salvation that the Father gave him to do (Jn 14,9). He makes it by words, works, signs and miracles, and especially by his death and by his resurrection, then by the sending of the Spirit of Truth (the Holy Spirit).
Christian economy (God's works by which God shows himself and communicates his life), new and definitive Alliance, will never pass and no new public revelation is to be waited since the death of the last apostle, before the glorious return of Jesus Christ (1 Tm 6,14).
The Way
There is only one God. He is him who called Abraham and who gave him the promise. No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. That is why the Lord Jesus says to his disciples : "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him"(John 14,6-7).
By the Son, by the God's Word, we can know the Father in the light of the Holy Spirit. As still says it Jesus: "It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world." (his only Son)" (John 6, 32-33)
Christ or Messiah
"Christ" in Greek, "Messiah" in Hebrew, means "anointed". Jesus is the Christ because he was consecrated by God, anointed by the Holy Spirit for his redeeming mission. He is the Messiah waited by Israel, sent to the world by the Father. Jesus accepted messiah's title by clarifying however the sense: "descended from heaven" (Jn 3,13), crucified then raised, he is the suffering Servant, who "gives his life as a ransom for many".
The word 'Christians' derives from Christ. Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah or the Christ, the only Son of the Father.
The monogram of Jesus-Christ. One finds there the two first letters of the word Christos in Greek (the chi and the rho); the three concentric circles symbolize the Holy Trinity; one notices also the first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet (alpha and Omega), because Jesus says: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Ap. 22,13). The 12 doves symbolize peace and love.
The lamb of God
At the time of Jesus' baptism, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said : "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, `After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me" (John 1, 29-34).
John the Baptist testifies that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who is allowed lead to the slaughterhouse (Is 53,7) and bears the sins of the multitude, and the Easter lamb, symbol of the redemption of Israel during the first Passover (Exodus 12,3-14). The whole life of Christ shows his mission: "to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10,45).
The Prophet
Jesus is at once Priest, Prophet and King: he is the High Priest of the old and the new Alliance ; he is Prophet, because he is God's Word and he knows everything.
Prophets of the Old Testament (Elias, Micah, Isaiah, Malachi...) announce the one who has to come, Jesus Christ. The last one of the prophets is John the Baptist. He says about Jesus: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight [...] He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" (Mt 3, 11-12).
The Lord
The word Lord, in Greek kurios, mean 'divine sovereignty '. To recognize Jesus as Lord, it is to believe that he is God, it is to say that he has the omnipotence of the Father: ""I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1,8).
To those who question him, Jesus answers "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."(John 8,58).
Saint Paul says also to Timothy : "I charge you to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; and this will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen" (Tm 6,14-16).
The King
"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him" (Matthew 2, 2).
During the passion of Jesus, (Pilate) called Jesus and said to him: "Are you the King of the Jews?" [...] Jesus answered : "My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world." [...] The soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" [...] Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. [...] Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews [...] (John 18;19).
The Son of God
Jesus is the Son of God the Father in a only and perfect sense. At the time of his baptism and of his Transfiguration, the voice of the Father shows Jesus as his "beloved Son". Appearing himself as the Son who "knows the Father" (Mt 11,27), Jesus asserts his unique and eternal relation with his Father. "He is the Son of God " (John 3,16), the second "Person" of the Trinity. He is the center of the predication of the apostles. The Apostles saw his glory, "glory as of the only Son from the Father" (John 1,14).
The Savior or only Redeemer
Salvation is Jesus Christ who became incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary.Nobody can save himself, but only by putting his trust in Jesus Christ the only intercessor, the only remedy, the only Redeemer, because "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4,12).
When Jesus was born, angel says to shepherds: "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!" (Luke 2, 10-14).
Jesus is our advocate with the Father. As writes it saint John : "If any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2,1).
The door
Jesus says : "He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice [...] I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture" (John 10).
The good shepherd
Jesus says about himself : "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd" (Joan 10, 11-16).
The only Mediator
Jesus Christ is true God and true man, in the unity of his divine "Person"; for that reason he is the only Mediator between God and men.
Jesus Christ has two natures, the divine and the human, without confusion, but united in the only "Person" of Son of God.
Being true God and true man, Jesus Christ has a human intelligence and a will, perfectly in accordance with his divine intelligence and his divine will, that he has in common with Father and Holy Spirit.
Incarnation is thus the Mystery of the union of the divine nature and the human nature in the only "Person" of the Word.
The Light
In the Creed (Credo) Christians assert that Jesus : "is God of God, Light, of Light, true God of true God".
Jesus indeed says on his own subject : "Me I am the Light of word".
By coming in the world, he is the real Light which lights every man, the rising sun which comes to visit us (Luke 1,78).
God is the Truth and there are no darkness in him (John 1,5).
Baptism is an "illumination", because the baptized becomes "child of light" (Ephesians 5,8).