Do you believe in God? Lots of people around the world are happy to acknowledge that there is, or even might be, a God. They may give God one name or another or think of God as more of a force or presence that they don’t fully understand but God exists. Others say there is no God. It’s fairly black and white – you either believe in God or you don’t.
Man or God?
The question of, “Who is Jesus?” is slightly more complex. The Bible tells us that even though there is only one God, God is three people in one: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It goes on to say that Jesus is God’s only Son which means that Jesus while being a man was in fact, God.
What do you think?
Some people struggle with the idea that Jesus was God. They prefer to think of Him as a good man or a great teacher, thinker or role model. The author C.S Lewis wrote about this point of view:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus Christ]: ‘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 a 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 up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.”
C.S. Lewis ‘Mere Christianity’
We know Jesus lived. Historians, both Non-Christian and Christian give evidence to the fact that Jesus was a real person. So, if He was real and He wasn’t a madman or a liar, then we have to believe that He spoke the truth. Of Himself, Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father (God) except through me.”
The key
When God created humankind we were as He intended and able to have a relationship with Him because we were pure. Sadly, we chose to walk away from His plan for our lives, live how we wanted and not how He intended. The only way back from the divide that this caused between us and our Creator is through Jesus. When Jesus came to earth as a baby and died as a man on a cross, He paid the price necessary to cancel out the debt required for us to return to our rightful place in relation to God. So, in order to know God, you need Jesus. He’s the key: the only way of being restored to God’s original intention and a relationship with the Creator.
If you would like to know more about Jesus or have questions we can help with, please click on the link.