I have to ask, “Who is Jesus?” If you reply that He is a Savior, I need to ask, “For whom did He come to save?” If Jesus were merely a man, He could not be man’s Savior, because a man cannot save man. Every man has sins, and a sinful person cannot save sinners. If Jesus were merely a man, He could not save us. The only One who can save us is God. But is Jesus God, or is He just a man? Let us see what Jesus said concerning Himself.
In the Gospel of John, Philip asked the Lord Jesus to show the disciples the Father, and it would be sufficient. Jesus answered and said, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works” (14:9-10). He also said, “I and the Father are one” (10:30). Other than Jesus, no one has said that he was God. No sage in the history of China has said that he was God. Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, did not say that he was God, and even Mohammed said that he was only a prophet. Other than Jesus, no one in history has dared to say that he was God. Many people, who consider Jesus to be the same as the idols that they worship, do not realize that the title of god is given to the idol by people only after the death of the person upon whom the idol is based. Can anyone who has been given the title god be God? Do people have the power to make someone God? Jesus is not God because He was declared to be God by man. God is God, yet He came to the earth to be a man. Only Jesus said that He was God. The God who has come to the earth is Jesus.
If a person claims to be God but is not, there are only two possible explanations for his error: he is either speaking nonsense, or he is lying. Jesus, however, did not speak nonsense, nor did He lie. From ancient times to the present and from the East to the West, no one has been able to credibly call Him a madman. Then, if He is not a madman, His claim to be God must either be a lie or the truth. Since Jesus had the highest standard of morality, who can say that He was a liar? If Jesus was not crazy and was not a liar, then He was truthful in His declaration that He is God. When He was arrested, He did not say a word, and at His trial He acknowledged that He is the Son of God. He was killed because He acknowledged that He is the Son of God. If He had been a liar, would He have lied knowing that it would result in His death? Furthermore, none of the miracles that He performed, including healing the sick, casting out demons, resurrecting the dead, and calming the wind and the sea, could have been accomplished by an ordinary man.
The words that Jesus spoke were full of wisdom, containing the highest standard of morality that has ever existed in the world. A philosopher once said, “The philosophy in the four Gospels is extraordinary. If these words are fabrications, then the fabricator must be God.” Jesus also spoke prophetically of His own death and resurrection. Could any human being do this? All Jesus’ words and deeds prove that He is God.
During the first century, the Roman emperor Nero slaughtered many Christians because they confessed Jesus as God. If Jesus were not God, there would not have been so many people willing to sacrifice their lives because of their belief in Him. Almost two thousand years have passed since the time of Jesus’ ascension; if He were not God, how could He still listen to prayers, heal the sick, and perform miracles today?
Many years ago Dr. John Sung went to Shantung to preach the gospel. There was a woman who had been paralyzed for eighteen years and was unable to walk. She was carried to Dr. Sung, and he was asked to lay his hands on her. At the time three saints who were present began to pray for the woman. At the end of their prayer, one of the brothers ordered her to get up and walk. To everyone’s amazement, she got up and walked. She later testified that she felt a warm current going through her body when the saints were praying. When the husband of the woman received the telegram notifying him of his wife’s ability to walk, he could not believe the news. As a result of her healing, the whole family was full of joy. If Jesus were not God, how could miracles occur when people pray?
When gospel preachers go to the countryside to preach the gospel, they often encounter demons. Nevertheless, all the demons are afraid of Jesus. Demon-possessed people, whether male or female, have enormous strength and can easily break the restraints upon them. However, even these strong demons are afraid of Jesus. Christians can cast out the demons just by praying in the Lord’s name. Once there were two brothers who went to the countryside. When they knelt down to pray, a demon-possessed woman tried to frighten them by jumping around with a pair of scissors in her hands. When they did not cease in their prayers, the woman suddenly trembled. Through their prayer, the demon was cast out, and she was healed. When Christians are present, demons often dare not come, even when people are performing works of divining.
In cities demons use different kinds of entertainment, such as dancing and movies, to possess people, causing them to be beside themselves in dancing and watching movies. They dance until they forget who they are. This is Satan’s work. He pretends to be civilized in order to deceive people. Demons possess people and cause them to resist Jesus because they are afraid of Jesus. If Jesus were not God, why would demons be afraid of Him? Whenever people speak of Confucius, they feel as if they are being honorable, and when they speak of different kinds of “isms,” they feel as if they are being scholarly. However, when they speak of Jesus, they feel ashamed. Some try to blame this sense of shame on the fact that teachings about Jesus come from a foreign country. It is strange, however, that they do not have a similar sense of shame when they promote foreign businesses, foreign education, and foreign goods. This shows that their shame is really an issue of the work of demons. Demons cause people to feel shameful in order to turn them away from Jesus. Demons want to possess man. Consequently, demons do not want people to believe in Jesus, because once a person believes in Jesus, the demons’ desire is frustrated.
Jesus is God, the omnipresent and omniscient God who created all things. When we pray to Him, He listens. When we entreat Him, He perfects us. People who are in darkness receive light when they pray to Him, and those who are lost receive salvation when they open to Him. He is the true God.