Who Is Jesus?

A prophet. An insightful teacher. A noble martyr. A delusional fool. A cult leader. Who really was the first-century rabbi who went by the name of Jesus of Nazareth?

Many skeptical university students scoffed at the notion that Jesus was anything other than an ancient religious leader. He was simply a man who may have had some good teachings, but He certainly was not God. A weak-minded people had built an entire religion around him.

A few Christians challenged to make a vigorous, intellectual examination of the core claims about Jesus Christ— that He is the Son of God, that He inhabited a human body and lived among real men and women, that He died a sacrificial death for the sins of humanity, that He was buried and was bodily resurrected, and that He is alive today and offers eternal life to all who trust in Him as their Savior and Lord.

Christian Apologetics accepted their challenge, in part out of pride to prove them wrong. If Jesus could be proven to be a fraud, the whole of Christianity would crumble. Why? Because Jesus’s claim to be the Savior of the world was exclusive. In fact, He made that truth central to all He said and did. Prove He was not the Son of God, and you simply do not have Christianity.

Much of the Christian faith is based on Jesus, as God’s Son, being the perfect and sinless sacrifice for sin. It is crucial that this claim be true, because only as the Son of God could He solve the problem of sin and death. He made believing in Him as a deity the pivotal point. Jesus told skeptics, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” (John 8:23-24). Later, He added, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). So if Jesus was not the true Son of God, then His offer of salvation was a sham and a lie. It is absolutely vital that His claim to deity be valid if people are to trust Him to be their salvation.

Jesus Fulfilled Messianic Prophecies

In the first century, God gave John the Baptist a clear sign or evidence to identify Jesus as God’s Son. John saw Jesus coming toward him the day after he baptized Him and said,

“Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.” Then John testified, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Chosen One of God” (John 1:29-34 NLT).

Just as God gave John a way to identify Jesus as “the Chosen One of God,” He has also given us clear and indisputable means to identify His Son through what are called messianic prophecies. These are a clear means of knowing with certainty that we can be forgiven by God and have eternal life —because Jesus Christ is God’s Chosen One to be our perfect sacrifice for sin.

Messianic Prophecies Fulfilled in One Person

Imagine agreeing over the phone to meet a distant business acquaintance— someone you’ve never met in person—at a large business convention.

“How will I know you?” you ask.

“Well,” your associate says, “I’ll be carrying a briefcase.”

“That helps,” you reply, “but there will probably be a lot of people carrying briefcases. What color is yours?”

“Black.”

“That might narrow it down some,” you say, “but not enough.”

“I’m a redhead,” your associate offers.

“That helps,” you answer. Redhead carrying a black briefcase. Still might not be specific enough. “What will you be wearing?”

“A blue blazer.

How’s that?” “That’s better. But just to be sure, can you wear red tennis shoes?” “Very funny,” your associate replies. “I’ll just make sure I’m wearing a name tag with my name in big, bold letters.”

“That should do it,” you answer. I’ll just look for a redhead carrying a black briefcase and wearing a blue blazer with a name tag. “I should be able to recognize you from a distance, and your name on the tag will seal it.”

Identifying the Deity

Now imagine God, several millennia ago, devising the plan to send His only Son to earth to be born as a human infant. If we could have spoken down the corridors of time, we might have asked, “How will we know Him? How will we recognize Him as the Messiah, the holy Lamb of God—Your acceptable sacrifice for sin?”

• God might have responded, “I will cause Him to be born as an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham” (Genesis 22:18).
• “But,” we might have protested, “Abraham’s descendants will be as numerous as the stars!” “Then I will narrow it down to only half of Abraham’s lineage, and make Him a descendant of Isaac, not Ishmael” (Genesis 21:12; Luke 3:23- 34).
• “That will help, but isn’t that still a lot of people?” “Let Him be born from Jacob’s line, thus eliminating half of Isaac’s lineage” (Numbers 24:17; Luke 3:23-34).
• “But—” “I will be more specific. Jacob will have twelve sons; I will bring forth the Messiah from the tribe of Judah” (Genesis 49:10; Luke 3:23-33).
• “Won’t that still be a lot of people? We still might not recognize Him when he comes.”
• “Don’t worry! Look for Him in the family line of Jesse [Isaiah 11:1; Luke 3:23-32].
• And from the house and lineage of Jesse’s youngest son, David [Jeremiah 23:5; Luke 3:23-31].

