There are lots of differing thoughts concerning Jesus of Nazareth.
Some say there was no such person. Robert M. Price of the Jesus Seminar, says, ‘It is quite likely that the central figure of the gospels is not based on any historical individual… If you could travel back through time to first century Nazareth, you would not find a Jesus living there.’
Others say he existed but was a normal man. The Jewish Encyclopedia’s article on Jesus includes this statement: ‘There is singularly little evidence in the gospels to carry out the claim that Jesus regarded himself as in any sense a Messiah or spiritual ruler. Jesus regarded himself as typically human.’
Others say he was great man and spiritual teacher. Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘To me Jesus was one of the greatest teachers humanity has ever had. To his believers, he was the son of God. Could the fact that I do or do not accept this make Jesus have any more or less influence in my life? I cannot believe so.’
Jehovah’s Witnesses identify Jesus as an angel. Mormons say he is the physical son of God, who also had a father, who also had a father, and so on. Islam says Jesus was a prophet of God, like Moses, but not as great as Mohammed.
And Christians believe he is God. Charles Spurgeon, said, ‘Remember, Christ was not a deified man, nor was he a humanized God. He was perfectly God and at the same time perfectly man.’
With so many differing views, can we say with confidence that the Christian view is correct?
This morning we want to look at this question.
This is a crucial issue. If Jesus is not God, then Christianity is false, the Biblical revelation of the Triune God cannot be trusted, and any other religion in the world might be the right one. If Jesus is God, then Christianity – including what it has to say about my life, sin, God and eternity – is true, the Bible is trustworthy, and other religions are fundamentally in error. So this is an issue that matters.
Today I want to look at a number of questions:
First, did Jesus even exist? If so,
- What did the early church believe about him?
- What did Jesus believe about himself?
- What did other people understand him to be saying about himself?
- What else does the Bible say concerning his divinity?
- And after that, of course, there is the question: What then do I believe about Jesus, and what are the implications for me?
As to the question of whether Jesus even existed, people who deny the historicity of Jesus usually do so on the grounds that the gospel accounts (and the rest of the New Testament for that matter) are unreliable documents, that they are fabrications.
We know the New Testament to be a trustworthy document. Norman Geisler, the Christian apologist, having compared the New Testament with other ancient texts, concludes: There is more abundant and accurate manuscript evidence for the New Testament than for any other book from the ancient world. There are more manuscripts copied with greater accuracy and earlier dating than for any other secular classic from antiquity.
One of the gospel-writers, Luke, for example, took great pains to ensure that he was recording the facts. In Luke 1:3-4 he writes, I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, and it seemed good for me to write an orderly account, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
So we know Jesus existed, and we know that the Bible’s record of Jesus is not just made up legends about him.
Now, based on that Biblical record, Christians affirm that this Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish rabbi who lived 2000 years ago, is in fact the eternal God. What a claim! Wouldn’t we be safer simply to recognize Jesus as a good teacher? one who had deep spiritual insights but was still only a man? Well, it’s only safer to do that if it’s true. If Jesus is God, then it is not safe to assert he is only a man, however spiritual.
So, let’s look at the Biblical Jesus and see who he is…
We’ll start with the testimony of the early church, the very first generation of Christians.
In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul incorporates into his letter an early Christian hymn or creed that dates from within just a few years of the death and resurrection of Christ. It reads thus:
… Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above all names, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Those who knew Jesus and witnessed his life, death, and resurrection declared that Jesus was in very nature God, and that he would be worshiped and called Lord by all people. This is not legend that grew up over time. Right from the very beginning, Jesus’ followers affirmed this about him.
Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being. This English translation ‘representation’ is, in some ways, unfortunate. The Greek word is character. It does not mean ‘copy’ or ‘reflection’ or ‘facsimile’. It means that all that is God is present in Jesus. As Colossians 2:9 also says: In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.
In these and other Scriptures we have the testimony of the very first Christians, those who were closest to the events of the gospels, and many of whom knew Jesus firsthand and witnessed his life, teachings, miracles, death and resurrection.
Now, some would say that they were deceived, and that in their love of Jesus, these first Christians inflated him in their own minds. Jesus certainly never thought of himself as anything other than a human, spiritual teacher.
Well, what did Jesus believe concerning himself?
Well, when Jesus came on the scene he came talking as if he were God. He made claims to pre-existence and eternity. Before Abraham was born, I am, Jesus said in John 8:58. He claimed to have the power and authority to give life, just as God the Father has, in John 5:21. He claimed for himself the role of determining the eternal destinies of all people, in Matthew 25.
Psalm 23 says, The LORD is my shepherd. Jesus said in John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd.
Isaiah 40:8 says, the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. In Matthew 24:35 Jesus said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Jesus spoke of ‘his’ angels and ‘his’ kingdom. He said he and the Father were One. He said to have seen him was to see God the Father. He said to know him was to know the Father.
Now, these are not the kinds of things a great, spiritual leader says if they are not true.
C.S. Lewis’ comment on this is well-known:
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… 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.
Jesus’ comments about himself clearly indicate that he understood himself to be God.
But it’s not only what he said that is of interest here. It is what he did not say on certain occasions. Remember the strict monotheism of the Jews. The bedrock of Judaism (and Christianity, and also Islam for that matter) is that there is only One who is worthy of worship, and that is the one God. The first two of the ten commandments are that they should have no other gods except God, and they should not make idols and worship them.
