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. He would be either a lunatic - on a level with the 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 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 patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Lewis argues that Jesus cannot be merely a moral teacher; He must be God, madman, or devil based on His claims.
- In plain terms
- Jesus claims to be God, so He is either divine, mad, or evil.
- What can you take from it?
- You must choose Jesus' identity; middle ground is impossible.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who was Jesus?
- Is he teacher or god?
Another view
It excludes views that see Him as a wise human without claims.
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