Have you ever met a man who is the center of
attention wherever he goes? Some mysterious, indefinable characteristic sets
him apart from all other men. Well, that’s the way it was two thousand years
ago with Jesus Christ. But it wasn’t merely Jesus’ personality that captivated
those who heard him. Those who witnessed his words and life tell us that
something about Jesus of Nazareth was different from all other men.
Jesus’ only credentials were himself. He never
wrote a book, commanded an army, held a political office, or owned property. He
mostly traveled within a hundred miles of his village, attracting crowds who
were amazed at his provocative words and stunning deeds.
Yet Jesus’ greatness was obvious to all those who
saw and heard him. And while most great people eventually fade into history
books, Jesus is still the focus of thousands of books and unparalleled media
controversy. And much of that controversy revolves around the radical claims
Jesus made about himself—claims that astounded both his followers and his
adversaries.
It was primarily Jesus’ unique claims that caused
him to be viewed as a threat by both the Roman authorities and the Jewish
hierarchy. Although he was an outsider with no credentials or political
powerbase, within three years, Jesus changed the world for the next 20
centuries. Other moral and religious leaders have left an impact—but nothing
like that unknown carpenter’s son from Nazareth.
What was it about Jesus Christ that made the
difference? Was he merely a great man, or something more?
These questions get to the heart of who Jesus
really was. Some believe he was merely a great moral teacher; others believe he
was simply the leader of the world’s greatest religion. But many believe
something far more. Christians believe that God has actually visited us in
human form. And they believe the evidence backs that up.
After carefully examining Jesus’ life and words,
former Cambridge professor and skeptic, C. S. Lewis, came to a startling
conclusion about him that altered the course of his life. So who is the real
Jesus? Many will answer that Jesus was a great moral teacher. As we take a
deeper look at the world’s most controversial person, we begin by asking: could
Jesus have been merely a great moral teacher?
Great Moral
Teacher?
Even
those from other religions acknowledge that Jesus was a great moral teacher.
Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi, spoke highly of Jesus’ righteous life and
profound words.[1] Likewise,
Jewish scholar Joseph Klausner wrote, “It is universally admitted … that Christ
taught the purest and sublimest ethics … which throws the moral precepts and
maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade.”[2]
Jesus’
Sermon on the Mount has been called the most superlative teaching of human
ethics ever uttered by an individual. In fact, much of what we know today as
“equal rights” actually is the result of Jesus’ teaching. Historian Will
Durant, a non-Christian, said of Jesus that “he lived and struggled
unremittingly for ‘equal rights'; in modern times he would have been sent to
Siberia. ‘He that is greatest among you, let him be your servant’—this is the
inversion of all political wisdom, of all sanity.”[3]
Many,
like Gandhi, have tried to separate Jesus’ teaching on ethics from his claims
about himself, believing that he was simply a great man who taught lofty moral
principles. This was the approach of one of America’s Founding Fathers,
President Thomas Jefferson, who cut and pasted a copy of the New Testament,
removing sections he thought referred to Jesus’ deity, while leaving in other
passages regarding Jesus’ ethical and moral teaching.[4] Jefferson carried around his
cut and pasted New Testament with him, revering Jesus as perhaps the greatest
moral teacher of all time.
In
fact, Jefferson’s memorable words in the Declaration of Independence were
rooted in Jesus’ teaching that each person is of immense and equal importance
to God, regardless of sex, race, or social status. The famous document sets
forth, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights
…”
But one
thing Jefferson didn’t answer: If Jesus falsely claimed to be God he couldn’t
have been a good moral teacher. But did Jesus really claim deity? Before we
look at what Jesus claimed, we need to examine the possibility that he was
simply a great religious leader?