In Isaiah 42: 8 God says, I will not give my glory to another.
In Revelation 19:10 an angel says to John the Apostle, Do not worship me! I’m only a servant, like you. Worship God.
Deuteronomy 6:13-14 says serve the Lord your God only… do not follow other gods.
Then notice several interesting episodes from Jesus’ life:
In John chapter 9, Jesus heals a man born blind, and in verse 38, believing that Jesus who healed him is the Son of Man, ie. the promised divine Messiah, he worships Jesus.
In Matthew 14, the disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat. Jesus has remained behind and sent them on ahead. But a brutal storm comes up, and the disciples are unable to make headway. Then they see what looks like a ghost walking across the water to them. It is Jesus, and he says to them, Don’t be afraid. When he reaches them he gets into the boat, and the storm immediately is stilled. And the gospel records: Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’
In Matthew 28, after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, he meets some of his women followers on their way to tell his disciples of the empty tomb. He greets them, and they fall to his feet and worship him.
In John 20, the disciple Thomas, skeptical of Jesus’ resurrection, is present with the disciples when Jesus appears to them. Jesus tells Thomas to touch his wounds. Thomas does so and responds saying to Jesus, ‘My Lord and my God.’
Now, if Jesus was a good spiritual teacher, but not divine, how would he have responded on these occasions? Surely he would have said, ‘Whoa, let’s not take this too far. Remember, worship God alone.’ It is interesting and instructive that Jesus does not say this. Instead he seems to receive their worship. Jesus appears to think that it is appropriate for him to be worshiped. This would be blasphemy of the first-order if he were not God. Remembering CS Lewis’ words, if it is not outright blasphemy, then it is surely evidence that Jesus is delusional. Or, that he is God.
Notice also, then, what other people understood Jesus to be claiming.
In Mark 2 a paralyzed man is brought to Jesus for healing, but Jesus’ first words to him are: Son, your sins are forgiven. Some of the bystanders are appalled, and say, Why is this fellow talking like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? In other words, they recognize that Jesus is claiming authority for himself that belongs to God alone. Jesus knew what they were thinking, and it was a perfect opportunity to clarify and set them straight and say, ‘Hey, I’m not claiming to be God or anything…’ Instead, what does he do? He says, What is easier: to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’? But to prove that I have authority to forgive sins… and he proceeds to heal the paralyzed man. In other words, he says, ‘You’re right! Only God has authority to forgive sins. And look: I have that authority.’
In John 5:18, the people are trying to cause him grief because they understood him to be putting himself on an equal plane with God.
In John 8:58, Jesus applies the divine name of God – ‘Yahweh’: I AM – to himself and the people got ready to stone him for blasphemy.
Later, in John 10:33 again the people want to stone him and when Jesus asks them why they answer, Because you, a mere man, claim to be God.
When they brought him before Pontius Pilate, their accusation was this: We have a law, and according to that law, he must die, because he claimed to be the son of God.
The people who heard and interacted with Jesus had no doubts about what they heard. He was a man claiming to be divine. As I mentioned, some people today would say, ‘That Jesus is God is something his followers came up with, but Jesus never considered himself divine.’ But to say that is to ignore the evidence. Jesus clearly believed himself to be fully divine.
So CS Lewis is right to say that seeing Jesus as a great human teacher is not an option. Saying what he did, Jesus was either crazy, evil, or was telling the truth. Jesus comments about himself, and his response to people’s worship of him, clearly reveal that this was a man saying: ‘I am eternal and divine’. That is certainly what those who knew him heard him saying.
Some other Scriptures:
John 1:1-3 says that the Word, Jesus, was with God and was God, and that everything that exists was made through him.
Colossians 1 says that all things were made by Jesus, and for Jesus, things visible and invisible, in heaven and earth, even spiritual beings.
Isaiah 44:6 says, This is what the LORD says, Israel’s king and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty, ‘I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.’
In Revelation 1:8 we read, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. In Revelation 21:6 He who was seated on the throne said, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. And in Revelation 22:13, the risen and glorified Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
The last strand of Biblical evidence is the resurrection of Jesus. It was this event that validated Jesus’ divine claims and miracles. He was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, says Romans 1.
The resurrection of Jesus is one of the best-attested facts in history, with reliable accounts of the events, and eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ. Without repeating all the evidence, which we looked at on Easter Sunday, nothing other than the resurrection of Jesus fits the facts: a physically brutalized Jesus, killed by soldiers who were trained to kill, appearing a few days later as one who had emerged victorious from death… the reality of the empty tomb and no one able to produce a body… disciples who were transformed from cowards to bold witnesses of Jesus who were willing to be tortured and even to die for their testimony. How do we explain this except to say that Jesus truly died, was buried, and on the third day rose again?
There is no question that the real and historical Jesus of Nazareth is revealed in the Bible as being fully divine.
C.S. Lewis again, says, 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 quite obvious that he was neither a lunatic nor a fiend. [Incidentally, with all the varied opinions of who Jesus is, the one thing no one ever says is that Jesus was crazy or evil]. Consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that he was and is God.
Now, whatever the early church thought, whatever Jesus’ listeners thought, whatever C.S. Lewis thought, the all important question is: what do you think? Jesus asks you the same question that he asked his disciples: Who do you say that I am?
Amen.