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Jesus is no mere gifted teacher. Either he's a nutcase, the devil himself, or the Lord of the universe. Those are the options.

As C.S. Lewis wrote a half century ago, don't come "with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to."

In John 7, when the officers reported to the chief priests and Pharisees, "No one ever spoke like this man!" (v. 46), they knew the magnitude of his claims. Jesus was either Lord, liar, or lunatic to announce, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37–38).

Jesus leaves us no fence to straddle. As rock star Bono said in a 2004 interview, "either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase."

But Jesus summons us to more than mere intellectual assent that he is Son of God and Messiah. He calls us to come to him and drink. Believing on Jesus means more than being persuaded that he is God, but seeing him as our supreme and all-satisfying Treasure, our thirst-quenching Water, our hunger-stilling Bread, our ever-guiding and all-illumining Light, and our infinitely precious substitute, the sacrificial Lamb of God.

Watch, listen, or download "No One Ever Spoke Like This Man!"

Topic: The Deity of Christ  

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is an elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Twin Cities, and works as executive pastoral assistant to John Piper. He and his wife Megan have twin sons (Carson and Coleman) and live in Minneapolis. David is co-editor (with John Piper) of Thinking, Loving, Doing, most recently, and Finish the Mission, forthcoming. Yep, he plays rec softball and went yard in his last game.