The Lordness of Jesus

Tim Keller:

Here is another example: remember last week He says, "I forgive all your sins," and remember what we said that was? He was claiming that all sins were against Him. You can only forgive sins that are against you. So when he forgives a man all his sins, what He's saying is that "all your sins are against me."

Now what is He talking about? Over and over again, Jesus shows that all His self-consciousness, His understanding of who He is, is unprecendented. There is no one else - no human being who has ever walked the face of the earth that I know of has made anything like these kinds of claims. Honestly, you have to remember that there have been plenty of people who have said, "O, I am the divine consciousness," but they think of divinity as something that's in all of us, that's in the trees and in the human spirit. But Jesus understands that there's a God who is uncreated, who is beginningless, who is infinitely transcendent above this creation, who made this world, who keeps everything in this universe going with His pinkie, with His Word of Power, that all the molecules and all the stars and all the solar systems are being help up by the power of this God.

And Jesus Christ says, "that's who I am." And it's on every page, even in his off-handed comments. Like in Luke chapter 10 - it's a great place - there's a place in Luke 10 where Jesus is talking about demon-possession, and you know what He says? He says, "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning." What? You know what He just said? He says, "Yes, I remember back before the material universe was created. I saw Lucifer go bad. It was terrible. Yeah, I was around - I knew him." What?

There's another place in Matthew where He says - again, it's almost off-handed - "I keep sending you prophets and sages." What? He says, "Wait a minute. I don't say that I am one of the great prophets and sages that God has sent." No, He says, "I am the God who has been sending all of the prophets and sages. And He says, to prove it, to prove that that's how He understood, every prophet and every religious teacher and every sage and every wise-man or woman who's ever lived always said, "Thus saith the Lord." I defy you to find a place where Jesus ever says that. He never says that. Can you believe it? All Jesus ever says is - over and over again, all He says is, "Truly, truly I say unto you."

Jesus' self-consciousness is so off-the-mat, so over-the-top. It's very clear that he's absolutely saturated so that even His off-handed comments, even His footnotes, even His sidebars, everything He says, assumes that He is the unceasing, beginningless, transcendent, eternal Creator and Judge of the universe. And what are You going to do about it?