To say that Jesus Christ is a controversial figure in history is clearly an understatement. When it comes to His teachings, however, there can be little doubt that His sayings are amazingly wise. There is also, however, one set of sayings that Jesus makes that spark intense controversy and that centers around who He says He is. Throughout Scripture Jesus claims to be one with the Father, thus making Himself to be God. This can clearly be seen from the Scriptures below:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 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 10:27-33).
Some say can’t there be a middle ground where we can respect Jesus as a great moral teacher but not God? The great British scholar and apologist, C. S. Lewis shared why this is not a valid option when he stated:
“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
Lewis, who popularized the above idea that Jesus is either Liar, Lunatic, or Lord (the Trilemma) was spot on.
The idea that Jesus was a deliberate liar goes against everything we know about Him. According to apologist Josh McDowell: “That view of Jesus, however, doesn’t jive with what we know of Jesus or the results of his life and teachings. Whenever Jesus has been proclaimed, lives have been changed. Nations have repented. Thieves have gone straight. Alcoholics have tossed their bottles. Hateful individuals have become channels of love. Someone whose life had results like that couldn’t have been a phony.”2
And as far as Jesus being a lunatic, this goes clearly against the words that Jesus spoke and the life that he lived. They were so pure and sublime that no sane person could ever attribute insanity to such a perfectly sane individual. His wisdom surpassed that of Solomon, His parables demonstrated the most sublime teachings, and His honesty was so refreshing that no one could possibly claim Him to be a lunatic. And in the Gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus delivering perhaps the greatest sermon on positive mental health ever delivered in the Sermon on the Mount.
So where does that leave us? If Jesus isn’t a liar or a lunatic, then His life and words clearly indicate very strongly that He is Lord. And if He is Lord then the words of apologist Lee Strobel ring so true: “If Jesus is the Son of God, his teachings are more than just good ideas from a wise teacher; they are divine insights on which I can confidently build my life.”3
My friends the divine insights that we get from the lips of Jesus, as well as the rest of the Bible, are the daily manna we need to be feeding on. Not only will these words of life encourage our souls, help us to overcome the trials of life, insulate us from worry, but they will be the pillars of certainty we need to make death, not a morbid thought to be feared, but a delightful time to meditate on our anticipated transition to our heavenly eternal state in the presence of Jesus!
1 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1952), p. 52