What Do You Think of Jesus?

What Do
You
Think of
Jesus?

Once, in preparation for an interview period of the Bible Study Hour, the staff of the radio program went out onto the streets of Philadelphia to ask people this question: "Who is Jesus Christ?" Sometimes they asked, "Do you think Jesus Christ is God?" The answers they received were illuminating, for they revealed the confusion that exists in many person’s minds about the identity of this remarkable man from Nazareth.

One young woman responded, "Jesus Christ was a man who thought He was God." Another young woman, a biology student, replied, "Jesus Christ is pure essence of energy. God to me is energy, electric energy because it’s something that’s not known." A man told us, "I think that’s something you have to decide for yourself, but He had some beautiful ideas." Others replied, "He is one that we look up to as

our leader"; "He is an individual who lived two thousand years ago, who was interested in the social betterment of all classes of people"; "He was well liked; He meant well; He was a good man." Most people asked were just confused. They answered, "I haven’t any idea. … I don’t know. …"

The confusion that exists in most people’s minds about Jesus of Nazareth was not the only thing our interviewers detracted, however. The interviews also pointed up the fact that, in spite of their confusion, most of those who were asked about Jesus could not quite escape Him. No one said, "I couldn’t care less." Quite a few actually seemed embarrassed by the question.

Sometime before this in a Toronto hotel, Carl F.H. Henry, founding editor of Christianity Today, happened upon several newspaper reporters. He had gotten to know one of them in Berlin in 1966 at the World Congress on Evangelism. "What’s going on?" he asked. The reporter invited Henry to follow them, for they were all going off to interview John Allegro, a man who, as many know, had brushed off the Methodist ministry as a calling, had written a controversial book exaggerating the New Testament’s supposed dependence on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and who had now just completed The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, a book which professes to derive the Christian religion from the combination of an ancient drug culture and fertility cult.

It was all very strange, said Henry – "a room full of reporters clustering around a professor whose book is really a footnote on the views dominant in university circles, namely, that Christianity is not a specially revealed religion, that Jesus Christ was not really born of a virgin, nor did he rise from the dead, and that we aren’t sinners after all. Still, it was remarkable how this man – as all modern men – simply could not put Jesus of Nazareth wholly out of his mind."

Who is Jesus Christ? This is a question which men and women have been asking ever since Christ’s time and which needs to be asked and answered again and again in each generation. Jesus had delayed in going up to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, and while He delayed the people were asking questions about Him. "Where is He?" asked the priests. "Who is He?" asked others. John then says, "And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him; for some said, He is a good man; others said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people." (John. 7:12)

The One Impossibility

Who is Jesus Christ? I want to help you answer that question (in case you have never faced it squarely). But I want to begin by talking about the one truly impossible answer. The one truly impossible answer is the answer that was given first by the people of Jerusalem. They said, "He is a good man." Many give this answer today, but it is the one thing that Jesus most certainly cannot be.

Why is that? It is because of the peculiar nature of His teachings. One of their most obvious features is what John Stott calls their "egocentric character." Jesus’ teaching is all wrapped up in Himself. For instance, Jesus often spoke of the Fatherhood of God, but whenever He did that He seemed always to go on to speak of the special relationship which He had to the Father, possessed by no other. He even had a special word for God, abba, which revealed His special relationship. It meant "daddy." No contemporary Jewish figure ever used this word for God; it would have been thought irreverent or even blasphemous. Yet Jesus used it. Moreover, He went on to teach that because of what He would accomplish on the cross, and only because of that, others could come to enjoy this relationship also.

The egocentric character of Christ’s teaching is seen also in the great "I am" sayings which are so prominent in John’s Gospel. "I am the bread of life," Christ said. "I am the light of the world." "I am the door." The last of these – "I am the way, the truth, and the life" – is categorical in its teaching that faith in Christ is the sole way by which a sinful man or woman can find a right relationship to God and enter heaven.

A careful study of Christ’s teaching will reveal that Jesus considered the Scriptures of the Old Testament to have been written mainly about Him. Moses "wrote of me," He maintained (John. 5:46). "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad" (John. 8:56). Using the books of the Old Testament as His text Jesus explained to His disciples those things that were written "concerning himself" (Luke. 24:27, 44). One great example of this outlook occurred early in His public ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth. Jesus had been asked to read

from the prophets, as any male Jew might be asked to do on any Sabbath, and He had chosen to read from Isaiah 61:1-2. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tiding unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." At this point, however, He closed up the scroll and applied the prophecy, saying, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke. 4:21). This was a remarkable declaration, for it was nothing less than the claim that Isaiah had written of Him and that He was fulfilling this prophecy.

