Met another Chinese lady on Valentine's Day. She (S) is a high school pupil with excellent English doing year 11. She has a Christian mother.
I asked S about the Christian faith and she said openly that she wasn't a Christian. It seemed then I got a prompt to ask her about Jesus and she told me she believed he was a good man.
A good man? Just a good man? I missed a golden opportunity to follow up here (but the shop was busy and S was there to help for the day).
Later, I thought about C. S. Lewis' comment that you can call Jesus many things but you can't say he was a 'good man' because this 'good man' accepted the title of the Son of God on various occasions (e.g., Jn 10.36-38). But good men tell the truth and if this man accepted the title of the Son of God (e.g., Matt 26.63-64) then he cannot be good. He was either deluded or a liar.
With his disciples he asked, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' (Matt 16.15-17). After getting the answers of 'John the Baptist', 'Elijah', 'Jeremiah', 'one of the prophets', he then asked the most important question for that age and this: 'But who do you say that I am?'
Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God' (Matt 16.16). In his response, Jesus not only accepted that Peter was correct but said that Peter's answer had been revealed to him by 'My Father who is in heaven' (Matt 16.17).
Interestingly, Jesus didn't go around saying He was the Son of God very often. (But then neither does the Prime Minister of a country do so either because everyone knows it to be so and acts on the basis that it is so.) But the New Testament is pervaded with the understanding that in Jesus, God's Unique Son has come to earth and been called the Son of God by God at his birth, baptism and transfiguration. (See here.)
I asked S about the Christian faith and she said openly that she wasn't a Christian. It seemed then I got a prompt to ask her about Jesus and she told me she believed he was a good man.
A good man? Just a good man? I missed a golden opportunity to follow up here (but the shop was busy and S was there to help for the day).
Jesus Was NOT a good man
Of course, all Christians believe he was good but Jesus was far more than just a good man. He was the Christ that the righteous in Jewry were looking for and that the unrighteous shamefully rejected. Moreover, he was the Son of God (Jn 3.16f).Later, I thought about C. S. Lewis' comment that you can call Jesus many things but you can't say he was a 'good man' because this 'good man' accepted the title of the Son of God on various occasions (e.g., Jn 10.36-38). But good men tell the truth and if this man accepted the title of the Son of God (e.g., Matt 26.63-64) then he cannot be good. He was either deluded or a liar.
With his disciples he asked, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' (Matt 16.15-17). After getting the answers of 'John the Baptist', 'Elijah', 'Jeremiah', 'one of the prophets', he then asked the most important question for that age and this: 'But who do you say that I am?'
Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God' (Matt 16.16). In his response, Jesus not only accepted that Peter was correct but said that Peter's answer had been revealed to him by 'My Father who is in heaven' (Matt 16.17).
Interestingly, Jesus didn't go around saying He was the Son of God very often. (But then neither does the Prime Minister of a country do so either because everyone knows it to be so and acts on the basis that it is so.) But the New Testament is pervaded with the understanding that in Jesus, God's Unique Son has come to earth and been called the Son of God by God at his birth, baptism and transfiguration. (See here.)
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