No Middle Ground

"Whom say ye that I am?" (Matthew 16:15). That question of our Lord's has been declared to be life's most important question. How do you answer it? Who is Jesus?

The Muslim would say, "Jesus was a prophet of Allah, but nothing more." A Jehovah's Witness would tell you that He is a created angel. Some say He was a good man, a great teacher, or a wise philosopher. Some say He was a son of God—a man with a spark of divinity. What do you say?

These answers are all inadequate, for they all fail to recognize the deity of the Man Jesus Christ. Jesus is God, and it is that fact that gives His teachings their authority. It is that fact that makes obedience to His commandments imperative. It is that fact that makes faith in Him as Lord and Saviour mandatory.

Some would declare that it really does not matter who Christ is as long as we receive help from His teachings. But wait a minute. It is deadly error to try to dispense with Jesus' deity as quickly as that. If He is indeed God, He deserves our reverence and our unquestioning obedience. If He is not God, He was either a madman or a fraud. If you are not totally convinced of His deity, you must settle the issue.

The Bible teaches that Jesus is God. He exercises the prerogatives of deity. He has the attributes of deity. He bears the titles of deity. And His commandments are the commandments of deity.

Condensed from a message by Dr. George Sweeting. Used by permission of Moody.