Is Jesus Christ Your Lord? 

 At some point, after examining the evidence, one must decide whether one is going to believe in the deity of Christ or not. That Jesus lived, died, was buried, and rose again, most persons who call themselves Christians would agree. Yet Jesus said,  "... Unless you believe that I am (ego eimi), you shall die in your sins' ' (John 8:24). Paul wrote, ''...  if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved' ' (Romans 10:9). If Christ is divine, and if belief in His divinity is necessary for salvation, much is at stake. 

C. S. Iewis brought the point of Christ s divinity to the fore when he wrote a letter to a skeptical friend,  Arthur Greeves: 

 I think the great difficulty is this: If He was not God,  who or what was He? In Matthew 28:19 you already get the baptismal formula ' 'In the name of the Father,  the Son & the Holy Ghost." Who is this ' 'Son' '? Is the Holy Ghost a man? If not, does a man "send' ' Him (see John 15:26)? In Col. 1: 12 Christ is "before all things and by Him all things consist.' ' What sort of a man is this? I leave out the obvious place at the beginning of St. John's Gospel. Take something much less obvious. When He weeps over Jerusalem (Matthew 23) why does He suddenly say (v.34) "I send unto you prophets and wise men' '? Who could say this except either God or a lunatic? Who is this man who goes about forgiving sins? Or what about Mark 2: 18-19. What man can announce that simply because he is present, acts of penitence, such as fasting, are ''off''? Who can give the school a half holiday except the Headmaster? 

The doctrine of Christ's divinity seems to me not something stuck on which you can unstick but something that peeps out at every point so that you would have to unravel the whole web to get rid of it. Of course you may reject some of these passages as unauthentic, but then I could do the same to yours if t cared to play that game! When it says God cannot be tempted I take this to be an obvious truth. God,  as God, cannot, any more than He can die. He became man precisely to do and suffer what as God He could not do and suffer. And if you take away the godhead of Christ, what is Christianity all about? How can the death of one man have this effect for all men which is proclaimed throughout the New Testament?' 

 This is exactly the point – no one man could have any special effect on all humanity. Only God the Son could atone for all humankind. No partial substitute would satisfy. 

Our redemption, the crucial point on which ail of Christianity rests, is dependent on Jesus Christ's being not only man but also God. Our ''passover lamb'' – Jesus Christ tortured, crucified, dead, and buried – had to be a sheep from the flock. God would hardly qualify as one of our brethren, yet His Son could. 

Many who deny the deity of Christ maintain that things like the Trinity or the two natures of Christ are ' 'impossible' ' or ' 'unreasonable. " They would say,  ' 'God could never have been nailed to a cross; God is Spirit' ' or ''God would not offer Himself to

Himself' ' or ' 'God cannot be born.' ' Those statements ignore the fact of the incarnation, that it was the Son who offered Himself to the Father, that with God all things are possible. 

We should not let our concepts of "reasonable' '  or "possible'' sit in judgment on what God has revealed. The issue is what God has said, not can we fully comprehend it? 

In reading the Gospel narratives, we see that Jesus evoked three primary responses from the people of His day: hatred, terror, or adoration. Having understood His claims, people were unable to remain neutral. Jesus set the stage for every individual either to accept Him or to reject Him. 

Peter, who denied Jesus three times, eventually died a martyr's death because of His conviction that Jesus was the Christ in human flesh. When Christ asked Peter who He was, Peter confessed: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ' (Matthew 16:16). Jesus responded to Peter's confession, not by correcting his conclusion, but by acknowledging its validity and source: "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven'' (Matthew 16:17) . 

Thomas was often referred to as the doubter,  because he questioned Christ's resurrection. Finally,  after overwhelming evidence by Christ Himself after the resurrection, Thomas cried out in acknowledgement and worship:  "My Lord and my God!"  (John 20:28) . 

Since then, many people through the centuries have experienced a similar struggle when confronted with Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?" We are faced with a trilemma that is depicted in the following diagram:

For further explanation of the above diagram see Evidence That Demands A Verdict1 (chapter 7) and More Than a Carpenter2 (chapter 2). For further historical evidence supporting the deity of Christ,  read The Resurrection Factor.3

What about you? What do you think of Christ? Do you have a mere religion, or do you have a personal relationship with the living God through His Son Jesus Christ? There is ample evidence to support one's belief in the deity of Christ for those willing to make a decision. After Thomas cried out to Jesus,  "My Lord and my God! '' Jesus replied, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed ' (John 20:29).