And then I will tell you where He will be born: Bethlehem, a tiny town in the area called Judah [Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1].”

• “But how will we know which person born there is Your Son?” “He will be preceded by a messenger who will prepare the way and announce His advent [Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:1-2]. 
• He will begin His ministry in Galilee [Isaiah 9:1; Matthew 4:12-17] and will teach in parables [Psalm 78:2; Matthew 13:34-35], performing many miracles [Isaiah 35:5-6; Matthew 9:35].”

“Okay, that should help a lot.”

• “Wait,” God might have responded, “I’m just getting warmed up. He will ride into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey [Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:2; Luke 19:35-37] and will appear suddenly and forcefully at the temple courts and zealously ‘clean house’ [Psalm 69:9; Malachi 3:1; John 2:15-16].

In fact, in one day I will fulfill no fewer than twenty-nine specific prophecies spoken at least five hundred years before His birth.”

1. He will be betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9; Matthew 26:49).

2. The price of His betrayal will be 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 26:15).

3. His betrayal money will be cast to the floor of My temple (Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:5).

4. His betrayal money will be used to buy the potter’s field (Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:7).

5. He will be forsaken and deserted by His disciples (Zechariah 13:7; Mark 14:50).

6. He will be accused by false witnesses (Psalm 35:11; Matthew 26:59- 60).

7. He will be silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 27:12).

8. He will be wounded and bruised (Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 27:26).

9. He will be hated without a cause (Psalm 69:4; John 15:25).

10. He will be struck and spit on (Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67).

11. He will be mocked, ridiculed, and rejected (Isaiah 53:3; Matthew 27:27-31; John 7:5,48).

12. He will collapse from weakness (Psalm 109:24-25; Luke 23:26).

13. He will be taunted with specific words (Psalm 22:6-8; Matthew 27:39- 43).

14. People will shake their heads at Him (Psalm 109:25; Matthew 27:39).

15. People will stare at Him (Psalm 22:17; Luke 23:35).

16. He will be executed among sinners (Isaiah 53:12; Matthew 27:38).

17. His hands and feet will be pierced (Psalm 22:16; Luke 23:33).

18. He will pray for His persecutors (Isaiah 53:12; Luke 23:34).

19. His friends and family will stand afar off and watch (Psalm 38:11; Luke 23:49).

20. His garments will be divided up and awarded by the casting of lots (Psalm 22:18; John 19:23-24).

21. He will thirst (Psalm 69:21; John 19:28).

22. He will be given gall and vinegar (Psalm 69:21; Matthew 27:34).

23. He will commit Himself to God (Psalm 31:5; Luke 23:46).

24. His bones will be left unbroken (Psalm 34:20; John 19:33).

25. His heart will rupture (Psalm 22:14; John 19:34).

26. His side will be pierced (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34).

27. Darkness will come over the land at midday (Amos 8:9; Matthew 27:45).

28. He will be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57- 60).

29. He will die 483 years after the declaration of Artaxerxes to rebuild the temple in 444 BC (Daniel 9:24).

“As a final testimony, on the third day after His death, He will be raised from the dead [Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:31], ascend to heaven [Psalm 68:18; Acts 1:9], and be seated at the right hand of God in full majesty and authority [Psalm 110:1; Hebrews 1:3].”

What extraordinary lengths God went to help us identify and recognize His only begotten Son! Jesus fulfilled 60 major Old Testament prophecies (with about 270 additional ramifications)—all of which were made more than 400 years before His birth. This makes a compelling case for Jesus being the one and only person who “takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

The Probability Factor

Of course, Jesus was not the only Jew to be born into the tribe of Judah, in the city of Bethlehem, and buried in a rich man’s tomb. Is it possible that the details of Jesus’s life just happened to coincide with all those Old Testament prophecies?

