Who did Jesus Say He Was?

As a man, Jesus became hungry. He felt pain. He required rest. He was tempted. Yet he was never accused of a sin.

However, Jesus made claims that no ordinary man could make. He spoke of himself as one with God the Father (John 10:30). This so infuriated the religious leaders that they attempted to kill him.

Later when his follower Philip asked to see God the Father, Jesus replied: “I have been with you a long time now. Do you still not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. So why do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” (John 14:9, NCV).

The name for God in Israel—“I AM” (Yahweh)—was so holy that no Jew would utter it. However, Jesus shocked the Jewish religious leaders by calling himself, “I AM.” After telling them he had preexisted the Jewish patriarch, Abraham who had lived two thousand years earlier, Jesus exclaimed, ‘The truth is, before Abraham was, I AM!’” (John 8:52-58). By using God’s name for himself, Jesus was claiming deity.

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis reasons that if Jesus’ claims of deity are untrue, then he couldn’t have been a good man or great moral teacher. If Jesus isn’t who he claimed to be, he would have been either a liar or a lunatic.

Lewis explains, “I am trying here to prevent anyone from 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.” [16]

Jesus clearly claimed to be God. So was he lying, was he a self-deceived lunatic—or is he God’s Son, deity in human form?

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