With such an estimate of Himself it is not surprising that Jesus called men and women to follow Him. In fact, He commanded them to follow Him, and then later dispatched them on a world encompassing evangelistic ministry.

The impossibility of regarding Jesus merely as a good man is seen also in His claim to be able to forgive sins, not merely sins against Himself but also against others. No mere man can forgive sins, no matter how good his is. In fact, as C.S. Lewis notes, "Unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic." We do not have much difficulty in imagining how a person can forgive an offense against himself. If a person should hit you, you have a right to forgive him. "Don’t mention it," you might say, particularly if he said he was sorry. If he steals from you, you can also forgive him. But suppose the person should go around hitting other people, thousands of them, and stealing from them. In that case, you have no right to forgive him; and you should not regard highly anyone who thought he had this right. Yes this is precisely what Jesus did.

On one occasion, a paralyzed man was lowered into His presence from a hole cut in the roof of the house where He was teaching. Jesus said, "Son, thy sins are forgiven thee" (Mark 5:5). On another occasion Jesus forgave a woman who was known to be a sinner in some open way. She had entered the house where Jesus was eating, wept so that her tears fell on His feet, and then wiped His feet with her hair. Jesus told her, "Thy sins are forgiven" (Luke 7:48). On each occasion the onlookers objected saying, "Who is this that forgives sins? Who can forgive sins but God only?" None of the observers was prepared to admit Christ’s claim at this point, but at least they saw the issue clearly. How would He forgive sins? The claim was preposterous if He was not really God.

Finally, the impossibility of considering Jesus merely a good man is seen in the fact that on several occasions He openly claimed to be God. In the climate of Judaism of His day this could not be done often or openly, for it was blasphemy and a capital offense. Nevertheless, there were times when Jesus allowed the issue to become clear.

For example, in the eighth chapter of John there is the record of a conversation between Jesus and the Jewish rulers over the relationship of Jews to Abraham. They thought they were saved because of their physical descent from Abraham. Jesus denied it. They became angry and attacked Him personally. "Art thou greater than our father, Abraham?" they asked. Jesus answered, ‘Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). This so offended those who heard Him that they began to pick up stones to throw at Him and kill Him. They did this because they recognized the claim to divinity that Christ’s words implied. At the least these words were a claim to preexistence; that is, Jesus claimed to have existed in the beginning with God before Abraham was created. In addition, however, they were also a claim to be God Himself. For Christ’s "I am" was the very name for God – Jehovah – which means, "I am that I am" (Exodus. 3:14). It was because of this claim that those who heard Jesus took up stones to kill Him.

A second example of the same claim occurs when Jesus appeared to Thomas shortly after the Resurrection. Thomas had said that he would not believe in Jesus’ resurrection unless he could put his finger in the nail prints of Jesus’ hands and his hand into Jesus’ side. But when Jesus appeared, Thomas did not insist on these tests. Instead, he fell at Jesus’ feet, declaring, "My Lord and my God." What did Jesus do? Did He reply, as Paul and Barnabas did later in a similar situation, "Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you" (Acts 14:15)? Not at all! He accepted the designation of this doubting apostle, adding, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29).

What are we to do with these claims? We cannot escape them. As John Stott observes, "The claims are there. They do not in themselves constitute evidence of deity. The claims may have been false. But some explanation of them must be found. We cannot any longer regard Jesus as simply a great teacher, if He was so grievously mistaken in one of the chief subjects of His teaching, namely Himself." In the same way C.S. Lewis has written, "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."

The Possibilities

I have said, then, that the one impossible explanation of the person of Jesus Christ is that He was a good man. But the quotation from C.S. Lewis has already begun to suggest the true possibilities. There are three of them.

First, if the unusual and egocentric claims of Jesus of Nazareth eliminate the possibility that He was merely a good man or an exceptional teacher, they nevertheless do not eliminate the possibility that He may have been mad, or if you will, that He was suffering from a severe case of megalomania. This is the view of those who in this chapter say, "Thou has a demon" (vs. 20). This has been the case with other men. Hitler suffered from megalomania. It is probable that Napoleon did too. Perhaps Jesus was crazy or possessed. Before we jump too quickly at this explanation, however, we need to ask whether the total character of Jesus (as far as we know it) bears out this speculation. Did He act like one who was crazy? Did He speak like one suffering from megalomania? It is hard to read the Gospels and be satisfied with this explanation. Rather, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Jesus was actually the sanest man who ever lived. He spoke with quiet authority. He always seemed in control of the situation. He was never surprised or rattled. He just does not seem to fit our easy classifications.

