I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
We are faced, then, with a frightening alternative. This man we are talking about either was (and is) just what He said, or else a lunatic, or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form. (C.S. Lewis)
I am reading this morning John 14. Here are two statements from Jesus...
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
9b "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."
I was reminded of C.S. Lewis' argument I heard a few years ago and thought I would share it with you incase you haven't heard it. Can you imagine coming up to me and saying, "Scott, you say God is real, you say you know Him; well then, show me God the Father!" And I say to you, "hey look at me, when you look at me, you ARE looking at God!"
If that statement came out of my mouth, I would either be a liar (because I know I am not God, but am telling you that I am). Or I would be a lunatic (because I am telling you that I am God, and I actually think that I am, but I am not). Or I am Lord (I am exactly who I say I am).
Who do you say Jesus is?
There is one other option - Legend.
ReplyDeleteI think most non-Christians, when asked about that sentence from Jesus about seeing the father, would say "I don't think Jesus actually said that."
Thanks for the interesting comment jamsco. After I became a Christian I took a short course on Textural Criticism to learn of the reliability of the New Testament. One of the things I learned is that the manuscript evidence for the sayings of Jesus is overwhelming. Not even non-Christian scholars question the accuracy of Jesus' sayings. If a person is unwilling to believe reliable and trustworthy evidence, their problem is a moral one. They don't want to believe because of the consequence it will mean for their life.
ReplyDeleteI can say that I don't think you jamsco actually said the above sentence, yet it is still there typed in Romans font for me to look at every day. Maybe if I delete it, I won't have to believe what you think is true :- )
I agree that there is much evidence that Christ said those words - which is why I'm in the 'Jesus is Lord' camp.
ReplyDeleteBut my guess is that of those people who aren't Christians - 90% believe that the words of Christ in the Bible are not reliable and they would say that Christ never claimed to be God.