2 Essential Questions

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When I came to Bethany Lutheran College as a student, I was confronted with what I call two essential questions. I came to Bethany as an agnostic. I was not a Christian. And the two questions were these: who am I? And who was Jesus Christ? And so when I came onto the campus of Bethany Lutheran College, I was confronted with these two questions, even if I didn’t know it.

I was confronted with these two questions in chapel, in my religion class, and my discussions with professors and with other students. It’s that second question though I want to focus on today. Who is Jesus Christ? Who did he claim to be? And that’s a good place to start, because that’s essentially where the New Testament, the Gospels, start too. You know, Jesus asked his disciples, “who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:27) Or John the Baptist said, “are you the one who was to come, or should we expect somebody else?” (Matthew 11:3) The disciples asked on the Sea of Galilee. “Who is this man that even the waves and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41) And of course, the antagonistic Jews would ask, “who do you think you are? Who do you claim to be?” (John 10:24) And Jesus, of course, would answer those questions, sometimes indirectly, sometimes quite directly. And when you look at how he answered them. We have to conclude that who he claimed to be was rather outrageous, at least very, very strange.

So let’s just take a look at some of these claims that Jesus made about himself. Let’s start with maybe some of the ones that aren’t so outrageous, but just a little bit odd. So for example, in Matthew chapter five, Jesus says five times “you have heard that it was said.” (Matthew 5:21, 27, 33, 38, 43) Then he quotes from Scripture, and then he says, “but I say to you.” Strange. Jesus, are you saying that your words are on the same level or even above the words of the Old Testament scriptures? Or here’s something Jesus does a couple of times. In one instance, this is from the Gospel of John. “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And these are the scriptures that testify about me.” (John 5:39) Whoa, Jesus, you’re saying the Old Testament is about you?

There are many times when Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man. In fact, that was his favorite title for himself. But that title, Son of Man, means much more than he was just a mere human being. You look at the context where he claimed himself to be the Son of Man, it’s quite striking what he’s really saying. So, for example, he says, “the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins.” (Mark 2:10) He says, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:8) That’s very interesting. What is he saying there? He’s saying, well, I know what the Sabbath is all about. It’s mine. He’s saying, “the Son of Man gives his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) He says, “The Son of Man is coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory with his angels.” (Matthew 16:27, 26:64) So all of a sudden it’s quite clear. It’s becoming quite clear. It should be becoming quite clear that he is saying some things that are really rather outrageous.

And then, of course, we have those other very clear statements where he says, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) Or that famous line in the Gospel of John “before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58) And the Jews knew exactly what he meant when he claimed that title for himself I am he was claiming to be the eternal God. And so they picked up stones to stone him.

If you want to do something interesting as you read through the Gospels, I would suggest this. Put a little CL next time you come across a claim in the Gospels, a claim of Christ about himself. What I found, I’ve done this a couple of times, in the Gospel of Matthew 46 times you find rather outrageous claims that Christ makes about himself. 32 times in the Gospel of Mark, 70 times in the Gospel of Luke, over 100 times in the Gospel of John. Outrageous claims that Jesus is making about himself. So let me give you an illustration of how outrageous these claims are.

There was a minister who, a number of years ago went to visit a psychiatric hospital, and when he went into the hospital, a resident from that hospital came up to him and said, “do you know that I am the second son of god?” And the minister said, “no, I don’t know that. How do you know that?” And the resident said, “well, god told me.” And then another resident from across the room said, “no, I didn’t.” In other words, these claims of Jesus are so outrageous that in the words of C.S. Lewis, you can only come to one of several conclusions. Either he was a lunatic or he was a liar, a blasphemer, which many Jews believe, or something worse. In fact, many of the Jews thought he was possessed. Or he is exactly who he claimed to be Lord, God in human flesh. In other words, Jesus has not left open to us the option that he might be merely a man, merely even a great man. No, either he is a lunatic, a liar, a blasphemer, demon possessed, or he’s exactly who he claimed to be.

Let me go back to those two questions now. Who am I? The reality is, I am a great sinner in need of a being who is even a greater Savior than I am a sinner. Who was Jesus Christ? He is exactly who he claimed to be the Son of God in human flesh, who came for all mankind, who was sent by his father to live the life that we could not live to die the death that we were supposed to die because of our sins, to rise from the dead for us to prove that he was in fact the Son of God, and that sins have been paid for and that they are all forgiven in him.

I’m David Thompson, director for the center for Apologetics and Worldviews.