Taking Jesus For All That He Is

It is difficult to find somebody who disagrees with Jesus' teachings. No matter what someone thinks about Christianity, when they are shown the raw teachings of Jesus they are impressed and inspired. Mostly. But Jesus being Lord over all and the Son of God? That seems like a stretch, they say.

On face value, I totally agree. I mean, the guy said some good things, but can't people who say good things also have messianic delusions? In fact, Mark Oppenhiemer of The New York Times said this exact thing (quite out of the blue) a month ago in his article about the new C.S. Lewis Bible. And I've thought about that when I was first getting into this whole Christian thing.

Jesus said great things, sure, but when it came to it, after he said these great things and got a following he just started thinking a little too highly of himself and said some things that weren't true.

But hold on...

In an examination of Christ's teachings, it becomes pretty clear that every one of his commands is actually rooted in his Messianic identity (the fact that he is God). Observe, just my top three favorite teachings:

Do you like his teachings on love? They are based in the fact that He is love. He is the source and creator and sustainer of all love.

Do you like his teaching on peace? They are based on the fact that he is peace. He is the source of the Sabbath and the creator of the seventh day.

Do you like his teachings on forgiveness and loving your enemies? It is based on the fact that he was killed by his enemies and yet he died forgiving them.

You can't separate Jesus' teachings from who he is because one informs the other. An examination of Christ's words show us that His teaching is founded upon a claim of who he really is. Biblically speaking: commands are always rooted in promises.

I stole that last line from Jeff Patterson. DEAL WITH IT.