Some religions and individuals claim Jesus was a good prophet, but they deny He is God.
That isn't possible.
Jesus is either God or a liar.
Why? Because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, equal to God, and the Only Way of Salvation.(1)
If a person truly accepts Jesus as a good prophet or teacher, they must believe what He says.
As C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:
“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 at 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.”
I choose to fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. How about you?
(1) John 11:25; John 14:6-7; John 17:1-5; John 5:16-40 - see below.
You can also find a full Scriptural explanation here: Did Jesus Claim to Be God?
Bible Study
Read Christ's words in these passages and you soon realize that Jesus would have to be crazy to make these claims if they were not true.
John 11:25: Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies."
John 14:6-7: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.
John 17:1-5: After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."
John 5:16-27, 39-40: So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. 24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man...39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life."
And there are many other passages containing these truths.
You cannot accept Jesus as a prophet without accepting Him as God. Because He Himself proclaimed that He was God and in other passages clearly says He is the Only Way of Salvation - there is no other. Jesus said this, and I believe it.
copyright 2016, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com
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