“Christianity is Christ. The person and work of Christ are the rock upon which the Christian religion is built. If He is not who He said He was, and if He did not do what He said He came to do, the foundation is undermined and the whole superstructure will collapse.  Take Christ from Christianity, and you disembowel it; there is practically nothing left. Christ is the center of Christianity; all else is circumference.” (John Stott)

The Bible tells us that the identity of Jesus Christ is the basis for salvation (Acts 4:12) and that only by believing in Him are we saved! (John 3:16-18; 3:36; 5:24; 6:47)

Who Did Jesus Claim to Be?
Do You Have Questions About Christianity?
 

Of all great religious teachers, Jesus was the most self-directed in His teaching and outlandish in His claims.

Jesus claimed to be the answer to the needs of people. Jesus said things like, “I am the bread of life . . . I am the light of the world . . . I am the resurrection and the life . . .I am the way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father except by Me.” (John 6:35; 9:5; 11:25-26; 14:6)  He also made it clear that He was the Messiah that Israel had been waiting for, the One the Old Testament had promised would come. (John 5:36; 45-46)

Jesus claimed to have the authority to do things only God could do.  Jesus claimed to have the authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:1-12), to give life (John 5:21) and to judge the world (John 5:22; 25-29)

Jesus claimed to be God!  He equated One’s response to Him with their response to God. In John’s Gospel we hear Him say that to know Him was to know God (John 8:19; 14:7), to see Him was to see God (John 14:9); to believe in Him was to believe in God (John 12:45); to hate Him was to hate God (John 15:23); to fail to honor Him was to fail to honor God (John 5:23).
(Notice that He does not say one’s view of Him is like one’s view of the Father.  No, He says that one’s view of Him is equal to one’s view of the Father.  He does not claim to be like God, but to be God.)

Repeatedly in John 8, Jesus makes clear statements that He was God. (John 8:12; 18-19; 23-24; 28; 42; 47). Three times in John 8, vs. 24; 28; 58; He claims to be the “I am” of Exodus 3:13-14. Notice the Jew’s response to His words in John 10:30-33:  “I and My Father are one.”

The Jews definitely understood that He was claiming to be God because they picked up stones to stone Him.  Then the Jews took up stone again to stone Him.  Jesus answered them, “Many good word I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 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.”

  Our Choice Concerning His Identity  
 

FACT: Jesus claimed to be God
CHOICE: Jesus clearly and repeatedly claimed to be God. This is a fact. So we are left with choosing whether such a claim is true or false.

A. His claims are false: He is not God. If you do not believe that He is God, then of course His claim is false. If this is the case, you are left with two choices, either:

- 1. He thought He was God, but was mistaken. Jesus was a lunatic. If I believed I was God and went around claiming to be God though I was not God, I would be mentally unstable. Such a delusion of grandeur is a symptom of mental illness. For a person to live in the monotheistic Jewish culture and claim to be God would be absolutely crazy, because it was absolutely suicidal.

- 2. He knew He was not God, but He lied: Jesus was a liar.  If you are uncomfortable with calling Jesus a lunatic, yet do not believe He is God then you only have one other choice.  If , when Jesus made His claims, He knew that He really was not God, then He was a liar.  If He was lying, He was also a hypocrite, because He told other people to be honest regardless of the cost, while He Himself lived a total lie. Beyond that, He was also the worst type of person possible because He told others to trust Him and believe On Him for their eternal destiny.  He also was profoundly foolish because such claims led to His execution.

B. His claims are true:  He is God!  If you do not believe that He is God, it is impossible to accept Him as some great moral teacher.  Great moral teachers are not liars or lunatics at the same time they are great moral teachers.

- 1. Because He is God, He had every right and obligation to claim to be so: Jesus is Lord.  But before you say that Jesus is God, that He is the Lord, realize that such a statement has deeply significant moral implications.  If He is Lord, you had better be willing to do what He says.

Jesus is Lord!

For us the concept of Lord is kind of unfamiliar. It means Master or Boss. I like to think of the Lordship of Christ as turning over the driver’s seat of my life to Him. If He is in the driver’s seat, He can call the shots and make the decisions. I will go along with what He wants.

Prayer to accept Christ as Lord and Savior of your life:

 
Dear Lord Jesus

I know that I have sinned and cannot save myself.
I believe that you are God,
And that as God you died to pay for all my sins
And that you rose from the dead to give me eternal life.
Right now I ask you to forgive me of my sins
I ask you to sit in the driver’s seat of my life.
And I ask you to give me eternal life.   Amen.

 
If you desire more information about accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior or information about our Discipleship Classes, call us at 330-637-1421 or email Pastor Dan Barker at PastorDanBarker@neo.rr.com