"Hey man, I know you're really into Jesus.
But, he's just a good teacher." Is this true?
Grace and peace to you from God the
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. My name
is Luke and I am A Christian Guy. Thank
you for tuning in today where we're
going. to answer the question, "Was Jesus
Simply A Good Teacher?" To answer this
question, I'm going to borrow a phrase from
CS Lewis –Jesus is either: a liar,
a lunatic or he's the Lord. What do I mean
by that? What I mean is that Jesus either
is who He claimed to be or He's a
deceiver or He's a crazy person. There's
not really room for a middle-ground on
this discussion, and we'll see that as we
look at what Jesus actually claimed that
He was. If He was not what He claimed
that He was, then He was very simply a
bad teacher, because who do you know that
would run around making the claims that
Jesus makes and you would consider them
to be a good teacher?
With all that in mind, let's open up
the word of God and take a look at what Jesus
actually claimed about Himself.
Part of the background for this question
of, "Is Jesus just a good teacher," is because
Jesus is widely known among believers
and unbelievers for having a high moral
standard and teaching that to all those
who would follow Him. A lot of these
teachings are recorded in Scripture, in
places like the Beatitudes and other
places in the four Gospels. Some examples
of what Jesus taught were even higher
standards than what the law of Moses had
previously revealed in Scripture during
Old Testament times. Examples of this
would be things like if you have looked
at a woman lustfully you have committed
adultery with her in your heart. Also
things like if you are unnecessarily
angry with your brother you are just as
guilty of murdering him as if you
actually had. So Jesus actually took
the law of God and He upped the standards
of it by calling people to account for
what was going on in their heart, not
just what they were doing with their
hands. But a lot of people will stop here
and they will not regard other claims
that Jesus made about Himself – they
will relegate him simply to a good
teacher status on the basis of His
moralistic teachings. Is this all
Jesus really taught about Himself? Why do
Christians, and why have Christians, for
2,000 years confessed that Jesus is God
in the flesh? Did Jesus ever say, "I am God?"
In fact, no, he didn't. You won't find any
place in the Bible where Jesus
uttered the phrase, "I am God." And
this is a criticism that's
often leveled at the Christian faith and
followers thereof by unbelievers, either
outside of religion altogether or from
different religions (like Islam or
Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses or
things like that) because they'll say,
"Show me where Jesus claimed His deity" –
they believe that the case is in
their favor that Jesus actually never
claimed that He was deity. Now He never
uttered the phrase, "I am God," but does
that mean that Jesus never claimed deity?
Let's take a look at that.
To examine the question of Jesus's deity,
we have to acknowledge what Jesus would
have been referring to in His life as a
Jew living in the first century. As
as one of those people, He would have
been intimately familiar with the
Scriptures that had been revealed at
that time – what we know now today as the
Old Testament; what is also known as the
Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh. In those
texts, we see God making claims about
Himself. Here's one example... Deuteronomy 32:39 "See now that I, I am
He, and there is no God besides Me. It is
I who put to death and give life. I have
wounded and it is I who heal, and there
is no one who can deliver from My hand."
Pay attention to the last part of the
verse. The author of Deuteronomy tells us
that Yahweh is only able to deliver and
no one can snatch from His hand. That's
an exclusive claim – a claim that Yahweh
makes of Himself. Keep that in the back
of your mind as we're going to go now to
the New Testament in the book of John.
In John 10:27-33,
Jesus says the following, "My sheep hear
My voice and I know them and they follow
Me;
and I give eternal life to them, and they
will never perish;
and no one will snatch them out of My
hand. My Father, who has given them to Me
is greater than all; and no one is able
to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
I and the Father are one." Did you catch
it? Jesus makes a claim of Himself that
the Scriptures that He would have been
raised on makes of Yahweh – that no one is
able to snatch out of His hand ;no one
else is able to deliver from Him.
