What do we know about Jesus, a man who lived more than two thousand years ago? We know that Jesus was a son and a brother. We know that, even in his own time, he was considered a wise man. We know that Jesus led a movement among both Jews and Gentiles—a movement so powerful that it continues today, now known as Christianity.

Many agree that Jesus was a good moral teacher, a role model, even a prophet—but a man and nothing else. Christians, on the other hand, believe that Jesus is God. So just who is this polarizing character named Jesus?

In the four gospels, we learn of someone who seems to be much more than just a man. The Apostles, Jesus’s earliest followers—the men with whom he traveled and lived his daily life—were struck by Jesus’s humility, power, and wisdom. Though they wrestled to grasp the mystery of who he was, they became more and more convinced that he was no ordinary man.

At one point Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?” They responded with a litany of answers, some similar to those above—that he was a prophet. Then he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter, one of three men closest to Jesus, answered simply, “You are the Messiah.”

Peter recognized Jesus as the Son of God. He saw the divine within the man and understood what Jesus was teaching them about himself. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life; the Son of God; the one who was, and is, and is to come—and he continues to reveal himself as such to his followers today.