Who Did Jesus Claim to Be?

     Jesus says to all: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”  John 14:6

            Who was this man called Jesus whose disciples turned the world upside down, whose followers were willing to suffer martyrdom, who made such an impact on the world that even today our years are numbered from the time of His birth; and what difference does it make what we believe about Him?  People have many different ideas about who Jesus was, but who did His disciples say He was, and more importantly, who did He claim to be? These may be the most important questions we will ever answer.

            First of all, let’s look at what Jesus’ disciples had to say about Him.  Peter and Thomas are two of Jesus’ disciples who are quoted in the New Testament with regard to Jesus’ identity.  In Matthew 16:15-17, Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus responds to Peter by explaining the true source of his revelation. “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”  Later on, after Jesus’ resurrection, when His disciple Thomas sees and touches Jesus’ wounds and is convinced of the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, he exclaims, “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus does not correct Thomas, but receives his worship and replies, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed?  Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” (John 20:26-29)  Jesus’ disciples believed that Jesus was God in the flesh, causing them to be willing to die for their faith.

            Not only did Jesus’ disciples believe that Jesus was God, but Jesus Himself also claimed deity.  Because of this, the Pharisees (religious Jews) were seeking to kill him. In John 5:18, after Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, the account tells us, “For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”

            In another dispute with the Jews in John 8:56-59 Jesus claimed deity by telling them, “before Abraham was born, I am,” implying that He existed before Abraham, even though his actual physical birth was almost 2,000 years after Abraham lived.  The Jews also understood that “I am” was the name God gave Himself when speaking to Moses in Exodus 3:14.  John tells us, “therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him.”  Later on, when the Jews were trying to convince Pilate to put Jesus to death they said, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.” John 19:7.  

There should be no doubt from these accounts who Jesus claimed to be.  Now, it is up to each one of us to decide for ourselves who or what we will believe.  C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity sums up our choices in this way: 

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say.  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.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.  (pp. 55-56) 

Jesus claimed to be the only way to the Father in John 14:6.  He also told His disciples, “…He who has seen Me has seen the Father….” John 14:9.  In II Timothy 2:12 Paul tells us that, “…if we deny Him, He also will deny us.”  So, in Jesus’ own words, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.  For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

My prayer is that you find “The Way” if you haven’t already.  If you have, then I praise the Lord with you!