The person of Jesus sparked controversy from the day of His birth. Who was this baby? Who was this man? Who is this Man today?

Dan Brown’s popular novel The DaVinci Code makes this claim: “The deity of Jesus was invented at the Council of Nicea (325AD).” A character in this novel states, “Until that moment (the Council of Nicea) in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”

The early church had been expanding rapidly even in the midst of Roman persecution. As is the case today, people became Christians for all sorts of reasons. Even in his day, Paul declared that some Christian teachers had impure motives, deceiving the elect and leading them astray from the truth. Circulating among the early church were the false writings that we spoke of last week. In addition false teaching was coming into the mainstream of the body of Christ, in particular Gnosticism and Arianism. Gnosticism taught that matter was evil and therefore the body was evil. What followed was that people either denied the needs of the physical body, or else fed the bodies appetites because it really didn’t matter as to one’s salvation. Arianism taught that while Jesus was God he wasn’t of the same substance as God.

Out of these concerns leaders of the various churches came together at Nicea in 325 for the purpose of solidifying the core of Christian teaching and faith against the heresies and corruptions of that day. They came to affirm what the early church already believed, not as Brown asserts to make up new teachings and viewpoints.

So, the big question is—who is Jesus? Is he a man like all others? A special prophet? A great moral teacher? Or is Jesus the Son of God, one with God the Father? Did Jesus Himself claim to be God?

The bone of contention is whether the early church and/or the Council of Nicea created claims about Jesus that he didn’t claim about Himself. Let’s look at what Jesus said about Himself to see if Dan Brown’s claims are true that the Council of Nicea, in a conspiracy, hijacked Jesus and made him out to be far more than he really was.

Of course our source is the Bible and last week we established that it is a highly credible and reliable source for our information. The Bible informs us that Jesus did in fact make claims about Himself. Let’s look at those claims.

• Jesus claimed the authority to forgive sin. (Mark 2:5-7)

• Jesus’ enemies believed He was claiming to be God. (John 5:17-18)

• Jesus claimed that knowing the Son was the same as knowing the Father. (John 5:19-23)

• Jesus claimed for Himself one of God’s biggest names. (John 8:58-59)

• Jesus didn’t stop people who worshipped Him. (John 9:35-39, John 4:20-24 (only God deserves to be worshipped))

• Jesus claimed He was alive before the world began. (John 17:5,24)

• Jesus didn’t rebuke Thomas when He called Jesus “God.” (John 20:28,30-31)

What does all this mean for us? According to the Bible, this is what Jesus claimed about Himself, what His friends claimed about Him, and even what His enemies claimed about Him.

C S Lewis who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, lays out pretty clearly what our options are when it comes to the person of Jesus:

“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 a level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or else He would be the Devil of Hell. 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, you can spit on Him and kill Him as a demon, 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. He did not intend to.”

Let’s look at our options as regards the person of Jesus.

1. He was a liar. When Jesus spoke about “being equal with God” he knew all along it was all a ruse to fool the masses. In our day we don’t know what a lie is. There is a vast difference between a lie and a mistake. A mistake is an unintentional inaccuracy. A lie has as its intent to deceive. That is why half-lies are the more deceptive because they carry with them some truth that seems plausible to the hearer. Making a statement believing it to be true is not the same as making a statement and knowing it to be untrue.

If Jesus knew His claims to be lies He was then an habitual liar. As we look at His other teachings and statements, how do we know what He lied about and what He said was true. Imagine a math teacher telling the class that 2+2= 5 and 3+3=6….which is true and which isn’t? If Jesus is a liar, can we take His moral teachings seriously? Reason would tell us that we cannot take Him as a great moral teacher while at the same time believing that He lied in statement after statement after statement.

2. The second option is the Jesus is a lunatic, ie Jesus really thought He was God. We call this today a Napoleon complex. Jesus really thought he was the Son of God but was genuinely mistaken and was just a mortal man with ‘delusions of grandeur.’ Here’s the problem: do we want a misguided, though perhaps sincere, emotionally unstable man to be our life’s primary moral teacher? People who go around claiming to be Elvis Pressley, or John Lennon, or Jesus, or Robert E. Lee, we put into an institution, not on a pedestal to be adored by millions. If Jesus was truly deluded that alone nixes any authority of His teachings.

3. The 3rd option is that Jesus is Lord. In this option Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be. He wasn’t lying about being the Son of God—He really was! He wasn’t a misguided lunatic about being the Son of God because He really was. There are many who want to accept Jesus as a great teacher. That is a relatively safe, non-threatening, ‘don’t-rock-the-boat’ affirmation. With this we are still in control and can have His good influence. It’s like us guys wanting a loving wife who will kiss our boo-boos, cook our meals, raise our kids, provide both emotional and financial support, clean our homes, and be there when we want them, but also have our girlfriend on the side. The reality is that you can’t have it both ways. If Jesus is Lord, then He is Lord with all that that means and comes with.

C S Lewis is right. Jesus did not leave open the option for us to take from Jesus what we like and agree with and leave the rest on the table. Following Jesus is not buffet dinner where we can pick and choose. It’s all or nothing. Again I tell you: if Jesus is not the Son of God, the Savior of the world, then you are wasting your time and giving your money to a cause perpetrated by a liar and/or lunatic. Then we can all be Muslims or Hindus or spend the weekends in the mountains with Maharashi Goochie-Goochie, or jump on Tom Cruise’s bandwagon with L. Ron Hubbard, or simply be an unabashed secular/humanist pagan.

Fortunately Dan Brown is wrong. The idea of Jesus being the Son of God did not come from conspiracy-minded men at Nicea, but came from Jesus’ own words. Time and time again Jesus made it clear: “I am God.” The witness of those who best knew Him declared Him to be God. The witness of the centuries give credence that Jesus is Lord. The reality of transformed hearts and lives demonstrates that Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer.

What does that mean for you today? If you claim Him as Lord, it changes everything because Jesus’ claim affects every area of your life!

Who is Jesus—a liar, a lunatic, or Lord? If eternity proves that Dan Brown is correct, then we believers have lost nothing. But if eternity proves that Jesus is God’s Son, then we have gained everything and Dan Brown and his ilk have lost it all for eternity.

It is your decision!

Thank You for Taking The Time to Read This Message.
May God Use These Words to Help You and Strengthen You.