To me, as you read the gospels it is obvious that Jesus claimed to be God.  As you read the writings of the apostles, the disciples, the epistles, they truly believed Jesus was God in human flesh.  When you read the writings of the early church fathers it become very clear that they truly believed He was God in human flesh.

And yet a lot of people today will say, “You know He was just a good man.  He was a good moral teacher, a good religious man.”  Now wait a minute.  You cannot say that about Christ when you take into consideration what He claimed about Himself.

Let me show you how I worked through that idea.  What helped me here were some things that C.S. Lewis taught in His writings.  I call it the “trilemma” when it comes to the claims of Christ.  So follow with me.  It will take me several sessions to do this.

First, Jesus claimed to be God.  Now there are two alternatives to that.  His claims were either true; or His claims were false.   If His claims were false, then there were two alternatives.  One, He knew they were false or two, He did not know they were false.  Now, if He knew His claims were false; then that would have to mean He made a deliberate misrepresentation of who He was; then that would mean He was a liar.  And if He was a liar, then that would mean He was a hypocrite.  And if He was a hypocrite that would mean that He was a demon out of the pit of hell.  And then that would have to mean he was a fool.  Why, because he died for it.

Jesus claimed to be God.  His claims could either be false or true.  That dilemma leads to another dilemma – if His claims were false, 1) He knew that they were false.  Or 2) He did not know they were false; meaning that He was sincerely deluded — on the level of a man who would call himself a poached egg.

Now if He was deluded then it would have to mean that He was a lunatic.  And if He was a lunatic, then isn’t it amazing that the teaching of a lunatic accomplished more good than a sane person’s teaching ever has in history.

SUMMARY: The writings of the apostles, the disciples, and the epistles truly believed Jesus was God in human flesh.  Also the writings of the early church fathers were clear that they believed Jesus was God in the flesh.  Yet many people today say that Jesus was only a good moral teacher.  How can this be true of Jesus?  Josh describes what C.S. Lewis taught in his writings as the Trilemma.  First Jesus claimed to be God.  Is this true or false?  If false then there were two options:  Jesus was a liar, i.e., a hypocrite; or he was deluded, thinking he was something he was not.  And if he was lying he was a fool because he died for a lie that he knew was a lie.  Or second he was deluded thinking he was something he was not.  How is it possible that a lunatic accomplished much more good than a sane person’s teaching ever has in history.

QUESTIONS:

1. What sources believe Jesus claimed to be God in human flesh?
2. What two options can be believed?
3. If Jesus knew his claims were false, what would that say about Him?
4. If Jesus believed his claims were true but they were false, what would that say about him?
5. What does Josh McDowell call this line of reasoning?  Why?