Lunatic or Son of God?

‘I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I am ready to accept Jesus as the 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 boiled 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 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.’-C.S. Lewis

I love that quote by C.S. Lewis. Everyone wants to change who Jesus is. The Muslims say He was a prophet. Jehovah's Witnesses say He was the Archangel Michael. Mormons believe He is the spirit brother of Satan. The world will tolerate Him as a good teacher. Think of your favorite teacher? Mine was Mrs. Goode in 5th grade. Ever think your teacher was so good of a teacher that you should nail them to a cross? So like Mr. Lewis said there's only a couple options here. Jesus was God in flesh and took the sins of the world upon Himself or He was out of His mind. We truly aren't give a lot of choice here. You can't just change who He says He is. You can choose(with your God-given free will) not to believe Him but who are we to change someones identity for them? He even gives us warning of this in the Gospel of John. Chapter 8:24 says, "I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." The minute Jesus claimed Deity and accepted worship, He took away our options. He could no longer be considered a good, moral person if He was lying about being God and being blasphemous by accepting worship. It just doesn't work. The underlying problem is sin and the one found in the midst of all this is idolatry. It's a matter of people wanting God on their terms and making one to fit their own needs. Jehovah's witnesses don't believe that their god will send someone to Hell. That's because that god doesn't exist. If Jesus wasn't God and was just one of the prophets, then the Muslims would have a leg to stand on with Muhammad and likewise the Mormons with Joseph Smith. But Jesus was fully God and fully Man and that being the case, no other "prophets" would be necessary would they? God sacrificing Himself should be sufficient right? These other added options are all products of the 2nd Commandment. The God of the Bible has laid out the terms in His Word, not to be added to or taken away from. He told us there would be a Messiah, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, who would be bruised and pierced for us. That's the Jesus I believe in. God in flesh, the perfect sacrifice for my sins-every lie, theft, and lustful look. Who is your Jesus? Lunatic or Son of God?

1 John 5:21 (New International Version)

²¹Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.