Charles Lamb is reported to have summed up the situation by saying that "if Shakespeare should come into this room, we would all rise; but if Jesus Christ should come in, we would kneel."

There is another reason why Jesus cannot have been crazy. It is the reaction of others to Him. Men and women did not merely tolerate Jesus; they either were for Him or else violently against him. This is not the way we react to those who are crazy. We may be irritated by a madman’s irrational behavior. We may ignore Him. We may lock him up if his delusions are dangerous. but we do not kill him. Yet this is what men who did not want to follow Him tried to do to Jesus.

The second possibility is that Jesus Christ was a deceiver —the view of some others (vs. 12). That is, He was out to fool men deliberately. He wanted to be a big man; therefore He made messianic claims and deluded men and women into believing them. Before we settle on this answer, however, we need to be perfectly clear about all that is involved. In the first place, if Jesus really was a deceiver, He was certainly the best deceiver who ever lived. Jesus claimed to be God, but we must remember that this claim was not made in a Greek or Roman environment where the idea of many gods or even half-gods were

acceptable. It was made at the heart of monotheistic Judaism. Nowhere else in the ancient world could one find a strict belief in one God, but this belief was present in Judea in Christ’s century. Jews were ridiculed for it. At times they were persecuted. Nevertheless, they stuck to this doctrine and were even fanatical in its defense. It was in this hostile theological climate that Christ made His claims. What happened? The remarkable thing is that He got people to believe in Him. Lots of people – men and women, peasants and sophisticates, priests, even eventually members of His own family. So if Jesus was a deceiver, He was at least a good one. He was the best.

On the other hand, if Jesus was a deceiver, He was also the worst deceiver—so much so that He could be termed a devil if He were not God. Think in through clearly. Jesus did not merely say, "I am God," and then let it go at that. He said, "I am God come to save fallen humanity; I am the means of salvation; trust Me with your life and your future." Jesus taught that God is holy and that we are barred from Him because we are not holy. Our sin is a great barrier between ourselves and God. We cannot pray. We cannot understand spiritual truth. We cannot come into God’s presence. Moreover, He taught that He had come to do something about our problem. He would die for our sin; He

would bear our punishment. All who would trust in Him would be saved. This is good news. It is even great news – but only if it is true. If it is not true, then we are of all men the most miserable and Jesus Chris should be hated as a fiend from hell. If it is not true, Jesus has condemned millions. He has sent generations of gullible followers to a hopeless eternity.

But has He? Is He a deceiver? Is this the only explanation that we can give of one who was known as being "meek and lowly"; who took the place of a poor itinerant evangelist in order that He might help the destitute and teach those whom others despised; who said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"? Somehow the facts do not fit. We cannot face the facts of His life and teaching and still call this man a deceiver. What then? Well, if He was not a deceiver and He was not mad, there is only one possibility left. Jesus is who He said He is. He is God, and we should follow Him.

The Inescapable Christ

Do you believe that? I hope you do. Or, at least, I hope you are on the way to believing it. Who is Jesus Christ? The one thing you must try not to do is escape the question.

Some try to escape the question by running away. If you have been doing that, let me challenge you to be entirely honest with yourself  on this question. You will not want to believe in Christ without evidence, but consider the evidence. Read one of the Gospels. Read it carefully and critically. Ask yourself: Is Jesus mad? Is He a deceiver? Is He God? And before you read, ask God to help you understand what is written. You do not even have to believe in God for certain. Just pray, "God (if there is a God), I want You to know that I am an honest seeker after truth, and I want to understand who Jesus Christ is. I know that I cannot be impartial about so great an issue; therefore, I promise that if You show me that Jesus of Nazareth really is Your Son and our Savior, I will obey and follow Him."  I assure you that if you will pray this prayer, God will lead you into His truth. Just a few verses farther on in John’s Gospel the Lord Himself declares this saying, "If any man will do [God’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself [on my own authority]" (verse 17).

Finally, you may be one who is already intellectually convinced of the truth of Jesus’ claims, yet you have not yet committed yourself to Him and thus come to know Him personally. If you are in this position, you should know that your position is untenable. Do not delay. Honesty demands a response, and divine love draws you to Jesus. Say, "Jesus, I have tried to go my own way until this time. I have tried to avoid You. I was wrong, and I will do so no longer. From now on, I accept Your death on my behalf. I promise to be Your follower."