“I and My Father are one.”

— John 10:30

Have you ever really thought about some of the things Jesus Christ said about Himself? Have you ever pondered the fact that Jesus Christ made claims that today would put someone in a lockup?

Jesus said He was the “light of the world.” Talk about delusions of grandeur. (But only if the claim weren’t true.) Jesus also claimed an eternal origin—He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” His hearers, the Jewish leaders of His day, knew that those words were a claim to deity. (Recall that, in Exodus 3:14, God identified Himself to Moses as “I AM.”) Jesus also claimed the power to forgive sins, something only God can do. As well, Jesus presented Himself as equal to God when He said, “I and My Father are one.”

The Jewish leaders knew the meaning behind Jesus’ words, and they didn’t like what they heard. They recognized Jesus’ claim to deity and almost stoned Him for blasphemy.

If you really think about it, either Jesus was crazy, he was a deceiver, or He was telling the truth. C. S. Lewis, the great Christian writer, put it so well:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be 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 up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. — Mere Christianity (Macmillan, 1952)

Whenever you find yourself thinking about Jesus, take a moment to stop and consider Who He really is. He revealed His identity in His words, and He’ll back up His words by showing His power in your life.

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten from the Father, God from God, Light from
Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being
with the Father. Through Him all things were made . . .”
Nicene Creed