7 Famous Lines by Gospel Characters

Here are some famous lines said by gospel characters. There are many famous lines or verses in the gospels, but the gospel verses given below are truly essential to the understanding of God and Jesus.

“… This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” (Matthew 17:5 / KJV)

The line was said by God himself about Jesus during the transfiguration. This event, which happened during the ministry of Jesus and which was recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, was a supernatural confirmation of the divinity of Jesus. The account of Matthew went this way: “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus… While he [Peter] was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’” (Luke 17:1-3, 5 / NIV) Thus, God the Father told the three apostles – Peter, John and James – that Jesus was (and is) his son, making Jesus equal with God, and that they needed to listen to Jesus, which the apostles did in spite of their fears and insecurities and the persecutions they received from the authorities of the time. They remained faithful to Jesus and his teachings until the end.

“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11 / KJV)

This line from the Gospel of John was said by Jesus Christ who told the people of his time that he was the good shepherd willing to die for them. In chapter 3 of the same gospel, Jesus stated it in this manner during a private conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:15-17 / KJV) Jesus was saying that he was the Messiah that his fellow Jews were expecting. They were waiting for their king. He was their king!  But one who had to die on the cross in order to save humanity from sin and destruction. Christ’s resurrection from the dead confirmed that he was (and is) the King of kings.

“… I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25 / KJV)

This line was uttered by Jesus when he was about to resurrect a dead friend name Lazarus, which Jesus did. It was his personal testimony that he was the source and author of life and, therefore, he was (and is) God. Jesus, himself, rose from the dead three days after he died on the cross and was buried. And the resurrection of Christ was the one event that started Christianity. It was the one event that sustained the persecuted early church. It was the one event that caused the growth and development of Christianity. It was the one event on which the being of the entire Christendom was based. Without Christ’s resurrection, there could never had been a Christian world.

“… Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38 / KJV)

This line was said by Mary in response to the angel’s announcement that she will conceive a child – God’s Son – through the power of the Holy Spirit. It was a response full of humility from a virgin who was born without the original sin of Adam and Eve. It was a response that recognized the supreme power of God over her. It was a response full of trust in the promise that God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the patriarchs of the Jewish people to whom Mary belonged. The promise was the Christ, the savior of the Jews and the world.

“… Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16 / KJV)

This line was uttered by Simon in response to the question Jesus posed to his disciples: “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15 / NIV) In response to Peter’s answer, Jesus gave him the name Peter which meant “rock” – the rock upon which Christ built his church. Said Jesus: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17-19 / NIV)

“… Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29 / KJV)

The line was said by John the Baptist about who Jesus was and his role in saving humankind from sin and destruction. John the Baptist made this declaration when he saw Jesus was coming to him to be baptized just like the many Jews who were wanting to be baptized and eagerly expecting their messiah. He was the “voice in the wilderness” who was prophesied to come before Jesus Christ in order to prepare the way of the Lord: “A voice of one calling: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:3-5 / NIV) John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He was preparing his people for earth-shaking events which were the sacrifice of Jesus’s life on the cross and his resurrection for the purpose of saving the Jews and the entire world from slavery to sin and death.

“… My Lord and My God.” (John 20:28 / KJV)

This line was uttered by Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He did not believe that Jesus rose from the dead even when it was his fellow disciples who told him that they had seen Jesus, and this was the reason why Thomas the Apostle was labeled the Doubting Thomas. Said Thomas: “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” One week after he made this declaration, Jesus appeared before him and told Thomas, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” It was during this encounter that he made this poignantly painful yet divinely inspired confession about Jesus: “My Lord and My God” –  that Jesus was (and is) the perfectly exact image of the invisible God, that he was before all things came into existence, that he was (and is) the source and author of life, that he had (and has) preeminence over all created things, and that he was (and is) Lord to whom every knee must bend.