There is a deeply rooted conviction that the Christian message is bound up with the life and character of Jesus of Nazareth. Today some professing Christians find that an intellectual understanding of God and experience of God's activity raise hosts of awkward questions; nevertheless they cling tenaciously to the conviction that by reading the gospels' accounts of the life of Jesus we gain our clearest understanding of God. Did not the Johannine Christ say, ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14: 9)? Most Christians accept that the gospel message is spelt out in nuce in the life, teaching and suffering of Jesus of Nazareth.

For many Christians, the Christian life involves attempting to emulate the kindness and goodness of Jesus. Stories of the ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ are still prominent in Christian education of the very young. Missionary preaching in non-Christian societies frequently takes the character of Jesus as its starting point; Mark's Gospel, not a Pauline epistle, is usually the first book to be translated. Many who reject Christian convictions about Jesus would acknowledge that Jesus is a classic martyr figure: he went about doing good and healing people, but his intentions were misunderstood and he was rejected and put to death.

In sophisticated scholarly circles we find the same continued fascination with the character of Jesus. Motifs such as ‘Jesus as the Man for others’ and, indeed, the humanity of Jesus in general, feature prominently in the work of many contemporary systematic theologians.