Who was Jesus?

The Light Shines in the Darkness...

Who do you believe Jesus Christ was? A good teacher? A moralist? A philosopher? A prophet? Or was he something more? Perhaps a good place to start would be to look at what He said about Himself. All Scripture quotes are from the NASB:

When it was day, the Council of elders of the people assembled, both chief priests and scribes, and they led Him away to their council chamber, saying, “If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask a question, you will not answer. But from now on THE SON OF MAN WILL BE SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND of the power OF GOD.” And they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “Yes, I am.”

-Luke 22:66-70

“I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

-John 10:30-33

Jesus of Nazareth clearly claimed to be God Himself, the Creator of all things. Now, you can believe Him or not. As I see it, there are three possibilities about Jesus:

1) He was a liar, a con man.

2) He was a lunatic, one that thought that he was God.

3) He was who He said He was, the Son of God, God Himself.

Let’s take a look at each possibility:

1) Refutation:

a) Jesus is still considered to be the greatest and most moral man that ever lived, even by non-Christians. Skeptics such as H.G. Wells, John Stuart Mill, and William Lecky considered Jesus to be the best ethicist of all time. The likelihood that the best ethicist that ever lived was a liar is highly unlikely.

b) If He was lying, then He died one of the most horrible deaths for a lie. When He was tried before the Sanhedrin, King Herod, and Pontius Pilate, all He had to do to save Himself from scourging, mocking, and crucifixion was to admit that He wasn’t the Son of God. However, He never did. Dying for a lie is anathema to human nature.

This only leaves the other two possibilities.

2) Refutation:

a) First, on a subjective note, when one reads the Gospels, even the most ardent skeptics cannot come to the conclusion that Jesus was crazy. There is nothing in His discourses that suggest it. In fact, it is quite the opposite. His wisdom, His compassion, His love for others, His creativity, His wit, and His intelligence all suggest that He was not insane.

b) Psychologists who have analyzed the Gospels have said:

“Here…rests the blueprint for successful human life with optimism, mental health, and contentment.”

-J.T. Fisher and L.S. Hawley, A Few Buttons Missing (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Lippincott, 1951), p.273.

Having eliminated the first two possibilities, what positive proof is there for the third possibility, that He really was God?

3) Simply put, the proof is that He rose from the dead as He said He would. What evidence is there that He rose from the dead?

a) All of His followers believed it and died horrible deaths for that belief. Many of them lost everything that they had. Matthew, for example was a tax collector, which means that he was probably a wealthy individual with some influence. He lost all of his wealth, influence, and even his life for his belief in the resurrection of Christ.

b) One of the early enemies of Christianity, Saul of Tarsus, a killer of Christians, became a Christian himself when he was visited by the resurrected Christ. He then started using the Greek form of his name and is now known as St. Paul. Saul had everything to lose by becoming a Christian. He lost his family, any wealth he had, and above all, the power he had gained from the Sanhedrin for persecuting the Christians. According to tradition, he was beheaded in Rome for his belief.

c) Paul records that Jesus appeared to over 500 witnesses at once, most of whom were still alive at the time that he wrote (1 Corinthians 15:6). The Gospel according to Luke was a letter written to one of Luke’s friends that recorded the testimony of “eyewitnesses” after “investigating everything carefully” (Luke 1:2). When he wrote the Gospel, many of the people who were witnesses of Christ were still alive. The only thing that the enemies of Christianity would have to do to destroy the faith was to bring forward these eyewitnesses if the Gospel account wasn’t true.

The testimony and the evidence point to one thing: Jesus was most certainly God come in human flesh.

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Some helpful online reading can be found here:

http://www.carm.org/evidence.htm