How do we know Jesus?

Through Scripture and Living Tradition

We know Jesus within a community of faith - which only can make sense of these sources, Scripture and living tradition, because it owns them just as a family owns its records in photo albums or the videos made at family events. This is a non-fundamentalist Catholic understanding of the Bible which makes it clear that:
The Church was here before the Bible and only the Church can interpret the library of Scripture we call the Bible, which was brought together and recognised within her faith community. Outside your family the family photo album or family videos are meaningless. (This is why the Jehovah Witnesses etc. cannot interpret the Scriptures). The Catholic way of knowing Jesus is through God's Word within his Church.

Through Revelation

First level: Scripture and tradition - sources of Revelation, one Word of God. God's self revealing happens in our human language and thought forms. This is further articulated and defined by the teaching office, Magisterium, of the Catholic Church, the official teachings put forward by the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him.
Second level: Our experiences of life, more precisely within the Christian community - not a source of Revelation but the place where it happens and where it makes sense, because her the Spirit is at work among us.

Through Responding to Revelation:

Revelation calls for a response - faith.
Two Aspects of Faith - BELIEVING THAT and BELIEVING IN
These are also inseparable, for example within the Church's Creeds.

1. I believe that there is a God - and this is easily gained through reason, reflection and looking around me and within me. I believe that Jesus existed, and there are other historical records apart from the ample material in the New Testament to verify that fact.

2. I believe in God - that is the next step, leading to trust and commitment in Christian terms - I believe in Jesus, the Son of God who died and rose for me, that he is my personal Lord and Saviour, that I know him with others in the community of his People, the Church.

3. In practice our response to Revelation is "Kerygmatic" - believing and knowing the Gospel, good news, proclaimed by the apostles, who were the witnesses of the events - especially that core event, the Resurrection. Those apostles died rather than deny that Jesus had literally risen from death. This apostolic preaching is always continuing in the Teaching Church: as the Pope and Bishops teach the discerning, believing People of God.

Through Conversion of Life

Revelation is a call to conversion. A change in one's way of living is essential to faith. For faith without good deeds is of little worth. Gradually for most of us, suddenly for some, with difficulty for all of us, we are being converted as we:
Respond to God in Christian life in the Church - sacramental and liturgical worship and repentance - Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist and Reconciliation, a gradual journey of being transformed by God's life and power - grace, that Jesus has won for each of us.
Live God's good news - by grace in our lives, together. Living the Virtues: Faith, Hope and Love - how the moral commandments are lived for God and for our sisters and brothers on our journey. That is how we overcome sins, fears and doubts, through the power of Jesus. That is how we give ourselves lovingly and lose our selfishness, materialism and individualism.
Pray - a dialogue relationship with God, prayer as an ongoing journey, an inner life, essential to any personal relationship with Jesus: knowing him, loving him more and more, day by day.
And Mary, the greatest human being, is never to be forgotten or down-played in the journey of knowing her Son. She is always with us on the journey in the community of faith, our model, our strength, always leading us back to Jesus.

Where does Knowing Jesus Christ Lead?

Eternal life in perfect joy - nothing less because for that we were created and that is what Jesus promised - and proved when he rose again.