Jesus stated that he was the “Messiah,” the “Son of God,” the Anointed One,” in short, God Himself – not “a god,” but God Himself. In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes this statement,
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 the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool 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.
A Summary of His divine claims is found in the following from a compilation by Global Media Outreach.
Jesus could only have been one of four things: a legend, a liar, a lunatic--or Lord and God. There is so much historical and archeological evidence to support his existence that every reputable historian agrees he was not just a legend. If Jesus were a liar, why would he die for his claim, when he could easily have avoided such a cruel death with a few choice words? And, if he were a lunatic, how did he engage in intelligent debates with his opponents or handle the stress of his betrayal and crucifixion while continuing to show a deep love for his antagonists? Christ said he was Lord and God. The evidence supports that claim.
Here are some of the key claims Jesus made about himself.
• Christ claimed to live a sinless life. John 8:28-29; John 8:46-47.
• Jesus Christ claimed to be the ONLY way to God. John 14:6. Note: No other world religious leader, such as Buddha, Confucius, or Mohammed ever made this claim.
• Christ claimed to have shared the glory of God in Heaven. John 1:1-5; John 17:5
• Jesus Christ claimed to be able to forgive sins. Luke 5:20-21; Luke 7:48-49.
• Christ claimed to be a Heavenly king. Luke 22:69; Luke 23:1-3; John 18:36-37.
• Christ claimed to be able to give everlasting life John 6:40; John 6:47; John 10:28-30; John 11:25.
• Jesus claimed that he would die and come back to life. John 10:17; John 12:32-33; John 16:16; Luke 18:31-33.
• Christ claimed that he would return again to judge the world. Matthew 24:27-30; Matthew 25:31-32; Mark 14:61-62.
What about this claim to be the “Messiah,” God’s Anointed? The doctrine or concept of the “Messiah,” or transliterated into Greek, the “Christos” or “Christ,” did not always exist in man in general and not in Judaism in particular. It has its roots in Judaism, not Mosaic Judaism, but the mature Judaism that that had grown over centuries. The concept starts with King David, out of whose line would come the “Anointed One” who would reign forever. This concept is not found in the Torah, but in the prophets, principally Isaiah and Daniel and the non-canonical, work 1 Enoch, written partially in the 3rd century B.C. and partially in the late first century AD.
However, the idea was so strong in the Jewish mind just before, during and just after the time of Jesus that even King Herod the Great , who was not really a Jew, by birth, at heart, or in his beliefs, when confronted by the inquiring Wise Men from Persia seeking information about the birth of the Messiah, that same Herod was seized with anxiety and while feigning desire to come and worship Him, secretly planned to have Him murdered – thus the infamous “slaughter of the Innocents.”
According to Paul W. Johnson who is responsible for the ideas in the next few paragraphs, Jesus of Nazareth was what Johnson classifies as a “Jewish Universalist.” He, Jesus, believed that the teachings of Judaism were not esoteric to the Jews only, but were for the whole world. While influenced by the teachings of the prophets and perhaps by 1 Enoch which was popularly read in the First Century. He was also influenced by the pacifist ideas of the Essenes, the cave-dwellers who gave us the Dead Sea Scrolls, interestingly enough, as was John the Baptist, and by the Baptist sect itself. Jesus would not be a mob leader, a Jewish Nationalist as had several of His predecessors, who ended up dead as did their message. No, Jesus would rather came as “a lamb to the slaughter,” a sacrifice, a martyr, no, the, martyr, a theme also strong in the Jewish mindset at this time in history beginning in the inter-Biblical period of the Maccabees recorded in the also non-canonical work, 1 Maccabees.
Jesus was a carpenter by trade, but all Jewish men were either tradesmen or merchants, there being no such thing as the professional clergy outside the Scribes. He was not the “Simple Carpenter of Nazareth” as some believed, He was a great theologian. It is obvious that He was learned in the Law and the Prophets. He was considered by foe and friend alike as a Rabbi, a learned teacher, worthy of being listened to and followed.
