Question – was Jesus Christ a great moral teacher? Down through the last twenty centuries people from all walks of life familiar with the teachings of Christ have universally agreed that Jesus Christ was truly an incredibly wise and good moral teacher. His classic Sermon on the Mount, His amazing parables, His teachings on love and forgiveness, and His perfect moral character have served as the great moral pillars on which any ethical society must adopt if it wants to lead a morally upright life.
Question – was Jesus Christ God? On this question millions have acknowledged that He indeed is the second person of the Trinity and is fully God. But many other millions, who accept Christ as a great moral teacher, refuse to accept His claim as God. Clearly the Scriptures show us that Jesus indeed claimed He was God.
For example, we read: “I and the Father are one.” Again, his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10:30-33). And we also read: “In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason, they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:17-18). And there are literally dozens more verses that show that Jesus claimed to be God.
Question – Could Jesus Christ be a great moral teacher but not God? For Jesus to be a great moral teacher and have His central claim of being God not true is not an option. For to be a great moral teacher we must teach truth. And if Jesus’ central claim of deity is false then Jesus is a either a liar or a lunatic – and disqualifies Himself from being a great moral teacher. The logic here is clear.
No one has shared this thought better than the great British scholar and apologist, C. S. Lewis who stated the position as follows:
“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 was merely a man and 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.”1
I ask you to share this devotion with your non-Christian friends who believe that Jesus was a great moral teacher but not God. And don’t forget to pray for them that the Lord would show them that this is not a logical option.
1 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1952), p. 52