(With Apologies to C.S. Lewis)
Recently someone said to me, "I believe in Jesus as a rabbi." Because we were in the midst of another topic, I did not interrupt the conversation to say, "I'm sorry!" or "That's too bad." And yet...the omission still haunts me. I cannot think of anything more important to talk about, or any conversation more vital than this one.
Every one of us has the right to be wrong or to be unenlightened on any topic, and still to be loved with our whole hearts and minds. And this, it seems to me, is what we are saying to Jesus when we consider Him "a good man" or a worthy Rabbi: I love you with my whole heart; no one has ever spoken as You have. Your words are spirit and truth, and I want to take them as the guide for my life. But on this one aspect, You are mistaken. You are not truly the Son of God come into the world. You are a creature like the rest of us, and indeed, You and the Father will not come to dwell in us if we keep your words.
If Christ has not come to transform us by His Spirit, if He has no efficacy in us beyond His Words spoken 2000 years ago; if it is up to us to listen to Him and to imitate Him, then we are beyond hopeless. If the Jews could not keep the Law unto righteousness for 2000 years, how then should we think our goodness and strength is greater than theirs? That might be the greatest arrogance of all!
As C.S. Lewis so brilliantly put it: Jesus did not give us that option -- to say that He was a good man, but mistaken in His belief that He was the Son of God. Either He is within us today, doing the same mission given to Him by the Father --- healing, teaching, transforming us by the Spirit -- or He WAS simply another great teacher or rabbi in a long line of great teachers and rabbis. Perhaps He was the greatest Prophet of all --- but He was still mistaken in His Divine Origin.
And why is that "too bad" if this is our belief? Because then He has no power to transform us by His Presence in us. His Resurrection Life in us is ineffective, and His Words in us have no power to effect what they say. Like all men, we are the most hopeless of creatures, because then it is entirely up to us to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and DO the things He said to us --- and if there is any truth in the world, it is simply that we have in ourselves no power to carry out the things we know we should do.
St. Paul said it well in Romans 7: in my mind, I agree with the law, but in my body, the very thing I say I will do is the thing I do not do, and the thing I say I will not do is the thing I end up doing after all. Unhappy man that I am! Who will release me from the power of sin and death that reigns in my body? …….. Praise be to God, it has been done in me! The Spirit of God has released me from the law of sin and death and put a new law in my members...the law of God! Now I am a new creature, no longer subject to the law of sin and death. (paraphrased and combined -- but read Romans 7 and 8).
If Jesus Christ is just a rabbi with wise words, He does not have the power today to make new creatures of us, capable of DOING the things of the Spirit and becoming sons of God, therefore making null and void all the words of the New Testament! There is no Holy Spirit dwelling within us to overcome sin and death, and we are the most miserable of men, for our faith is founded upon our own power to make ourselves "good."
O unhappy men that we are if Jesus is a Rabbi and not the Son of God!
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