Is Jesus God?

Is Jesus God?


Have you ever met a man with such personal magnetism that he is always the center of attention? Possibly his personality or intelligence---but something about him is enigmatic. Well, that’s the way it was two thousand years ago with Jesus Christ. But it wasn’t merely Jesus’ personality that captivated his followers. Those who witnessed his words and life tell us that even though he was human, he was remarkably different from all other men.



Eyewitnesses tell us that Jesus was a man who grew physically, ate, slept, felt pain, and eventually died. They report he walked on water, calmed storms, healed the blind and lame, and raised the dead. And they tell us that Jesus appeared alive to them after his death on the cross.



Jesus’ greatness was obvious to all those who saw and heard him. But, whereas most great people simply fade into history books, Jesus of Nazareth is still the focus of numerous books and media controversy. And much of that controversy revolves around the radical claims Jesus made about himself.



As an unheralded carpenter from an obscure Galilean village in what is modern day Israel, Jesus made claims that, if true, have profound implications on our lives. Jesus said that those who have seen him, have seen God, and that the way to God is through him---alone. According to Jesus, you and I are special, part of a grand cosmic scheme, with him as the center of it all. These and other claims like it them stunned everyone who heard them uttered.



It was primarily Jesus’ outrageous claims that caused him to be viewed as a threat by both the Roman authorities and the Jewish hierarchy. Although he was an outsider with no credentials or political powerbase, within three years, Jesus changed the world for the next 20 centuries. Some opponents of Christianity have labeled Jesus a myth. But scholars overwhelmingly acknowledge him as a real person; no myth has ever made an impact on our world like Jesus Christ (see http://www.y-jesus.com/bornid_1.php). Other moral and religious leaders have left an impact---but nothing like that unknown carpenter from Nazareth.



What was it about Jesus Christ that made the difference? Was he merely a great man, or something more? Some believe he was merely a great moral teacher; others believe he was simply the leader of the world’s greatest religion. But many believe something far more.



After carefully examining Jesus’ life and words, former Oxford professor and skeptic C. S. Lewis came to a startling conclusion that altered the course of his life. Others who have taken the time to look closely at this one Christians call the “Son of God” have drawn life-impacting conclusions. So who is the real Jesus? Let’s take a closer look.



As we take a deeper look at the world’s most controversial person, we begin by asking: could Jesus have been merely a great moral teacher?
Great Moral Teacher?


Almost all scholars acknowledge that Jesus was a great moral teacher. In fact, his brilliant insight into human morality is an accomplishment recognized even by those of other religions. In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Jewish scholar Joseph Klausner wrote, “It is universally admitted … that Christ taught the purest and sublimest ethics … which throws the moral precepts and maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade.”1



Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has been called the most superlative teaching of human ethics ever uttered by an individual. In fact, much of what we know today as “equal rights” actually is the result of Jesus’ teaching. Historian Will Durant said of Jesus that “he lived and struggled unremittingly for ‘equal rights’; in modern times he would have been sent to Siberia. ‘He that is greatest among you, let him be your servant’—this is the inversion of all political wisdom, of all sanity.”2



Some have tried to separate Jesus’ teaching on ethics from his claims about himself, believing that he was simply a great man who taught lofty moral principles. This was the approach of one of America’s Founding Fathers.



“President Thomas Jefferson, ever the enlightened rationalist, sat down in the White House with two identical copies of the New Testament, a straight-edge razor, and a sheaf of octavo-size paper. Over the course of a few nights, he made quick work of cutting and pasting his own Bible, a slim volume he called ‘”The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth.’” After slicing away every passage that suggested Jesus’ divine nature, Jefferson had a Jesus who was no more and no less than a good, ethical guide.”3



Ironically, Jefferson’s memorable words in the Declaration of Independence were rooted in Jesus’ teaching that each person is of immense and equal importance to God, regardless of sex, race, or social status. The famous document sets forth, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …”



But the question Jefferson never addressed is: how could Jesus have been a great moral leader if he lied about being God? So perhaps he wasn’t really moral after all, but his motive was to begin a great religion. Let’s see if that explains Jesus’ greatness.


Great Religious Leader?


Did Jesus deserve the title of “great religious leader”? Surprisingly, Jesus never claimed to be a religious leader. He never got into religious politics or pushed an ambitious agenda, and he ministered almost entirely outside the established religious framework.



In stark contrast to the religious and political leaders of his day, Jesus reached out to those with no political clout, the poor, the broken, and the disadvantaged. Thus, while Jewish religious leaders and Roman rulers honored power and authority, Jesus taught and demonstrated compassion, meekness, humility, and servitude.



When one compares Jesus with the other great religious leaders, a remarkable distinction emerges. Ravi Zacharias, who grew up in a Hindu culture, has studied world religions and observed a fundamental distinction between other religious founders and Jesus Christ.



