The One Thing We Must Not Say
“Observed C.S. Lewis, the brilliant and once skeptical Cambridge University professor who was eventually won over by the evidence for Jesus,
‘I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a 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… 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 … or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.’"
Who do you believe Jesus to be? Was he mad? It is difficult to reject Jesus as crazy when his teaching did so much to expose the madness around him. Was he a profiteer? It is difficult to suspect him of being clever or manipulative when he lived so humbly and died so selflessly. Did he suffer from delusions of Messianic grandeur? It is difficult to accuse him of this when there is so much in the prophecies of the Messiah that called for a suffering servant, prophecies that perfectly match the life of Christ.
If Jesus is who he claims to be, then your conclusions about him, one way or the other, speak more of who you are than anything else. You can't change what is true. You can only change your orientation to the truth. So, who do you say that he is? It is not Jesus who is being put to the test by this question--you are!
"Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, 'Who do people say I am?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.' 'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Peter answered, 'You are the Christ'" (Mark 8:27-29).
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The Hypostatic Union - The God-Man
“I do not think of Christ as God alone, or man alone, but both together. For I know He was hungry, and I know that with five loves He fed five thousand. I know He was thirsty, and I know that He turned the water into wine. I know he was carried in a ship, and I know that He walked on the sea. I know that He died, and I know that He raised the dead. I know that He was set before Pilate, and I know that He sits with the Father on His throne. I know that He was worshipped by angels, and I know that He was rejected by the Jews. And truly some of these I ascribe to the human, and others to the divine nature. For by reason of this He is said to have been both God and man.”
In this great mystery—called by theologians The Hypostatic Union—Jesus both shares all our needs and fulfills them!
Of Whiskey Wars and Wholeheartedness
Hans Island is a small, uninhabited rock in the Arctic’s Nares Strait, situated directly between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark). For nearly 50 years, it was at the center of a quirky little territorial dispute known as the “Whisky War.”
Both Canada and Denmark laid territorial claim to this seemingly useless hunk of rock floating in those artice waters. Yet, it wasn't quite worth taking up arms over. Instead, each nation would periodically lay claim to the island by raising their flag there, and then good humoredly leaving a bottle of their nation's finest whiskey as a consolation prize for the other country having been "conquered."
The standoff ended peacefully in June 2022, when Canada and Denmark finally agreed to split the island roughly in half, creating a new land border between the two nations.
In the spiritual realm, God is endlessly in a tug of war with the world for your heart. He is not happy to settle for half. He is not willing to compromise for a portion.
In the war for territorial rights to your heart, Jesus wants it all!
"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'" (Matthew 22:37, KJV).
"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19, ESV).
"Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name" (Psalm 86:11, ESV).