Jesus, the perfect man

As a preacher, as a doer of things, and as a philosopher, no man ever had the sweep and the vision of Jesus.

A human analysis of the human actions of Jesus brings to view a rule of life that is amazing in its perfect detail.

The system of ethics Jesus taught during His Earthly sojourn 2,000 years ago was true then, has been true in every century since and will be true forever.

Plato was a great thinker and learned in his age, but his teachings did not stand the test of time. In big things and in little things time and human experience have shown that he erred.

Marcus Aurelius touched the reflective mind of the world, but he was as cold and austere as brown marble. . . .

Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ is a thing of rare beauty and sympathy, but it is, as its name indicates, only an imitation.

Lord Bacon writing on chemistry and medicine under the glasses of the man working in a 20th Century laboratory is puerile.

The world's most learned doctors until 150 years ago gave dragon's blood and ground tails of lizards and shells of eggs for certain ailments. The great surgeons a hundred years ago bled a man if he were wounded.

Napoleon had the world at his feet for four years, and when he died the world was going on its way as if he had never lived.

Jesus taught little as to property because He knew there were things of more importance than property. He measured property and life, the body and soul, at their exact relative value. He taught much more as to character, because character is of more importance than dollars.

Other men taught us to develop systems of government. Jesus taught so as to perfect the minds of men. Jesus looked to the soul, while other men dwelled on material things.

After the experience of 2,000 years no man can find a flaw in the governmental system outlined by Jesus.

Czar and kaiser, president and Socialist, give to its complete merit their admiration.

No man today, no matter whether he follows the doctrine of Mill, Marx or George as to property, can find a false principle in Jesus's theory of property.

In the duty of a man to his fellow no sociologist has ever approximated the perfection of the doctrine laid down by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount.

Not all the investigations of chemists, not all the discoveries of explorers, not all the experiences of rulers, not all the historical facts that go to make up the sum of human knowledge on this day in 1912 are in contradiction to one word uttered or one principle laid down by Jesus.

The human experiences of 2,000 years show that Jesus never made a mistake. Jesus never uttered a doctrine that was true at that time and then became obsolete.

History has no record of any other man leading a perfect life or doing everything in logical order. Jesus is the only person whose every action and whose every utterance strike a true note in the heart and mind of every man born of woman. He never said a foolish thing, never did a foolish act and never dissembled.

No poet, no dreamer, no philosopher loved humanity with all the love that Jesus bore toward all men.

He could not have been merely a man, for there never was a man who had two consecutive thoughts absolute in truthful perfection.

Jesus must have been what Christendom proclaims Him to be - a divine being - or He could not have been what He was. No mind but an infinite mind could have left behind those things which Jesus gave the world as a heritage.

WHO, THEN, was Jesus? He could not have been merely a man, . . .

C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, has made the case about as well as it's possible to make:

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 either be a lunatic--on the 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 patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.

Great post. The following is based on His temptation in the Book of Matthew:

The Majesty of Yeshua Messiah

Satan took Him by the hand,
showed Him riches o'er all the land,
said to Him, this is yours,
if you will acknowledge me as your lord

The Majestic One said to him,
you dare to offer this great sin,
get thee hence , away from me,
I rebuke you and your mockery

The day will come
when you'll be through,
my Father's justice will come to you,
you've caused Him such great ire,
He will cast you into the Lake of Fire

There you'll remain for eternity,
never again will you be free,
with you will be the other two,
to suffer torment along with you

Then will begin the new regime’
of which all believers dream,
when they'll no longer be alone,
as Yeshua Messiah sits upon His throne

Copyright © 1997 By John J. Lindsay. All Rights Reserved.
January 28, 1997

FReegards

Yes, this is one of Lewis's good moments. There are numerous passages in the gospels that bring this truth to the fore. For instance, take John 8:56-59:

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

The Jews tried to stone Him because what Jesus said can only be interpreted as a) a statement that he is God (the name for God in Exodus, "I AM") or that he is a crazy blasphemer. They chose wrong, but they understood what was at stake, so their choice makes more sense than to say, "Oh, he was just a good man."

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