"Whatever we may make of their claims, one reality is inescapable. They are teachers who point to their teaching or show some particular way. In all of these, there emerges an instruction, a way of living. It is not Zoroaster to whom you turn; it is Zoroaster to whom you listen. It is not Buddha who delivers you; it is his Noble Truths that instruct you. It is not Mohammad who transforms you; it is the beauty of the Koran that woos you. By contrast, Jesus did not only teach or expound His message. He was identical with His message."4



The truth of Zacharias’s point is underscored by the number of times in the Gospels that Jesus’ teaching message was simply “Come to me” or “Follow me” or “Obey me.” Also, Jesus made it clear that his primary mission was to forgive sins, something only God could do. Furthermore, he claimed to forgive sins by his own authority.



No other major religious leader ever claimed the power to forgive sins. But that is not the only claim Jesus made that separated him from the others. In The World’s Great Religions, Huston Smith observed, “Only two people ever astounded their contemporaries so much that the question they evoked was not ‘Who is he?’ but ‘What is he?’ They were Jesus and Buddha. The answers these two gave were exactly the opposite. Buddha said unequivocally that he was a mere man, not a god—almost as if he foresaw later attempts to worship him. Jesus, on the other hand, claimed … to be divine.”5

When did Belief in Jesus’ Deity Begin?


The claims of Jesus are recorded in the New Testament Gospels. But how do we know whether the words attributed to Jesus were actually spoken by him? For that answer, we need to look at writings outside the New Testament. Personal letters, commentaries, sermons written by early Christians quote Jesus, using the same words as those in the New Testament.6 Textual critics who have applied such tests to the New Testament call its writings the most reliable of all ancient historical documents (see http://www.y-jesus.com/jesusdoc_1.php).



Certainly if the eyewitnesses wrote of Jesus as God, it should be evident by the beliefs and actions of their followers, the 1st and 2nd century Christians. On the other hand, if belief in Jesus’ deity didn’t occur until centuries later, inferences of a conspiracy would be strongly suggested.



Although books like The Da Vinci Code argue that Jesus’ deity was a later doctrine of the church, evidence shows otherwise (see http://www.y-jesus.com/monalisa.php). At the Council of Nicaea in 325 A. D., rather than inventing a new doctrine of Jesus’ deity, early church leaders merely put into words what most Christians had believed for centuries. For example, the church leader, Ignatius, wrote of Jesus as God Incarnate in 110 A. D., over 200 years prior to Nicaea. And Polycarp, a known disciple of the apostle John, wrote of Jesus’ deity about the same time.7



Clearly, from the earliest years of the church, Jesus was called Lord and worshipped by most Christians as God.8 This belief is evidenced by the early Christian creeds, hymns, and private documents unearthed by archaeologists, all dating to within a few years of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Their strong conviction in the reality of Jesus’ deity led early Christians to become martyrs rather than worship Caesar. By refusing to renounce worship of Jesus as their exclusive Lord, they suffered humiliating torture. Some were devoured by lions; others were burned at the stake.



Where did these early Christians get their belief in Jesus’ deity, if not from the apostles (see http://www.y-jesus.com/apostles_jesus_god_1.php)? The historical evidence demonstrates that the Christian belief in Jesus as God can be traced all the back to the apostles. The evidence further indicates that their Christology stems from Jesus’ own claims. So let’s take a closer look at Jesus’ claims.

Did Jesus Claim to be God?


Those who believe that Jesus was just a great man or prophet argue that Jesus never claimed to be God, citing the fact that Jesus never said the exact words, “I am God.” The problem with such reasoning is that likewise, Jesus never said the exact words, “I am a man,” or “I am the Messiah,” or “I am a prophet.” Yet even those who make this argument agree that Jesus was a man, and many accept him as a prophet, or even the Messiah.



Even a superficial reading of the Gospels reveals that Jesus claimed to be someone more than a prophet like Moses or Daniel. But it is the nature of those claims that concern us. So the question—and it is the question—is this: Did Jesus really claim to be God (the Creator), or was his divinity something invented or assumed by the church leaders or the New Testament authors? Two questions are worthy of attention.



1.Did Jesus actually claim to be God?

2.When he said “God,” did Jesus really mean he was the biblical God who created the universe?

It is clear that the apostles wrote of Jesus as Creator of the universe. It is also clear that they spoke of him as the supreme name and position in the universe.9 But what did Jesus claim for himself? (for a more extensive discussion, see: http://www.y-jesus.com/jesus_believe_god_1.php)



Although he was fully a man, Jesus made radical assertions about himself that, if true, unmistakably point to his deity. Let’s examine some of those claims.



In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us that he has been given the supreme authority in the universe.10 Since the God of the Bible alone is the supreme authority in the universe, Jesus, by claiming all authority, puts himself in God’s place.



In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke), Jesus speaks of his coming in the last days as the supreme Judge of all men. Yet in the Old Testament, God alone is spoken of as the “Lord” who judges us at the end times.11 Here also, Jesus puts himself in the place of God.