Think about this for a second...if
somebody walked up to you and made a
claim that only could be attributed to
God, could you call that person a good
teacher or would you have to call that
person something more than that? Well, in
fact, Jesus was actually talking to a
group of people, a group of Jews when He
made this statement.
How did they interpret what He just
told them? Let's keep reading. "The Jews
picked up stones again to stone Him.
Jesus answered them, 'I showed you many
good works from the Father; for which of
them are you stoning me?' The Jews
answered Him, 'For a good work we do not
stone you, but for blasphemy; and because
You being a man make Yourself out to be God.'"
We end the passage by seeing that
the Jews recognized that Jesus has just
made a claim about Himself that
implicates His deity. Now, the Jews not
believing in Him have noticed this and
they have accused Him of blasphemy,
because being a man, He has made Himself
out to be God. In other words, He has
claimed something for Himself that only
Yahweh – the God of the Old Testament and
the God worshiped by Christians today –
that only He can actually possess.
How do we reconcile this? If somebody walked
up to you and claimed that they were
omniscient, all-powerful, if they knew
everything, how would you interpret that,
regardless of their moralistic teachings?
Yeah, they might tell you to love
everybody; they might tell you to serve
them; they might tell you to do all sorts
of wonderful things. But, if that person
sat down next to you and said, "Hey man,
here's the deal. I know what's going on
in your head. I can read your thoughts. I
created the world," or some other such
claim, how would you interact with that?
Would you recognize that this person is
a good teacher, or would you recognize
that this person is either immensely
deceived and they're lying to you,
they're crazy or maybe they are who they
claim to be.
Another way to answer this question is
to look at other claims that Jesus made
about Himself, presupposing the
attributes of God. For our next passage
we're going to turn to John 17. In
John 17, beginning at verse 1,
the Bible says that, "Jesus spoke these things
and lifting His eyes up to heaven, He
said, 'Father, the hour has come glorify
your Son, that the Son may glorify You,
even as you gave Him authority over all
flesh, to all whom you have given Him, He
may give eternal life." Now let's stop
there for a second. Imagine going before
God and saying, "God, glorify me!" What do
you think the response is going to be to
something like that? What kind of ego do
you have to have as a human being to go
before God and say, "Hey God, You need to
glorify me! I don't need to glorify You.
You need to glorify me!" If anybody else
does that – if Moses does that, if Isaiah
does that, if your next-door neighbor
does that,  what is the response going to
be from God and from everybody else that
hears that? The response is going to be,
"Dude, you are blaspheming right now. You
are asking God to do something for you
that you should be doing for Him." So, we
have to look at this again; is Jesus
simply a good teacher if He's running
around toting this line of
calling Himself God or blaspheming God
by asking God...not even just asking,
demanding that God fulfill and Him
things that all of creation is supposed
to be doing for God? We continue reading
the passage, "This is eternal life that
they may know You, the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
This verse in particular is one that a
lot of people and a lot of groups that
disagree with Christianity, but like to
hold on to Jesus in some way, shape or
form, like to use to supposedly
contradict
His deity – "You, the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
Now, what do we do with this?
Jesus is obviously just referred to His
Father to whom He is praying as the only
true God and He refers to Himself in the
third person as being sent by Him. If
we stop there, that might make a very
good case to suggest that Jesus is, in
fact, not deity; at least not in the same
way that the Father was. But, to get a
full reading of this passage, we can't
just read one verse in complete
isolation. We have to read the entirety
of what the Scriptures say. So, what do
the Scriptures continue to say? We
continue, "I glorified You on the earth,
having accomplished the work which You
have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify
Me together with Yourself, with the glory
which I had with You before the world
was." Jesus does it again – He goes before
his Father, God and He says, "Father,
glorify Me with the glory that I have
with You." Now, let's stop there. That's not
the extent of what Jesus says, but we're
going to pause there for a second, because
in two verses in this one passage, Jesus
has gone before God and He has said, "God
glorify Me." He makes an imperative
statement; He is not asking God, He is
demanding that God glorify Him with the
same kind of glory that God Himself is
due. What kind of creature, what kind of
human being can go before God and make
this kind of a statement in pure
righteousness and be without sin in
doing so? But the passage doesn't stop
there; did you catch what the rest of it
says? Jesus says, "Father, glorify Me with
the glory I had with You before the
world was." Which attribute is Jesus
claiming for Himself here when He says,
"before the world was?" He's claiming
eternality. The only being that can be
eternal is God.
