The Teachings of Christ
By common consent, Jesus Christ is the greatest teacher who ever lived. Even many who reject His deity will acknowledge this. The Sermon on the Mount, the parables of the Kingdom, the Olivet discourse, the glorious messages in the Gospel of John, and others all contain wisdom and spiritual power of majesty and insight incomparably superior to any other words ever spoken.
He is the "Wonderful Counsellor" (Isa. 9:6). He is the one of whom it was prophesied that "grace was poured into thy lips" (Ps. 45:2). When He preached in Nazareth, it was said that "all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth" (Luke 4:22).
When He concluded His Sermon on the Mount, it is recorded that "the people were astonished at his [teachings]: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matt. 7:28-29). In Capernaum, "they were astonished at his teachings, for his word was with power" (Luke 4:32).
Even His enemies were impressed with His teachings. When officers were commissioned to arrest Him, they came back to the chief priests empty-handed, with the simple explanation: "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46).
The sermons, the parables, the commandments, and the promises of Christ are an inexhaustible mine of blessing and wisdom and guidance to all who explore them. Each new reading of them yields new truth and insight not seen in previous readings. No other teacher and no other teachings can compare with these.
And yet Jesus was apparently only a carpenter from an obscure village in a despised nation. He never studied in a university, nor any other school so far as we know. He never traveled more than a few miles from His home, never wrote a book or article, never taught in a school. The only ones who paid much attention to what He taught (the multitudes sometimes listened and were impressed, but they soon forgot) were a motley band of unimpressive disciples, and even they missed the point on His most important teachings concerning His coming death and resurrection.
That such an obscure itinerant preacher would leave a legacy of the greatest teachings the world has ever known would seem absolutely impossible. But such is the fact! The only explanation that makes sense at all is that He was "a teacher come from God" (John 3:2), and that, as He claimed: "Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak" (John 12:50).
The Miracles of Christ
A further evidence of the supernaturalness of Christ is that of the miracles He performed. As the "teacher of Israel," Nicodemus said: "No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him" (John 3:2).
The time and place in which Jesus lived were not characterized by superstition and gullibility, but rather by learning and skepticism. Miracles were quite as unexpected and marvelous then as the same miracles would be today. The present order of things, as ordained by God (Gen. 8:22) is one of basic uniformity, varied only on rare occasions by the supernatural when God's sovereign purpose so designs.
Even such a great influential man as John the Baptist never performed a miracle (John 10:41). Yet when Jesus came it is said that "his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them" (Matt. 4:24). He sent word to John: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up" (Matt. 11:5). These miracles of healing were never selective, or partial, or temporary, or trivial, as is true with modern so-called "faith healers," but were always medically or psychosomatically impossible, yet instantaneous, complete, and permanent.
Nor were His miracles limited to healings. He transformed water into wine, prodigiously multiplied a small quantity of bread and fish on two different occasions, calmed a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee, walked on the water surface, caused a tree to wither away, extracted a coin from a fish, and directed a great draught of fishes into fishing nets, on two different occasions. On several occasions, He even restored the dead to life again.
His miracles were never merely for display or frivolity. Always they had the dual purpose of satisfying some serious human need which could be met in no other way at the time, and also of confirming His own authority and claims. In connection with the latter purpose, it was entirely of grace that He used miracles to vindicate His words. Men should have recognized Him through their study of the Scriptures, through the preparatory ministry of John the Baptist, and by the witness of His own life and teachings. Because of their blindness and hardness of heart, however, He made it easier for them to believe by use of miracles.
Thus it is noted that "many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did" (John 2:23). He told the unbelieving Jews: "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works" (John 10:37-38). He even told His disciple Philip: "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake" (John 14:11).
On the other hand, He would not perform miracles simply to satisfy curiosity or carnality. When certain ones came seeking a sign from Him ("signs" and "miracles" are the same word in Greek), He said: "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it" (Matt. 12:39). He refused to perform before Herod, even to save His life (Luke 23:8-9). He knew that many would never believe regardless of miracles. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31). Note also John 12:37: "Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him."
It is, therefore, obvious that the Lord Jesus Christ did on occasion perform mighty miracles, but always with clear reason and results, never for display or personal gain. The miracles that He did perform were accomplished before many different people, out in the open, in crowds, and were of many different kinds. They were obviously not tricks of hypnosis or mass psychology, as some have foolishly suggested.
As a matter of fact, many were actually miracles of creation (e.g., the water into wine, the multiplication of the loaves, etc.) and of resurrection. None but the Creator himself could be competent for such mighty works as these. John, in fact, develops his whole Gospel around the framework of seven great miracles of omnipotence and, when he concludes, he says: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 20:30-31).
The Claims of Christ
In view of the sinless life, the wonderful teachings, and the mighty miracles of Christ, the claims He makes concerning His own person and mission are extremely important. A man who could accomplish such things as these can neither be dismissed as hallucinatory nor rejected as a charlatan. Neither, as has already been shown, can the gospel writers have been mistaken in reporting what He claimed.
Therefore, these claims must be studied carefully and regarded with utmost seriousness. They were actually made by Christ himself and, by all rules of reason and logic, should be accepted as absolute truth. They amount en toto to an absolute and dogmatic claim that He, Jesus Christ, is himself the eternal God! If this be so, and it is so, then a person can ignore or reject this fact only at the cost of tragic and eternal loss to his own soul.
The claims are many and varied, but all add up both individually and collectively to affirmation of His own unique deity as the eternal Son of God. A sampling of these is given below, without comment (for none is needed):
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).
The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins (Matt. 9:6).
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven (Matt. 10:32).
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and