LORD, LIAR, LUNATIC, OR LEGEND

LORD, LIAR, LUNATIC, OR LEGEND

"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 one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a 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 patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." —C.S. Lewis

Jesus made so many outrageous statements that he had to be either Lord, Liar, Lunatic, or Legend. The fifth option that he was a really great morals teacher with a great philosophy and we should all just get together and love one another is, according to the laws of logic, not possible.

(1) One possibility is that Jesus lied when He said He was God… that He knew He was not God, but deliberately deceived His hearers to lend authority to His teaching. Few, if any, seriously hold this position. Even those who deny His deity affirm that He was a great moral teacher. They fail to realize those two statements are a contradiction. Jesus could hardly be a great moral teacher if, on the most crucial point of His teaching… His identity… He was a deliberate liar.

(2) A kinder, though no less shocking possibility, is that He was sincere but self-deceived. We have a name for a person today who thinks he is God. That name is lunatic, and it certainly would apply to Christ if He were deceived on this all-important issue. But as we look at the life of Christ, we see no evidence of the abnormality and imbalance we find in a deranged person. Rather, we find the greatest composure under pressure.

(3) The third alternative is that all of the talk about His claiming to be God is a legend… that what actually happened was that His enthusiastic followers, in the third and fourth centuries, put words into His mouth He would have been shocked to hear. Were He to return, He would immediately repudiate them.

The legend theory has been significantly refuted by many discoveries of modern archeology. These have conclusively shown that the four biographies of Christ were written within the lifetime of contemporaries of Christ. Some time ago Dr. William F. Albright, world-famous archaeologist now retired from Johns Hopkins University, said that there was no reason to believe that any of the Gospels were written later than A.D. 70. For a mere legend about Christ, in the form of the Gospel, to have gained the circulation and to have had the impact it had, without one shred of basis in fact, is incredible.

For this to have happened would be as fantastic as for someone in our own time to write a biography of the late John F. Kennedy and in it say he claimed to be God, to forgive people's sins, and to have risen from the dead. Such a story is so wild it would never get off the ground because there are still too many people around who knew Kennedy. The legend theory does not hold water in the light of the early date of the Gospel manuscripts.

(4) The only other alternative is that Jesus is Lord and spoke the truth. From one point of view, however, claims don't mean much. Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. There have been others who have claimed to be God. I could claim to be God, and you could claim to be God, but the question all of us must answer is, "What credentials do we bring to substantiate our claim?" In my case it wouldn't take you five minutes to disprove my claim. It probably wouldn't take too much more to dispose of yours. But when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth, it's not so simple. He had the credentials to back up His claim. He said, "Even though you do not believe Me, believe the evidence of the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father" (John 10:38).

JOHN 1:1
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. He was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

JOHN 5:16
16. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.
17. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.''
18. Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
19. Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
20. "For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
21. "For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
22. "For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
23. "that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
24. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
25. "Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
26. "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,
27. "and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.

JOHN 8:53
53. "Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom do You make Yourself out to be?''
54. Jesus answered, "If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.
55. "Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, `I do not know Him,' I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word.
56. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.''
57. Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?''
58. Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.''

JOHN 10:25
25. Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.
26. "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
27. "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28. "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
29. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
30. "I and My Father are one.''
31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
32. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?''
33. The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.''

JOHN 10:36
36. "do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, `You are blaspheming,' because I said, `I am the Son of God'?
37. "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;
38. "but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.''

JOHN 11:25
25. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
26. "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

JOHN 14:6
6. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
7. "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.''
8. Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.''
9. Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, `Show us the Father'?
10. "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
11. "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

MARK 14:61
Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?''
62. And Jesus said, "I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.''
63. Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "What further need do we have of witnesses?
64. "You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?'' And they all condemned Him to be worthy of death.

LUKE 5:20
20. So when He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you.''
21. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?''
22. But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?
23. "Which is easier, to say, `Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, `Rise up and walk'?
24. "But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins'' He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.''
25. Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.

COL. 1:13
13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14. in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.