It’s not new. It’s been around for centuries. But today’s climate makes it especially persuasive.
It essentially boils down to “let’s cherry pick all the warm fuzzies about Jesus and embrace them, while trying to side-step the hard or demanding things about Him.”
Let’s be clear. This approach is intellectually dishonest. It’s a sinful act of self-delusion.
Over the last century and a half, theologians have put their finger right on that dishonesty by outlining what is called “The Great Trilemma”. (Maybe you’ve heard about it… C.S. Lewis goes into this in his fantastic book Mere Christianity).
Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It is inexorable.
Liar, Lunatic or Lord. Deceived, Deluded or Divine. Nothing else accounts for the facts.
To be very clear… “great moral teacher” doesn’t square with any of these options.
- Either Jesus IS God, or He’s a liar claiming to be God (liars can’t be good moral teachers)
- Either Jesus IS God, or He’s completely delusional thinking He is God (only a crazy person follows a lunatic)
- Jesus claimed to be God, and He IS God (if He’s God, we ought to obey and follow Him)
But wait, you might ask, when did Jesus claim to be God? Isn’t that part of the mystery, something that we have to figure that out for ourselves?
Nope.
Jesus was VERY clear about His claims to be God. Crystal clear, you might say.
My church is going through the gospel of John now. This week and last week we were in chapter 5. It’s such an awesome passage that I had to share John’s report of Jesus’ black and white claim to be exactly equal to God.
It starts with the story of a healing of a crippled man at the pool of Bethesda (5:1-17). The kicker was that Jesus healed on the sabbath, then instructed the man to pick up his bed and go home. To the religious leaders of the day, that was an egregious violation of the third commandment (do no work on the sabbath).
This got everyone in an uproar and they demanded to know by what authority Jesus violated their interpretation of the instruction of the Law. In His answer, He called God “My Father” – In other words, He was calling Himself God.
This one act alone whipped them into such a frenzy that they were ready to kill Him right then!
Jesus came back with a crushing argument that leaves no room for doubt about what He was claiming.
Everything I do is what God is doing (5:19)
“the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing”
Based on this statement, Jesus is claiming that everything He did was directly connected to the actions and will of God the Father. He was not an independent agent. He was not working on His own agenda.
Everything the Father does, I am doing (5:19)
“For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise”
Here Jesus is correcting the notion that maybe He’s only doing a fraction of what God is doing. Nope! He comes back and says that everything God is doing, He also is doing.
In other words, Jesus and God the Father are EXACTLY identical in action.
But He’s not done. He dives in even further and provides specific examples:
I do the things that only God can do (5:21,22)
“For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will”
Jesus points out that He’s not just talking about mundane, ordinary kinds of actions. But special divine actions that everyone agreed were in the domain of God alone.
He made the claims. Either He could back it up, or He was crazy to think He could, or He was straight up telling tall tales.
“the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son”
The right to judge in the Day of the Lord was exclusively God’s thing. But Jesus says that God had already given that right to Him. So in this case, He would be doing God’s thing.
The honor I am due is the honor God is due (5:23)
“that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father”
Jesus is not less than God in terms of status. He has exactly the same status as God and is due exactly the same honor that people give to God.
The honor God is due is the honor I am due (5:23)
“Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Just to be clear, Jesus points out that there IS NOT ANY way to honor God and not honor Him. There is no scrap of honor that can be given to God and withheld from Him.
If two things are not different in any way, then they are the same.
That’s Jesus’ point. He is claiming to be identical to God in both type and scope of action as well as position and place of honor.
If two things are identical, then they are the same thing.
He took the round-about way of saying it. But in John 5 He claimed to be God because He demonstrated that we cannot find any difference between Him and God.
That brings us back to “the Great Trilemma”.
Either He is who He claims to be (God).
Or He knows better and is lying to us.
Or He is certifiably crazy and is delusional about who He actually is.
“Great Moral Teacher” doesn’t fit in any of those Categories.
- If He’s delusional, then we’d be crazy to do what He says.
- If He’s a liar, then how can we trust Him?
- If He’s actually who He claims, then He’s far far more than a great moral teacher, and we owe Him full obedience in everything, not just a couple pithy slogans.
People who deny Him as Lord are really doing something else. They are saying “I’m choosing what I want to believe, and finding a way to make Jesus support me.”
In other words, I’m on the throne of my life, and Jesus serves me.
Ouch! That doesn’t sound so good.
So the next time you hear someone label Jesus that way, try asking them one of these questions:
- Could someone be a great moral teacher if they were delusional?
- Could someone be a great moral teacher if the record showed they were a liar?
They will probably say “no”.
Then take them to John 5 and show them how Jesus claimed to be God Almighty. Give then the great trilemma and ask them to choose.
They’ll probably feel very uncomfortable. It will make the consider something they don’t want to see. But this is the truth and a matter of eternal importance.
How we see Jesus determines everything about our eternal destiny.
It’s something to think about.
Dennis
