Criticizing God

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 patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Lewis refers to the astonishing “egocentric” (John Stott) claims Jesus makes:

• That he and the Father are one.
• That whoever has seen Jesus has seen God.
• That God the Father sent him to do his will.
• That he is the Savior of the World,
• The one source of eternal life and spiritual nourishment,
• The only way to God,
• The supreme judge of mankind,
• The light of the world,
• The resurrection and the life,
• The messiah, and
• The unique Son of God.
• Jesus says he has power to raise the dead and to heal the sick. And he claims authority over the Sabbath, authority to answer prayer, and authority to forgive sins.

Consider that last one. If I punch J__ in the nose, then ask his forgiveness, you would agree that J__ can grant me a pardon. But if I punch J__ and then as J__ prepares to punch me back, S__ steps in and says, “No, it’s OK; I forgive Glenn.” We would say, “What are you talking about? You can’t forgive Glenn for what he did to J__. It’s not your argument; only J__ can forgive sins against him.” But Jesus stands between men and God and say, “Father, I forgive them.”

No wonder the scribes and the Pharisees called Jesus a blasphemer, for they complained: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And his own family said of him: “He is out of his mind.” And here in John 7, we find that many thought he was leading people astray. They even said (v.20), “You have a demon.” Jesus polarizes opinions; he forces the trilemma on us.

So how is it resolved? Why do some call Jesus “Lord,” while others say, “blasphemer, demon possessed, out of his mind”? John does not tell us here. Instead, these events illustrate Jesus’ earlier answer, when Nicodemus sought him under the cover of night: “Rabbi, we know you are a great moral teacher.” But Jesus answered him, “You cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you are born again…. You must be born of the Spirit, from above; you must have new life from God.” Natural thinking never accepts spiritual truth; it is thought foolish because it offends your pride. If Jesus Christ is a great moral teacher, then we can receive his words and obey his lessons. But he will have none of that—you must be born again. He is not a great moral teacher come to explain self-salvation; he is a great God come to save a sinful people.

Only by being born of the Spirit are you able to accept Jesus’ teaching and treasure him above all pearls and earthly prizes. Our passage shows that by negative example—even those who lived with Jesus needed God’s gift of faith.

1. We Must Be Born of the Spirit Or We Will Not Believe (John 7.1-5)

See how insensitive are these hearts to the Son of God. Jesus grew up among these people; they saw daily his impeachable character, his cheerful obedience to mom and dad, his gracious tongue and gentle spirit. They could not remember