If there is any other being that claims
to be eternal,
they are blaspheming God, because that is
an attribute that they do not possess.
They are created if they are not eternal.
Therefore, for them to claim eternality
is blasphemy against God. So, if you are
claiming eternality, it must mean that
you are asserting yourself as divinity.
And, moreover, if you're eternal,
it also means that you possess a very
specific role, to have existed before the
world was. Because what does the
scripture say? "In the beginning, God..." Jesus
would have been intimately familiar with
what Genesis says in the very first
verse of the Bible – "In the beginning, God..."
Ao God is around, and He is the only
thing that is around before anything was
created, which means that He is the
Creator. So for Jesus to say that He was
around before all of this was created
and that He possesses the same kind of
glory due to him as his Father, who is
always confessed as God, we have to
acknowledge that Jesus is making very
very lofty claims about Himself; claims
that can't simply be reconciled as being
a good teacher.
Another way to establish Jesus's
divinity, or lack thereof, is to look at
His favorite title for Himself.
Repeatedly throughout all of the Gospels,
Jesus calls himself the Son of Man.
Many people have a little bit of an
uncomfortable feeling about this because
they don't know why, Jesus, would you be
calling Yourself the Son of Man...doesn't
that affirm You as a human being?
Christians confess that Jesus is the Son
of God, so why does Jesus run around
calling himself the Son of Man so often?
Again, a lot of people will point to this
supposedly to establish that Jesus was
not divine; that He was just a human
being, although a special one (depending
on who or which religious system you're
following), but He is not God, because He
uses this title. Is that true? Where does this
title come from? To answer this
particular question, we have to go back
into the Old Testament again – we're going
to turn to Daniel 7. Beginning at
verse number 9, Daniel says, "I kept
looking until thrones were set up and
the Ancient of Days took His seat. His
vesture was white like snow and the hair
of his head like pure wool. His throne
was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a
burning fire." Skipping to verse 13, Daniel
continues, "I kept looking in the night
visions, and behold, with the clouds of
heaven one like a Son of Man was coming,
and He came up to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before Him and to Him
was given dominion, glory and a kingdom
that all peoples, nations and men of
every language might serve Him. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion
which will not pass away; and His kingdom
is one which will not be destroyed."
In this passage, Daniel is experiencing a
vision in which he sees God, described as
the Ancient of Days, sitting upon His
throne. Before Him comes a figure
that scripture refers to as the Son of
Man. This is the Bible's way of
describing somebody that looks like a
human being; that looks like a man. In our
modern parlance, we would just say, "dude,"
or somebody to that effect – a guy;
somebody that looks in all respects like
a human being. The Son of Man, though,
goes before God – that's the first thing
to take notice of; which human being can
actually go before God
like this? Second, to the Son of Man is
given a dominion, described as
everlasting; that He shall possess
forever. Now, again, who is this human-like
figure or human looking figure that's
given dominion over all of creation
forever and ever? To find the fulfillment
of Daniel's vision, we're going to go back
into the New Testament now to Mark 14.
In Mark 14, Jesus has
been brought to trial before the high
priest, Caiaphas. Caiaphas asks of him, "Are
you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed
One?" In response, Jesus says, "I am; and you
shall see the Son of Man sitting at the
right hand of Power and coming with the
clouds of heaven." Did you catch it? Jesus
just made a very explicit reference to
the fact that He is the Son of Man
Daniel saw in Chapter 7. How do we know
this? Because Jesus quotes it. He says, "you
will see the Son of Man coming on the
clouds of heaven," in reference to Himself
before the high priest of Jerusalem
Caiaphas. What's the response of Caiaphas?
