Who is Jesus?
“ A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher … Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” — C.S. Lewis
I was rushing through the grocery store picking up a few things for dinner. Time has moved a lot faster since our son was born and my mind was already moving to the next task, but as I passed the checkout line a magazine caught my eye. It was a copy of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in History. Now, full disclosure, I love history, so I was already intrigued, but then I saw someone in the top right corner, there He was, Jesus, sandwiched between Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.
If it is possible to be both impressed and insulted at the same time that would be an accurate description of my thoughts. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect to see Jesus on the cover of any magazine, that was impressive, but as a Jesus follower for several years now, comparing him with the likes of others who have changed history is selling Jesus way short.
The quote at the top of this page from C.S. Lewis helps bring things into perspective. Lewis said, “A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher… Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” Sure, Jesus said things like “Love your neighbor,” “Love your enemies,” and “Do to others what you would like them to do to you.” You can indeed take selective quotes from Jesus and view him as a great moral teacher, but what happens if you choose to look at everything Jesus said and who He claimed to be? I think there are some things you might have forgotten about. Let’s take a look.
Jesus claimed to be God. Now for those of you reading who are followers of Jesus, this will come as no great shock to you, but stay with me, I think we lose the magnitude of how significant this claim is. For those reading who are not followers of Jesus, stick with me, leave a comment if you disagree, I want to hear from you.
To illustrate the significance of this claim I want you to think about a famous person that is well respected by everyone. (It’s harder than you think) Do you have one yet? Ok if you don’t you can use mine, Billy Graham. Now let’s imagine that one day as Mr. Graham was walking to speak, he looked at a man and said, “Sir, your sins are forgiven.” Maybe you could write that off as a misunderstanding, but then you started to hear rumors that people were referring to him as the son of God and he wasn’t correcting them. That would be a little harder to explain. To put things over the top, one day while you were in the crowd you heard Mr. Graham refer to himself as God.I don't care how big a fan of that person you are, in that moment they would go from inspirational to insane, and we would later be telling our kids and grand-kids stories of the amazing things they did until the day they claimed to be God and went crazy. Somehow we forget Jesus did all of these things.
Jesus went around forgiving sins, never corrected those who said he was the Son of God, and in John 8, He claims to be God. You might be asking why no one thought Jesus was crazy? They did, they said he was demon-possessed, questioned his authority to say such things, and tried to kill Him. Spoiler alert: they eventually succeeded in killing Jesus because of those claims to be the Son of God, but in Acts 3 one of His followers says, “You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead.”
The claims Jesus made about Himself are either true or they are not, but just as it is impossible to separate absurd claims to be God from a person today it was then. He cannot be crazy and a great teacher. So, how can we know which is true? It starts with knowing Jesus really existed and knowing the resurrection really happened. If those are true then we must ask how this should influence how we live our lives? Over the next four weeks, we are going to answer those questions.
I am excited to start this blog, along with my brother Jonathan, as a way to answer those questions and provide a resource to anyone with questions about what we believe and how the Bible should shape our life and thinking. Jonathan teaches an Apologetics class and has for the past two years. Next week he will answer the question, Did Jesus exist? Maybe someone has asked you recently, head back here next Tuesday to find an answer for them.
In Matthew 16, Jesus asks his followers who people said He was. They answered and I imagine it was pretty easy to do so, they were just relaying information after all. Then Jesus turned the question, He said, “But who do you say I am?” That requires more thought. That means I have to decide about this man Jesus. Each one of us will have to make that decision someday, so why not now?
Who do you say Jesus is?
Garrett M.