To answer that question, we can turn to the science of statistics and probabilities. Professor Peter W. Stoner, in an analysis that was carefully reviewed and deemed sound by the American Scientific Affiliation, states that the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled in one person is 1 in 1017 (that is, 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000).[1]

To get a better idea of the magnitude of that number, assume you were to take 100,000,000,000,000,000 silver dollars and spread them across the state of Texas. That many silver dollars would not only cover the entire state, but would cover it two feet deep! Then take one more silver dollar, mark it with a red X, toss it into that pile, and stir the whole pile thoroughly.

Then blindfold yourself and, starting at El Paso on the western border, walk the length and breadth of that enormous state—from Amarillo in the panhandle to Laredo on the Rio Grande all the way to Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico. As you do so, you’re allowed to pick up just one silver dollar out of that enormous two-foot-deep pile. What are the chances that you would have picked the coin marked with the red X? The same as one person fulfilling just eight messianic prophecies in his lifetime.[2]

In other words, it is nearly nonsensical to imagine that eight Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah could have come true in any one man by chance, let alone the 60 major prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Unless, of course, He is (as He Himself claimed) “the glory of the Father’s one and only Son” (John 1:14 NLT).

God gave us these prophecies so we could be confident in the truth that Jesus truly is God’s perfect atonement for our sins. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, we can be saved from and forgiven of our sins, gain a relationship with God, and enjoy life forever with God. The apostle Peter

said, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 NLT).

Messianic prophecies make a compelling case for placing our faith in Jesus as God’s Son. Yet there is also compelling logic.

The Trilemma: Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?

Some say Jesus Christ’s claim to deity is not all that important. They suggest it is the teachings of Jesus that are more significant—love your neighbor, feed the hungry, make this planet a better place, and so on. They point to Jesus as a great moral teacher and discount His claim to deity. But anyone who said the things that Jesus said about Himself could not merely be a great moral teacher. C.S. Lewis, who was once an agnostic, understood this issue clearly. He wrote:

I am trying here to prevent anyone from 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 the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things 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.

Then Lewis added:

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 up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.[3]

Jesus’s claim to be God leaves us with two alternatives: either His claim is true, or it is false. And if His claim is false, we are left with two further options (see diagram).

JESUS CLAIMS TO BE GOD[4]

First, let us consider the alternative that Jesus’s claim to be God was false. This would give us two options: He either knew His claim was false, or He didn’t know it was false.

Was Jesus a Liar? If, when Jesus made His claims, He knew that He was not God, then He was lying and deliberately deceiving His followers.

And if He was a liar, then He was also a hypocrite because He taught others to be honest, whatever the cost. Worse than that, if He was lying, He was a demon because He told others to trust Him for their eternal destiny. If He couldn’t back up His claims and knew it, then He was unspeakably evil for deceiving His followers with such a false hope. Last, He would also be a fool because His claim to be God led to His crucifixion—a claim He could have backed away from to save himself even at the last minute.

How could Jesus ever be considered a great moral teacher if He wasn’t a deity? This means He would have knowingly misled people about the most important point of His teachings—that He was the Son of God.

But to conclude that Jesus was a deliberate liar doesn’t harmonize with what we know either of Him or of the results of His life and teachings.

Wherever Jesus has been proclaimed, we have seen lives changed for the good, nations changed for the better, thieves become honest, alcoholics become sober, hateful individuals become channels of love, and unjust persons embrace justice.

Consider William Lecky, one of Great Britain’s most noted historians. Although he was a fierce opponent of organized Christianity, he was able to see the effect true Christianity had on the world. He wrote:

It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice…The simple record of these three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.[5]

Was Jesus a Lunatic? If we find it inconceivable that Jesus was a liar, then couldn’t He have mistakenly thought Himself to be God? After all, it’s possible to be both sincere and wrong. But we must remember that for someone to mistakenly think Himself God—especially in the context of a fiercely monotheistic culture like Judaism—and tell others that their eternal destiny depended on believing in Him is no small matter. Is it possible that Jesus Christ was a lunatic—that He was deranged?

Today we would treat someone who believes Himself to be God the same way we would treat someone who believes he is Napoleon. We would see him as deluded and self-deceived. We would lock him up so he wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else. Yet in Jesus we don’t observe the abnormalities and imbalance that go along with such derangement. If He was insane, His poise and composure were nothing short of amazing.