In response to Jesus,
Caiaphas, "tearing his clothes says, 'What
further need do we have of witnesses? You
have heard the blasphemy; how does it
seem to you?' And they all condemned him
to be deserving of death." Just like we
saw before when Jesus says that, "no one
will snatch out of My hand," the Jews, in
this case Caiaphas, the high priest, and
those who were with him, recognized that
Jesus just made a very explicit claim to
deity – He is the Son of Man that Daniel
sees in his vision. In order for the
Son of Man to actually be in the
presence of the Ancient of Days and be
just fine, He has to be deity Himself; and
in order for Him to reign over all of
creation the way scripture describes Him
as reigning over all of creation, He has
to be deity Himself. When Jesus quotes
this passage for Himself, everybody
recognizes that it's an explicit claim
to deity and their response is to, again,
Him of blasphemy; so much so that they
say, "it doesn't even matter what you've
brought Him here on trial for. He has
just blasphemed right in front of us," and
that is enough to kill him.
It's important to remember that the four
Gospels are not the only places where
Jesus actually speaks in the New
Testament. He also speaks in the book of
Revelation at the end of the Bible. What
does He say about Himself there? In
Revelation 1, beginning at verse
17, the Apostle John says, "When I saw Him,
I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He
placed His right hand on me saying, 'Do
not be afraid; I am the first and the
last and the living one; and I was dead
and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I
have the keys of death and of Hades."
In that passage, Jesus before John makes a
lot of claims about Himself again.
Amongst those, He says, "I am the first and the
last," – in the Greek, I am the Alpha and the
Omega, as many of us will recognize that
phrase. Where does He get this phrase
from and why is it so important that
Jesus says this before John? Turning back
into the Old Testament, we go into Isaiah 44. Beginning at verse 6, Yahweh
says of Himself, "Thus says the LORD, the
King of Israel, and his Redeemer the LORD
of hosts, 'I am the first and I am the
last, and there is no God besides me.'" Once
again, Jesus has just made for Himself a
very explicit claim to His deity, in this
case quoting the prophet Isaiah who
tells of Yahweh saying of Himself that
He is the first in the last. Apart from
what Jesus makes of Himself in saying that
I am the first in the last; I am the
Alpha and the Omega,
He, moreover, quotes a particular passage
of Scripture that even emphasizes that
He is not a separate deity from the God
that is depicted in the Old Testament;
because the passage that He quotes,
Yahweh finishes by saying, "and there is
no God besides me."
Jesus instead of just saying that He
is divinity, He says that he is the
Divinity – Yahweh incarnate. Again, if Jesus
is just a creature, if He's just a man, if
He has no business being associated with
the divine, then why is He saying stuff
like this? Why is He being portrayed
in this way if he is not divine, in-and-of Himself? He cannot be just a good
teacher; He could be a very bad teacher,
but He can't be a good teacher. He has to
be either: a lunatic, a liar or He has to
be the Lord that He claimed that He was.
There are many other passages in
Scripture where we could look at what
Jesus claimed about Himself. But they all
come back to the same point – Jesus has to
be something other than just a man if He
can make these kinds of statements
without being in sin. The common
confession of the Christian for the last
2,000 years is that Jesus was the
sinless propitiation for our sins. In
order for Him to be sinless, He couldn't
have been running around saying that He
was something that and He was, in fact,
not, because to do so would have been
blasphemy against God; and that is one of
the most egregious sins that anybody
could have ever committed. So, if Jesus is
running around and He's saying all of
these things about Himself and He is
without sin, it must mean that He is who
He claimed that He was – that He was fully
divine.
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