Show Notes
If you went out onto the street to survey random people about who Jesus was, you’re bound to get a variety of answers. Some might say God, some might say a religious leader, but chances are many would just call him a great moral teacher and a good man.
But if we take the New Testament records of Jesus, which are historically reliable documents, they seem to leave us with only 3 options for who Jesus was.
As someone who claimed to be God, Jesus was either right or he was wrong. If he was wrong, either he knew he was wrong, in which case he was a liar, or he didn’t know, in which case he was a lunatic. But if he wasn’t a liar or lunatic, the only option left is that he actually was who he said he was.
CS Lewis puts it this way…
“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 patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . .”
So the next time you come across someone who sees Jesus as merely a great teacher or a good man, you can challenge them on whether that is really an option. If they’re not willing to call him a liar or lunatic, it seems the only option left is that Jesus was in fact who he claimed to be. That he really was God.
I’m Becky Gillespie from Thinking Matters and this has been your Thought for Today. For more reasons to believe visit thinkingmatters.org.nz
More from Thinking Matters Podcast
If you’re a Christian, you may have friends or family who see your faith as a crutch, as a form of wishful thinking because we want God to be real. However, what most people fail to realise is that it can often be the other way around - that those not following Christ can be resistant to it because the price they have to pay seems too high.
There is a lot of diversity within humanity but one thing which we all have in common is death - whether we like it or not we will all die. But why is this the case? Throughout human history, humans have constantly poured time, money and effort in attempts to lengthen life but it seems that regardless of how much scientific advancement we achieve, we will never avoid death.
Most of us are quick to complain when something is unfair - maybe we’ve been cut off in traffic or someone hasn’t carried out their end of a bargain. Or maybe we’re standing up for someone else who has been discriminated against based on their race or gender.
In every monotheistic religion, God is described as being loving. However Christianity is the only one to take this a step further in its claim that God is love. This is different to saying God is loving - instead the Bible tells us in the book of John that God is love as the essence of his very being. So what is the difference?
There are over 4000 recognised religions in the world today. So what makes Christianity different? Why would it make sense for someone seeking truth to investigate Christianity first?