Eminent psychiatric pioneers Arthur Noyes and Lawrence Kolb, in their Modern Clinical Psychiatry text, describe a schizophrenic as a person who is more autistic than realistic. The schizophrenic desires to escape from reality. Let’s face it: For a mere man to claim to be God would certainly be a retreat from reality.

However, in light of all that we know about Jesus, it’s hard to imagine He was mentally disturbed. He spoke the most profound words ever recorded. His instructions have liberated many people from mental bondage. Clark Pinnock, professor emeritus of systematic theology at McMaster Divinity College, asked, “Was he deluded about his greatness, a paranoid, an unintentional deceiver, a schizophrenic? Again, the skill and depth of his teaching support the case only for his total mental soundness. If only we were as sane as he!”[6]

Psychologist Gary R. Collins explains that Jesus was loving but didn’t let his compassion immobilize him; he didn’t have a bloated ego, even though he was often surrounded by adoring crowds; he maintained balance despite an often demanding lifestyle; he always knew what he was doing and where he was going; he cared deeply about people, including women and children, who weren’t seen as important back then; he was able to accept people while not merely winking at their sin; he responded to individuals based on where they were at and what they uniquely needed. All in all, I just don’t see signs that Jesus was suffering from any known mental illness…He was much healthier than anyone else I know— including me![7]

Was Jesus Lord? As we can see, it would be very difficult for anyone to conclude that Jesus was a liar or a lunatic. The only remaining alternative is that He was—and is—the Christ, the Son of God, as He claimed. Yet in spite of the logic and evidence, many people still cannot bring themselves to accept this conclusion.

In his book The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown claims, “By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a Deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable.”[8] The novel propagates the idea that Christ’s deity

was invented at the Council of Nicaea. This, however, is not accurate. The New Testament itself provides the earliest evidence for the belief that Jesus is divine. These documents were composed in the first century AD, which means they predate the Council of Nicaea by more than two centuries. While different people wrote the New Testament books for a variety of purposes, one unmistakable theme all the books share is that Christ is God.

The ante-Nicene fathers were early Christian writers who lived after the close of the New Testament period (c. 100), yet before the Council of Nicaea (325). They provide additional support that Jesus was considered divine long before the Council of Nicaea. They include men such as Justin Martyr, Ignatius, and Irenaeus. There is no doubt that they understood Jesus to be divine. Consider some statements from their ancient works: Ignatius of Antioch (AD 110): “God incarnate…God Himself appearing in the form of man.”[9]

Justin Martyr (AD 100–165): “Being the First-begotten Word of God, is even God.”[10]

Irenaeus (AD 177): “The Father is God and the Son is God; for He who is born of God is God.”11

The issue with regard to whether Jesus was a liar, lunatic, or Lord is not, Which answer is possible? Obviously all three are possible. Rather, the question is, Which is most probable? We cannot, as so many people want to do, put Jesus on the shelf merely as a great moral teacher or a prophet.

Those are not valid options. Either He was a liar, a lunatic, or He is Lord and God. We must make a choice. Our decision about Jesus must be more than an idle intellectual exercise. As the apostle John wrote, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

Jesus Did Claim to Be God

There are some today who say Jesus never really claimed to be the Son of God—He only said He was the Son of man, and did not make a claim to deity. But these people are mistaken. Jesus did claim to be the Son of God. He made His identity central to His message.

According to the New Testament record, Jesus repeatedly made it clear that He was the unique Son of God, an assertion that did not go unnoticed by the religious leaders of His day. In fact, that claim was the very reason they tried to discredit Him and, eventually, the reason they put Him to death: “The Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal to God” (John 5:18 NLT).

On more than one occasion, Jesus’s clear assertion of His own deity caused the Jews to want to stone Him. On one occasion, when He told the Jewish leaders, “Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad,” His listeners became indignant: “‘You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?’” (John 8:56-57 NLT).

“‘Very truly I tell you,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds” (John 8:56-59 NIV). On another occasion, when Jesus said that He was one with the Father, the Jewish leaders again picked up stones to kill Him (see John 10:30-31).

When Jesus asked why they wanted to kill Him, they retorted, “For blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God” (John 10:33).

