Who Do You Say That I Am?

Matthew tells of Jesus asking His disciples ""Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"" (Matthew 16:13). They replied that some thought He was John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or a prophet. The Lord was not deterred. Again He asked, ""But who do you say that I am?"" (verse 15). Jesus' point is clear: each must come to a decision about His identity. It is not enough to discuss what others have said about Jesus. You must personally decide who Jesus is. You have now read a great deal of what others are saying about Jesus. Now it is time to decide whom you say He is.

You might decide Jesus was just an interesting teacher. This is the position of the Jesus Seminar and ABC television's mock-umentary. We must admit that many find this view of Jesus very persuasive. This secular sage who traveled around saying wise things is a Jesus with whom many are quite comfortable. Such a Jesus does not change them, or urge them to repent. Of course, the baseline assumptions about scripture and history needed to sustain this view are verifiably untrue. The Gospel record speaks of a very different kind of Jesus who was not content to be just a traveling wise man. That record has not been discredited, despite the efforts of so many. Secular history records an impact from Jesus that no ""secular sage and social critic"" has ever had. ABC pursued a Jesus that many hope for, but tragically, without shoddy scholarship and deliberately ignoring the facts, no one can find this Jesus.

You might decide Jesus was a revolutionary who resisted the social tyranny of His day. This is the view of John Crossan, as set forth in his book The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. He too rejects the Gospel records as inaccurate. To Crossan Jesus is merely another political figure. Jesus the revolutionary is another appealing version of Christ because He sanctions our causes without causing us to change. We put Jesus to work for us, to advance our goals, without having to heed His stringent calls for discipleship. Revolutionary Jesus changes the government but He does not transform us. Yet this Jesus is built upon the same faulty assumptions and presuppositions that ""good teacher Jesus"" is built upon. To do this to the Lord we must throw out the divinely inspired Gospels and replace them with human ideas. Despite nothing less than desperate attempts to do this very thing it cannot be done, without being untrue to history and truth.

There are other possibilities. You could decide Jesus was a lunatic. This would mean that He was just a self-deluded loon who proclaimed His deity because He was insane. Yet even the briefest looks at His teachings and works reveals exactly the opposite about Him. Jesus possessed a clarity of thought and understanding that transcended anything humanity has ever known. His legacy of teaching and incredible effect upon this world do not bear the marks of lunacy. Many are crazy about Jesus, but Jesus was not crazy. You could decide that Jesus was a liar. He told people that He was God's Son, and knew that He was not. This would make Jesus evil incarnate because He has deceived so many, leading them away from God and into hell. Again, the Gospel records arrest our attention. Jesus continually spoke the truth, even when it endangered His own life (Luke 4:23ff). He died because He would not quit saying He was deity (Luke 22:67-69). Is it really believable that He died a terrible and torturous death because He told lies? Who would not recant under the pressure of crucifixion?

You could decide that Jesus is the Son of God. Many have stood where you are now and reached this conclusion. They have weighed the evidence, been honest with themselves and with the facts. They realized this is the only rational, logical choice about Jesus, and courageously made it. Be warned. Such a decision does not come easily or without significant life changes. To say that Jesus is deity is to admit that He is greater than we are. Therefore, we must hear and obey Him. Saying Jesus is the Son of God means that He can be our Savior, but it also means that He must be our Lord. ""For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins"" (John 8:24).

We crafted this issue of ABUNDANT LIFE to teach you the truth about Jesus the Christ. However, it will not be enough for you, the reader, to know what others say about Jesus. It is not enough for you even to be informed why some conclusions about Jesus are dead wrong. You must decide, based on the evidence, that you will accept Jesus as the Son of God, and name Him Lord of your life. So Jesus turns to you and asks, ""But who do you say that I am?"" We urge you to stand with Peter and say ""You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"" (Matthew 16:16).

The quotations from Funk and Crossan were taken from Jeffery Sheler, Mike Tharp, and Jill Seider's cover story, ""In Search of Jesus,"" U.S. News and Word Report, April 8, 1996.