what are we to make of Jesus Christ? - excerpts from Lewis.

was reading a bit of lewis this morning and hit these little numbers...two excerpts from God in the Dock in the chapter What are we to make of Jesus Christ?...lewis has a profound way of making truth stand out as, well, truth...

talking about Christ having no parallel in other religions....


On the one side clear, definite moral teaching. On the other, claims which,
if not true, are those of a megalomaniac, compared with who, Hitler was the most sane and humble of
men. There is no half-way house and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him "are you the son of Bramah?", he would have said, "My son, you are still in the vale of illusion". If you had gone to Mohammed and asked, "Are you Allah?", he would have rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, "Are you Heaven?", I think he would have probably replied, "Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste". The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man... We may note in passing that He was never recognised as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects - Hatred - Terror - Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.
 
and then seeking to answer the question 'what then are we to make of this Christ?'

What are we to make of Christ?. There is no question of what we can make of Him, it is entirely a
question of what He intends to make of us. You must accept or reject the story.

The things He says are very different from what any other teacher has said. Others say, "This is the
truth about the Universe. This is the way you ought to go", but He says, "I am the Way and the Truth
and the Life". He says, "No man can reach absolute reality, except through Me". Try to retain your
own life and you will be inevitably ruined. Give yourself away and you will be saved. He says, "If you are ashamed of Me, if, when you hear this call, you turn the other way, I also will look the other way when I come again as God without disguise. If anything whatever is keeping you from God and from Me, whatever it is, throw it away... Come to Me everyone who is carrying a heavy load, I will set that right. Your sins, all of them, are wiped out.. Do not be afraid, I have overcome the whole Universe". That is the issue.

lewis puts things in such a way, that it puts my intellect to rest, from the difficult task of wrestling with my own fleshly desire to fight, at every turn, the truth of Christ, and he equips me to speak to others about the truth of the Son.  the Word of God is of course the greatest source for this, but it also helps to have a companion to explain some things a bit further when needed...and his writings are that for me.

enjoy.