At the time of Jesus’ Earthly life, there were two great parties influencing Jewish life and religion, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees, who only recognized the first 5 books of Moses, the Torah, therefore, apparently did not believe in the afterlife or in the spiritual realm or its inhabitants such as angels since none of these are mentioned in the Torah, were in control of the temple, the priesthood and the national treasury and thus to a great extent, the Jewish government to the extent the Romans allowed self government. Thus, the Sadducees encrusted over the centuries a very strict and almost anal-retentive requirement of following the letter of the Law – the Torah.
One of the other great influences was the party of the Pharisees which goes back to the time of the Babylonian captivity and the subsequent Diaspora. The Pharisees also admitted the rest of what we know as the Old Testament including the works of poetry and wisdom and the major and minor prophets. The Pharisees were deeply divided into two camps – one led by the great Rabbi Shammai, who took a pedantic, strict constructionist view of the Law – meaning the whole Old Testament plus the oral tradition passed on by generations of rabbis and scholars.
The second great rabbi of the First Century was Rabbi Hillel, sometimes known as Hillel the Babylonian because he was born and raised in the Jewish community that still flourished in Babylon. He was apparently one of the Diaspora Jews brought to Jerusalem by Herod to open the minds of the Jewish people to a more universalist view of the world and their religion, basically for commercial reasons. Hillel was somewhat of a liberal thinker that brought to the table a “more humane and universalist” interpretation of the Law. He taught that it was the spirit of the law that was important, not the letter, a concept adopted by Jesus and Paul.
Hillel was famous for his great aphorisms. He was once asked if one could state the entire law while standing on one foot. Hillel replied that one should not to another that which he would hate to have done to himself. “That,” he said, “is the Law. The rest is commentary. Go and study it.” This is of course familiar sounding as Jesus propounded the “Golden Rule,” perhaps based upon it. It is argued by Johnson that Jesus was at least very familiar with and influenced by the works and sayings of Hillel. Johnson also speculates that Jesus may have even studied with Hillel. Johnson at page 128 says, “Jesus’ teaching career saw him translate Hillel’s aphorisms into a system of moral theology and, in so doing, strip the Law of all but its moral and ethical elements.” At the same page, Johnson goes on to state that Jesus was able to take Hillel’s teaching to their logical conclusion and in fact, cease to be a Jew, but rather founded his own religion “which was sui generis. “
Jesus incorporated in his ethical Judaism an impressive composite of the eschatology he found in Isaiah, Daniel and Enoch, as well as what he found useful in the Essenes and the Baptists, so that he was able to present a clear perspective of death, judgment and the afterlife. And he offered this new theology to everyone within reach of His mission: pious Jews, the [common man,] the Samaritans, the unclean, the gentiles even.”
But, like many religious innovators, Jesus had a private message to his inner circle. That message involved His impending suffering and martyrdom, foretold by the prophets, commonly believed by the people since the time of the Maccabees and inevitable because his teachings threatened the very heart of Jewish life, custom and government. His basic belief that following the letter of the Law was no longer required by man, but rather faith or belief in the “Son of Man,” his favorite and prophetic designation of Himself, would ultimately alienate even liberal thinkers in the Jewish government, run him afoul of the Sanhedrin and bring about His death at their hands, though through the instrumentality of the Romans. We see this new religion later adopted and interpreted faithfully by Paul as he evangelized the world.
Jesus impact on the Jews and ultimately the world was crystallized by the fact of the common belief among His followers that He rose from the grave. That he was seen in His risen form by as few and one and as many as 500 people at one time is acutely well documented in each of the Gospels. Even Josephus, the most reliable writer we have of this period and non-Christian wrote of His resurrection:
"When Pilate, upon the accusation of the first men amongst us, condemned [Jesus] to be crucified, those who had formerly loved him did not cease [to follow him], for he appeared to them on the third day, living again, as the divine prophets foretold, along with a myriad of other marvelous things concerning him."
Admittedly, it is debated by scholars that at least part of the Testimonium Flavianum is an interpolation, since Josephus was not a Christian and characterized his patron Emperor Vespasian as the foretold Messiah.
