WEBVTT 00:00.780 --> 00:01.660 According to C.S. 00:01.720 --> 00:07.040 Lewis, the famous author and theologian, to say that Jesus Christ was simply a good 00:07.040 --> 00:11.640 moral teacher but nothing else is patronizing nonsense. 00:23.590 --> 00:28.990 Perhaps you or someone you know has said that Jesus Christ was a good man who 00:28.990 --> 00:31.130 taught some good things, but that's it. 00:31.490 --> 00:34.250 In other words, you reject his claims to be God. 00:34.530 --> 00:37.290 You reject his claims to be the Savior of the world. 00:37.630 --> 00:41.430 You would say that he was simply a good man who taught some good things. 00:41.830 --> 00:43.350 But here's the problem with that. 00:43.850 --> 00:49.110 Good moral teachers don't make the kinds of claims about themselves that Jesus made 00:49.110 --> 00:49.790 about himself. 00:50.710 --> 00:53.890 In his famous book, Mere Christianity, C.S. 00:53.890 --> 00:59.110 Lewis wrote this, I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish 00:59.110 --> 01:01.490 thing that people often say about him. 01:02.030 --> 01:06.750 I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his 01:06.750 --> 01:07.810 claim to be God. 01:08.290 --> 01:10.490 That is the one thing we must not say. 01:11.010 --> 01:16.170 A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not 01:16.170 --> 01:17.710 be a great moral teacher. 01:18.270 --> 01:22.950 He would either be a lunatic, on the level with the man who says he's a poached egg, 01:23.310 --> 01:25.230 or else he would be the devil of hell. 01:25.670 --> 01:26.970 You must make your choice. 01:27.550 --> 01:33.450 Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman, or something worse. 01:34.090 --> 01:35.730 You can shut him up for a fool. 01:36.270 --> 01:41.690 You can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and 01:41.690 --> 01:43.430 call him Lord and God. 01:43.970 --> 01:49.070 But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human 01:49.070 --> 01:49.470 teacher. 01:49.870 --> 01:52.050 He has not left that open to us. 01:52.330 --> 01:53.790 He did not intend to. 01:54.070 --> 01:58.950 In other words, if Jesus is not God, then he either lied about it, or he's 01:58.950 --> 02:00.270 stark raving mad. 02:00.530 --> 02:05.250 But the one thing he's not is a good person who taught good moral things. 02:05.530 --> 02:05.990 Why? 02:06.470 --> 02:11.890 Well because, again, good people who teach good moral things don't make the kinds of 02:11.890 --> 02:14.970 claims about themselves that Jesus made about himself. 02:15.630 --> 02:17.230 Jesus claimed to be God. 02:17.690 --> 02:20.170 Good people don't claim to be God. 02:20.550 --> 02:24.170 I mean, if I told you that I was God, you probably wouldn't say that I was a 02:24.170 --> 02:24.750 good person. 02:24.910 --> 02:27.290 It's more likely that you would say I was a nutjob. 02:27.830 --> 02:31.750 Not only that, but Jesus allowed himself to be worshipped as God. 02:32.230 --> 02:35.410 Now that's just not something a good person would do. 02:36.170 --> 02:38.470 And how about all those other claims he made about himself? 02:39.170 --> 02:42.530 He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. 02:42.930 --> 02:45.070 No one comes to the Father but through me. 02:45.630 --> 02:48.110 He said, I am the resurrection and the life. 02:48.350 --> 02:51.170 He who believes in me will live even though he dies. 02:51.170 --> 02:54.010 He said, I am the bread of life. 02:54.450 --> 02:59.190 He who comes to me will not hunger and he who believes in me will not thirst. 02:59.770 --> 03:03.850 And the list goes on and on and on, but these are not the kinds of things that 03:03.850 --> 03:08.110 a good person teaching good moral things would say about himself. 03:08.630 --> 03:12.670 If I said to you that the only way you could go to the Father is by believing in 03:12.670 --> 03:17.870 me, or that by believing in me you would have eternal life, or if I said I am the 03:17.870 --> 03:21.530 bread that came down from heaven, you most certainly wouldn't say that I was 03:21.530 --> 03:22.150 a good person. 03:22.370 --> 03:26.230 You would call me a liar or you would call me insane, but you wouldn't say that I was 03:26.230 --> 03:28.030 a good person teaching some good things. 03:28.370 --> 03:30.090 And the same thing is true for Jesus. 03:30.510 --> 03:35.810 If Jesus is not God, then he's not simply a good man teaching some good things. 03:35.910 --> 03:36.950 That's not an option. 03:37.430 --> 03:37.730 C.S. 03:37.730 --> 03:39.930 Lewis called that patronizing nonsense. 03:40.690 --> 03:45.270 Now it seems to me obvious that he was neither a lunatic nor a fiend, 03:45.450 --> 03:50.610 and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, 03:50.890 --> 03:55.370 I have to accept the view that he was and is God. 03:56.270 --> 04:00.830 Lewis concluded that Jesus is who he claimed to be, God. 04:01.170 --> 04:06.110 And that is exactly who Jesus Christ is, God in human flesh. 04:06.650 --> 04:09.310 He is Emmanuel, God with us. 04:09.690 --> 04:11.290 He is the great I Am. 04:11.630 --> 04:14.890 He is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. 04:15.450 --> 04:20.050 He is, as Thomas declared, my Lord and my God. 04:20.550 --> 04:23.730 But the question is, who do you say that he is?