"Who is Jesus?"

If you look at Jesus Christ with any integrity at all you have to ask the question: who was He? And as you ask that question you must take into account the words that come from his own lips. When we read the biblical accounts of his life, we find Jesus making the most extraordinary claims for himself.

It didn’t leave his hearers indifferent to him, nor should it us. Although rarely in direct terms, as this would have prematurely ended his life, he clearly claimed to be God in human form. He made it clear to those who had any understanding at all that he believed that he was God. As soon as somebody does that they force you to make a decision about them!

If someone comes to us and says, 'I want to tell you some good news, I’m actually God!' We wouldn’t just be rolling on the floor laughing at them, we would probably call a psychologist for them, wouldn’t we! We would say that they had totally lost it! We wouldn’t be likely to react the opposite way and say, 'Ok, you must be, you seem like a nice enough person, we believe you!' The point is that we would be unable to remain indifferent about it; we would either be forced to label the person crazy or truly God. We would have to make a decision because of the implications of what the person is saying.

You cannot be indifferent to Jesus Christ, he made extraordinary claims and therefore demands a response from all of us. It is really not good enough to say he was a prophet or a great teacher. That’s nonsense because he didn’t leave you those alternatives, he never intended to.

He came saying, 'I’m God.' What do you do with someone who makes that kind of claim, I’ll tell you what you do. You either believe them or you kill them. You either call them crazy and do away with them, bury them in obscure pot shots or you take them utterly and completely seriously.

If we have any integrity at all, and if we consider ourselves thinking people we MUST come to a conclusion about Jesus. Either he was God or he was mad. Which? You have to decide. You must make up your mind. There is no sitting on the fence here. You have to decide.

© 2005 Nick Cuthbert