Assuming, arguendo, the truth of the facts mentioned herein above, it will be helpful to examine the ethical teachings of the Jews as they clearly and undeniably influenced those espoused by Jesus,
Judaism - Moses, (circa. 1400-1200 BC) gives us not only the Jewish faith but also the ethical principles which underlie it, the Decalogue. The Ten Commandments, or Ethical Decalogue (as distinguished from the ritual Decalogue), are a list of religious and moral imperatives that, according to the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh were written by God and given to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of two stone tablets. They feature prominently in Judaism and Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. The phrase "Ten Commandments" generally refers to the broadly identical passages in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
The commandments passage in Exodus contains more than ten imperative statements or “Words,” totaling 14 or 15 in all. However, the Bible itself assigns the count of 10. Faiths and denominations have divided these statements in different ways. The Torah or first five books of the Hebrew Bible have a total of 613 “commandments” and assign no greater value to the Ten Words than the others.
These ethical principles have been elaborated on by the rabbinical tradition over the centuries, (or as I have said, “Moses gave us the Law and man wrote the regs.”)
We are then brought back to the ethical teaching of Christianity or more specifically of Christ.
Christianity – The ethical teachings of Jesus, mentioned supra, build on the Judaic concepts of ethical behavior but take the teachings in an internal manner. The greatest portion of Jesus’ teaching comes from the so-called “Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus states that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus reaffirms the principles of the Decalogue and commands strict adherence.
And, in being most critical of the Pharisaic tradition of keeping the “jot and tittle” of the law, but with a bad motive, He tells those seated on the Horns of Hatten that their righteousness must exceed that standard. In much of the discourse that follows, Jesus takes a fresh look at the various words of the Decalogue and places his spin on them. Their essence, however is that mere adherence to the law is not sufficient. Jesus teaches that man must do more than appear to be righteous, he must be righteous.
In summary of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, through example, admonishes listeners to approach life in two ways: both negatively and positively. When you are done wrong, let it go, don’t insist on your rights and don’t act out of spite. But He goes further, on to the positive telling the reader, rather to be generous to the wrongdoer. The Apostle Paul adds to this, “be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with the good.”
No discussion of the ethical teachings of Jesus would be complete without perhaps His most famous ethical statement found in Matthew 5:43 “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” (KJV.) The gospel writer, Luke, perhaps recording this same event has Jesus state, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This may be a paraphrase of an aphorism first uttered by Rabbi Hillel.
The teachings of Jesus would seem to go on about love. In fact, they do. In Matthew 22:35-40 (KJV), we find this answer to the question posed by the scribe, perhaps to attempt to trap Jesus or perhaps merely seeking his thoughts on the subject which was one of discussion in the rabbinic tradition of the Jews as to which was the greatest of the commandments.
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. [Jesus adds unsolicited, quoting the Shema] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [And His summary statement:] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Thus, the ethical teachings of Christianity as stated by Jesus reaffirm the spirit of the Jewish Ethical Decalogue underlain by the two-edged principle of love. “Love God and love man.” How is this expressed in real life? The Apostle John records in John 14:15 Jesus near last word to his Disciples, (NIV) “if you love me, you will obey my command.” That’s how Jesus tells them to love God [Jesus having equated Himself with God in the great “I am” sayings peppered throughout the Gospel of John.] How does one love man? By treating him as you would treat yourself.
The Apostle Paul says, to reach God, one must be righteous, but man is not righteous by nature, thus a spiritual dilemma. Paul tells us that it is by taking on the “mind of Christ” that we can be made righteous and thus reach God. Thus the writer’s herein concept of “living outside yourself.” This principle is the expansion of the “it’s not about me” principle. It is a good thing to understand that life is not about yourself, however, to live in such a manner that recognizes this principle and applies it to daily life is “living outside yourself.”
The penultimate expression of “living outside yourself” is to lose one’s self in Christ, Himself so that eternal life may be truly found, never to be lost again.
(Note: See this also posted on my Facebook post dated October 15, 2010.)