Yet another time, Jesus told a paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” and again the religious leaders reacted with outrage. “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:5-7).

In the final days prior to His death, Jesus made it clear—even to the Sanhedrin (the Jewish high council)—just who He was: “The high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?’ Jesus said,

‘I AM…’” In response to the proclamation, the “high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, ‘Why do we need other witnesses?

You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?’ ‘Guilty!’ they all cried. ‘He deserves to die!’” (Mark 14:61-64 NLT).

All that Jesus said and did pointed to His identity as deity and the Messiah, and all of it pointed to the purpose for which He came to earth. If He is not who He claimed to be, then His teachings are either the rantings of a lunatic who sincerely thought He was God (but was not), or the words of a liar who knew He was not God (but said He was).

But we can be confident in the truth that He is Lord! He is the incarnate Son of the one and only God of the universe, the one who said, “I am the LORD, and there is no other” and “You shall have no other gods before me” (Isaiah 45:6; Exodus 20:3).

Given the three options considered above, it is fully reasonable to conclude that Jesus is Lord. Yet the solid reasoning and abundance of evidence is only the beginning. What is so amazing is the relevance of Jesus being God’s gift to us.

Personally Relevant: God’s Heart Behind the Gift of His Son

Sin may have started with the first couple, but we all are at fault. Scripture says, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned” (Romans 5:12 NLT). Our sin is a rejection of God and His ways. Yet His response to a rebellious human race is profound, beyond our understanding.

When humans sinned, was God vindictive? In anger, was He not justified to reject them? Would He forever cast them from His presence?

But instead of vindictive anger, God felt grief and sadness. From one generation after another His cherished humans lived a life of sin and rebellion. This “broke his heart” (Genesis 6:6 NLT).

Imagine God as He watched in grief and sadness as the people He created fell into sin. Today, we inhabit the very world where He and the first human couple once walked in perfect relationship. And from the moment we were conceived, our sin separated us from the life that is found in Him. From the start, we were sinners. And instead of rejecting us, He reached out to us in spite of our sin. He longed to relate to you and me and those around us as intimately as He once did to them. He wanted to take pleasure in us.

He wanted to see in our eyes the delight that only His life and love can bring. But that was not possible because of sin. While His heart loved us without condition, His holiness could not embrace our life of selfishness.

For each of us followed in Adam and Eve’s footsteps, becoming God’s enemy by repeatedly and selfishly choosing our own sinful ways instead of His holy ways.

So what did God do? He took the initiative. We were the ones who desperately needed Him, but we didn’t seek Him out. We were the ones who should have been crying out for help. Yet the all-sufficient Lord, who “has no needs…[but] gives life and breath to everything, and…satisfies every need” wanted you and me (Acts 17:25). We rejected Him, yet He still accepted us. He wanted to relate to us—to enjoy and delight and take pleasure in a personal relationship with us. He wanted to complete our joy.

So God entered our world and set into motion a plan that would cancel the curse of sin and death. He “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood —the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14 NLT). Only the Son of the living God could

wrench the power of death out of the hand of our archenemy, Satan, so that God could be reconnected to His children in personal, one-on-one relationships.

When God came to us in human form, He was saying, “You may have turned away from Me, but I’m not turning away from you. You are so important to Me that I will go to extraordinary lengths to have a personal relationship with you. I’ll enter your world and become human like you to save you from death and eternal aloneness without Me.” When it came to restoring His relationships with humans, God did not merely send a prophet or even an angel to declare His truth of salvation; He sent the ultimate gift —His only Son!

---

[1] Peter W. Stoner and Robert C. Newman, Science Speaks (Chicago, IL: Moody, 1976), 107.

[2] Stoner and Newman, Science Speaks.

[3] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1960), 40-41.

[4] Diagram drawn from Josh McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 158.

[5] William E. Lecky, History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (New York: D. Appleton, 1903), 2:8-9.

[6] Clark H. Pinnock, Set Forth Your Case (Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1967), 62.

[7] Gary R. Collins, quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 147.

[8] Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 233.

[9] James A. Kliest, “To the Ephesians,” The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St.  Ignatius of Antioch (Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press, 1978).

[10] Alexander Roberts, First Apology, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993), 184.