Either Crazy or The Christ

John 12:48, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”

In Hindu writings and many other religions that have to do something with Jesus, they tend to put Him in the category of good moral teacher and someone to emulate our lives around. But there is a major problem with this, because if we were to truly emulate Jesus in all His ways then we would have to also claim to be God, just as Jesus did.

You see, Jesus did not leave room for people to just make Him this really nice guy who wandered around doing really nice things, because He claimed to be the Infinite, the I AM of the Old Testament. Realistically, no matter how nice He may have been, which is another matter all together, as He did call people “brood of vipers,” and He also chased people out of the temple with a whip, but that is a whole other writing, we cannot conclude He was just a good moral teacher.

No matter how “nice” you or I would be, if we walked around telling people that we were God we would wind up in special hospitals and be given special drugs to help us realize that we are not God. This is the case with Jesus. Either He should be placed on the level of someone that should be on some strong meds, or He is God. There is no room for just a prophet, though He was that as well, and there is no room for just this moral man who did wonderful things. He is either God or crazy.

In Isaiah 44:6, God says, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and the Last; Besides Me there is no God.” Now compare this with Revelation 1:17 where Jesus is talking, “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.”” The same claim made by the God of the Old Testament is being made by Jesus in the New Testament.

In Exodus 3:14 we see where God gives Himself a name when Moses asked for a name to give to the Pharaoh in regards to who sent him. God responds, tell the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.” God gives His name as “I AM.” Jesus then gives Himself the same name as God in John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” The Jews knew exactly what He was saying and that is why we see in the very next verse they picked up stones to kill Him for saying it. Obviously it was not considered a great moral teaching to them that Jesus would claim to be God. It was so great they wanted to kill Him.

Jesus accepted worship that was meant for God alone, and what normal person, or good moral person would accept worship as if He was God? Exodus 20:1-4 talks about having no other Gods but The God and not to worship or make an image for worship out of anything that is in Heaven or on earth. Jesus goes a step further and makes Himself that image, because He accepts the worship of people. Read Matthew 8:2, 9:18, 14:33, 15:25, 20:20; Mark 5:6 or John 20:28. People come and worship Jesus and He never refutes them or tells them to stop, but allows it. He makes Himself to be God. Another reason they wanted to kill Him.

Jesus took it even a step further and commanded worship. John 20:28-29, “And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and My God!” “Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” He is telling Thomas that he is correct for his worship in calling Jesus Lord and God, and we are blessed if we do not see Him yet believe and say what Thomas says.

There are many more verses to demonstrate that Jesus believed He was God, and to just say He is a good moral teacher is a mockery of what He did and nearly blasphemous, as you take away the most important aspect of Him. Jesus is God, the second person of the Trinity. He did not leave the choice of good moral teacher, or some nice prophet that walked around. He died for the fact that He claimed to be God. They hung Him on a cross for it, and it is an insult to just shrug it off. He is either Lord or He is a Lunatic, but He is not just a good moral teacher.

John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”