In Revelation, Jesus calls himself the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,” terms used exclusively for God in the Old Testament. Furthermore, Jesus clarifies his meaning by calling himself “God.”12



And in John’s Gospel, the message of Jesus’ deity is compelling. Here is a partial list of Jesus’ claims:13



“I am the resurrection and the life.”

“I am the light of the world.”

“I and my Father are one.”

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

“I am the only way to the Father [God].”

“If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”



It is not merely what Jesus was claiming about himself in these statements, but Who he is claiming to be. The words, “I am” had a particular meaning to the Jews. Hurtado writes, “Indeed, this use of “I am” …alludes to Old Testament passages where God uses the same sort of self-referential language.”14



Once again, we must go back to context. In the Hebrew Scriptures, when Moses asked God his name at the burning bush, God answered, “I AM.” He was telling Moses that He is the only Creator, eternal and transcendent of time. Since the time of Moses, no practicing Jew would ever refer to himself or anyone else by “I AM.” As a result, Jesus’ “I AM” claims infuriated the Jewish leaders. One time, for example, some leaders explained to Jesus why they were trying to kill him: “Because you, a mere man, have made yourself God.”15



But the point here is not simply that such a phrase fumed the religious leaders. The point is that they knew exactly what he was saying—he was claiming to be God, the Creator of the universe, the Jehovah of the Old Testament who had spoken to Moses from the burning bush, the “Lord, mighty in battle” who helped Joshua defeat his enemies, the same “Lord” who Zechariah prophesied would someday return to rule over the entire earth. It is only this claim that would have brought the accusation of blasphemy. To read into the text that Jesus claimed to be God is clearly warranted, not simply by his words, but also by their reaction to those words.

What Kind of God?


The idea that we are all part of God, and that within us is the seed of divinity, is simply not a possible meaning for Jesus’ words and actions. Such thoughts are revisionist, foreign to his teaching, foreign to his stated beliefs, and foreign to his disciples’ understanding of his teaching.



Jesus taught that he is God in the way the Jews understood God and the way the Hebrew Scriptures portrayed God, not in the way the New Age movement understands God. Neither Jesus nor his audience had been weaned on Star Wars, and so when they spoke of God, they were not speaking of cosmic forces. It’s simply bad history to redefine what Jesus meant by the concept of God.



But if Jesus wasn’t God, are we still okay by calling him a great moral teacher? C. S. Lewis argued, “I am trying here to prevent anyone from 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.”16



In his quest for truth, Lewis knew that he could not have it both ways with the identity of Jesus. Either Jesus was who he claimed to be—God in the flesh—or his claims were false. And if they were false, Jesus could not be a great moral teacher. He would either be lying intentionally or he would be a lunatic with a God complex.

Was Jesus a Liar?


One of the best-known and most influential political works of all time was written by Niccolò Machiavelli in 1532. In his classic, The Prince, Machiavelli exalts power, success, image, and efficiency above loyalty, faith, and honesty. According to Machiavelli, lying is okay if it accomplishes a political end.



Could Jesus Christ have built his entire ministry upon a lie just to gain power, fame, or success? In fact, the Jewish opponents of Jesus were constantly trying to expose him as a fraud and liar. They would barrage him with questions in attempts to trip him up and make him contradict himself. Yet Jesus responded with remarkable consistency.



The question we must deal with is, what could possibly motivate Jesus to live his entire life as a lie? He taught that God was opposed to lying and hypocrisy, so he wouldn’t have been doing it to please his Father. He certainly didn’t lie for his followers’ benefit. (All but one were martyred.) And so we are left with only two other reasonable explanations, each of which is problematic.

Benefit


Many people have lied for personal gain. In fact, the motivation of most lies is some perceived benefit to oneself. What could Jesus have hoped to gain from lying about his identity? Power would be the most obvious answer. If people believed he was God, he would have tremendous power. (That is why many ancient leaders, such as the Caesars, claimed divine origin.)



The rub with this explanation is that Jesus shunned all attempts to move him in the direction of seated power, instead chastising those who abused such power and lived their lives pursuing it. He also chose to reach out to the outcasts (prostitutes and lepers), those without power, creating a network of people whose influence was less than zero. In a way that could only be described as bizarre, all that Jesus did and said moved diametrically in the other direction from power.



It would seem that if power was Jesus’ motivation, he would have avoided the cross at all costs. Yet, on several occasions, he told his disciples that the cross was his destiny and mission. How would dying on a Roman cross bring one power?



Death, of course, brings all things into proper focus. And while many martyrs have died for a cause they believed in, none have been willing to die for a known lie.17 Certainly all hopes for Jesus’ own personal gain would have ended on the cross. Yet, to his last breath, he would not relinquish his claim of being the unique Son of God. Jesus used the terms “Son of Man” and “Son of God” to identify his dual nature as both man and God


Contd:

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