What does a Christian say to someone who acknowledges Jesus Christ as a wise man, or says he was a great moral teacher, but who does not believe in Christ-as-God: God incarnate, God in spirit, and the son of God?
I often refer to the words of C.S. Lewis in his famous book Mere Christianity: "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 the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool 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."
Lewis' "Lord, Liar, or Lunatic" argument refers us to two things. One is Jesus' own words about Who He Is. In the gospel of John, we note that Jesus uses the verbal formula "I AM" to describe himself as deity. Jesus says, I am the bread of life (6:35); I am the light of the world (8:12, 9:5); I am the gate (10:7); I am the good shepherd (10:11,14); I am the resurrection and the life (11:25); I am the way and the truth and the life (14:16); and I am the true vine (15:1).
As a Hebraic scholar, Jesus knew that "I AM" is the primary scriptural name of God. It is equated with the name Jehovah and/or Yahweh (YHWH) from the Hebrew haveh meaning "to be", which when conjugated in the singular present form is: "I AM." It also carries connotations of the Hebrew chaveh meaning "to live". When Moses asks God for his name (Exodus 3:13), God answers, "I AM WHO I AM" (or according to the Old King James translation, "I AM THAT I AM").
Jesus' deliberate use of the words "I am" combined with other Biblical, God-equivalent words such as "way," "truth," "life," "bread," "water," and "shepherd," show that he meant to declare his deity. It leaves no room for the "great moral teacher" argument. He was either speaking the Truth, or he was being deceitful, or he was deluded.
The second thing Lewis' words refer to is what Christians understand to be the sword-like attributes of the Logos or Word of God. It slices and separates truth from untruth. In a Christian worldview, celestial logos divides right from wrong, light from dark, and God from all that is anti-God (or anti-Christ). Whether we can appropriately apply the Word to our lives and walk the godly line between truth and grace is always in question. If we do not, the lack is in us - not in the eternal and Logos of the Creator.
In one of my favorite Bible verses, John eloquently proclaims his belief in the eternal and pre-existent deity of Jesus when he begins his book with the words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (1:1). His use of the word Logos has a deep personal, spiritual, and cosmic meaning for me. This LOGOS of the I AM exists in eternity, ever and always creates. HE moves, whirls, stands, binds, sustains, trancends, and reveals. I AM walks and talks where and when HE pleases - or HE exists not at all. So, for me, the deity of Christ is easy to believe.
Blessings on this Sabbath.
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