Who is Jesus?
Undoubtedly the most relevant question all persons must sooner or later answer is Who is Jesus Christ? The question’s relevancy is based on the fact that a person’s answer determines his or her eternal destiny. At the very least, all will agree that Jesus was a human being, a Jew in Galilee, who was born of a human mother. Who hungered and thirsted, grew weary and needed rest, sorrowed and wept. Who suffered and died and was buried. He was like us in every way except He was without sin.
Yet in another way, Jesus was different from everyone else who has ever lived. By any standard, as the founder of the world’s largest religion—Christianity—which claims nearly two billion followers, He is one of the greatest figures in history. But it is clear that Jesus claimed to be more than a man. He claimed to have existed before Abraham and before the creation of time and the universe. He claimed to possess the nontransferable attributes of God, such as self-existence, sovereignty, immutability, eternality—qualities that only God possesses. He claimed to share God’s glory from all eternity, and declared that He should be honored in the same manner that the Father is worshipped. He claimed to forgive sins. He further claimed that anyone wanting to begin a relationship with God must go through Him: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Orthodox Christianity claims that Jesus of Nazareth was God in human flesh--God Incarnate--the second person of the triune God who united His divine nature to a human nature and through it came into the world in order that as our representative He might be our substitute in His death on a cross. Such claims, if true, would mean that Christianity is unique and authoritative above all other religions.
It is, of course, one thing to claim to be God, and quite another to back up such a claim with irrefutable evidence. Jesus offered at least three lines of proof to support His claims: His fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies (nearly 200 in all), His sinless life and miraculous deeds (verified by those who knew Him intimately), and His resurrection from the dead (corroborated by more than five hundred eyewitnesses). Such evidence is undeniably convincing that Jesus is who He claimed to be.
As C. S. Lewis concluded, 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. 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.