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One of the songs in the 1970s rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, has Mary Magdalene singing of Him, “He’s a man, He’s just a man.” This view of Jesus is by no means new but stretches back to the Gnostics of the late first century who denied His Deity. Some go beyond denying His Deity, opining that Jesus is a fictional character who never lived as a man. That Jesus of Nazareth was a real personage of history most accept as a given, and upon good evidence. While He indeed was a man, was He “just a man?”
- If Jesus was merely a man, the Bible has deceived us and cannot be the Word of God. Isaiah foretold His coming by means of His conception and birth of a virgin, and named Him “Immanuel”— “God with us” (Isa. 7:14; Mat. 1:23). John identified Him as the pre-existent Word and Creator Who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (1:1–3, 14). By means of His begettal by the Holy Spirit rather than by a man (Luke 1:34–35), He was “the only begotten Son” of God (John 3:16–18). Paul affirmed, “For in him [Jesus] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). Did the Bible deceive us about the Deity of Jesus?
- If Jesus was merely a man, He was a liar. Some theological modernists have alleged that Jesus never made any claims of Deity, but they are grossly mistaken: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (14:9). His fellow-Jews correctly inferred that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and therefore sought to kill Him for blasphemy (Mat. 9:2–8; John 5:17–18; 10:30–33). When Caiaphas adjured Jesus to tell him if He were the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus gave an affirmative answer (Mat. 26:63–64). If Jesus was/is not God, He is not even a good man, for He has deceived us by lying about His identity and His nature. A liar certainly could not be the Savior of mankind.
- If Jesus was merely a man, He was a megalomaniac, one who had only delusions of grandeur—a form of insanity. Besides His claims of Deity, He invited all men to bring their burdens to Him and promised them rest (Mat. 11:28–30). He promised to give eternal life to believers and to raise them from the dead (John 6:40). He claimed to be the exclusive way to the Father (14:6). He claimed to be the Judge of all men (12:48). Was Jesus insane?
Jesus certified His claims of Deity by manifold miracles (John 20:30–31). The Father sealed His claims by the resurrection (Acts 2:32). Jesus was fully man and fully God.
[Note: I wrote this article for and it appeared in the Denton Record-Chronicle, Denton, TX, November 28, 2008].
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner, curator, and administrator.
