God in the Flesh, or Just a Good Man?

April 12, 2015


C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “I am trying here to prevent anyone 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. 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 — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — 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.

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… Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”

SERIES TEXT

Matthew 16:15-16, “15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

C.S. LEWIS’ TRILEMMA

  • OPTION ONE, LIAR: Jesus knew what He was saying wasn’t true. Example: John 14:6, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'”
  • OPTION TWO, LUNATIC: Jesus was not in His right mind. Example: Matthew 25:31, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.”
  • OPTION THREE, LORD: Jesus was speaking the truth. Example: John 3:13-16, “13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven —the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

EIGHT PROOFS FOR JESUS’ DIVINITY

  1. Proof from the Torah (Genesis-Deutoronomy)
  2. Proof from the Jewish Prophets
  3. Proof from the Psalms of David
  4. Proof from the Life of Jesus
  5. Proof from the Disciples of Jesus
  6. Proof from Paul
  7. Proof from Early Church History
  8. Proof from Non-Christian History

Further Study: “The Case for Christ,” book and video, by Lee Strobel. Thirty lessons on the Doctrine of Christ by Dr. William Lane Craig.

I. PROOF FROM THE TORAH

  1. THE LORD APPEARED TO ABRAHAM: Genesis 18:1-2, “1 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.”
  2. THE LORD MET WITH MOSES FACE TO FACE: Exodus 33:11, “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.”
  3. NO ONE HAS SEEN THE FATHER: Exodus 33:20, “‘But,'” he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.'”

II. PROOF FROM THE JEWISH PROPHETS

  1. THE SON OF MAN WAS WORSHIPPED: Daniel 7:13-14, “13 In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
  2. THE SON BORN IS THE MIGHTY GOD: Isaiah 9:6-7, “6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”
  3. NO OTHER GOD CAN BE WORSHIPPED: Exodus 34:14, “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

III. PROOF FROM THE PSALMS OF DAVID

  1. THE LORD (YHWH) MAKES DAVID’S LORD (ADON) A PRIEST AND RULER FOREVER: Psalm 110:1-4, “1 The Lord (YHWH) says to my lord (Adon): “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” 2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!” 3 Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning’s womb. 4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
  2. THE LORD (YHWH) IS DAVID’S LORD (ADONAY): Psalm 16:2, “I say to the Lord (YHWH), “You are my Lord (Adonay); apart from you I have no good thing.”

IV. PROOF FROM THE LIFE OF JESUS

  1. JESUS FORGAVE SINS AND CLAIMED TO BE THE LORD OF THE SABBATH: Mark 2:9-11, “9 Which is easier:to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” And Mark 2:27-28, “27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
  2. ONLY GOD CAN FORGIVE AND BE LORD OF THE SABBATH: Numbers 14:20, “The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked.” And Deuteronomy 5:14, “but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.”

V. PROOF FROM THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS

  1. JESUS IS THE ETERNAL WORD, EQUAL WITH GOD: John 1:1-4, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” v. 18, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”
  2. THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST WAS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS: 1 Peter 1:10-11, “10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.”

VI. PROOF FROM PAUL

  1. JESUS IS IN HIS VERY NATURE GOD: Philippians 2:5-7, “5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
  2. THE FULNESS OF GOD IS IN JESUS: Colossians 1:19-20, “19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” And Colossians 2:9-10, “9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.”

VII. PROOF FROM EARLY CHURCH HISTORY

  1. THE SCEPTER OF THE MAJESTY OF GOD: Clement of Rome (100 AD, Contemporary of Paul), “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Scepter of the majesty of God, did not come in the pomp of pride (though he could!), but in humble state, just as the Holy Spirit had spoken concerning Him.”
  2. OUR GOD, JESUS THE CHRIST: Ignatius of Antioch (107 AD, Disciples of John), “For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary…” “… the ancient kingdom was utterly destroyed when God appeared in the flesh in the likeness of men.”

VIII. PROOF FROM NON-CHRISTIAN HISTORY

  1. AS IF TO A GOD: Pliny the Younger (111 AD, Roman Governor), “They had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god.”
  2. WORSHIP JESUS: Celsus (177 AD, Roman Philosopher), “And their worship of this Jesus is the more outrageous because they refuse to any talk about God, the father of all, unless it includes some reference to Jesus.”

Revelation 22:12-13, “12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

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Posted in Who is Jesus Series