THE DIVINITY CODE: Clarifying Jesus’ True Identity

Before we talk in more detail about corrupted code, distorted filters, and the battlefield of your mind, and before we discuss how to break free from deception, we must first establish the foundation of truth itself—the reality of Jesus Christ.

Everything begins with Jesus. Why? Because your beliefs and assumptions about Jesus will determine your battle plan. 

For twenty centuries, people have debated Jesus’ identity. Some have said he was a radical Jewish prophet, in step with mighty Hebrew forerunners like Moses and Elijah.

Others believe he was a wise spiritual guru in the same vein as Buddha and Krishna.

Hardcore skeptics, such as the nineteenth-century philosopher Bruno Bauer, have questioned whether Jesus existed at all.

In The Da Vinci Code, the world’s best-selling book of 2003, Jesus is described as a charismatic human being who secretly married Mary Magdalene, with whom he had a daughter.

Meanwhile, Christians of every generation and in every corner of the world have insisted for two thousand years that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and that God was pleased to have His fullness dwell in him (Colossians 1:15,19).

With such a wide range of disagreement, how could anyone possibly know who’s right about Jesus? It’s simpler than it sounds, really. Just apply your mind to the questions at hand.

Did Jesus of Nazareth actually exist? Of course he did. There is simply too much early, historical evidence – both inside and outside of the Bible – to plausibly suggest otherwise. Not only do all nine New Testament authors independently attest to Jesus’ actual existence – all within a generation of his life – but we also know of several first- and second-century non-Christian historians (ex., the Jewish chronicler Josephus, Roman archivist Tacitus, and other secular figures like Pliny the Younger and Suetonius) who referred to Jesus Christ as a historical figure within the first hundred years after his death. Only someone with a clear, anti-Christian, biased agenda could say that Jesus was merely a myth contrived by zealous, overly-imaginative, first-century Jews. Case closed.

Was Jesus a wise, spiritual teacher? Indeed, his followers referred to him as “rabbi” (or teacher), a title that he welcomed (John 13:13), and by all accounts, Jesus was incomparably wise. Even his enemies frequently acknowledged his spiritual acuity (see Matthew 13:54, 22:21-33), and on several occasions, Jesus forced his critics to wave the white flag:

So yes, Jesus was a wise, spiritual teacher. But is that all he was – just another Confucius or Aristotle?

Emphatically, no. Nothing about his life lines up with the other great men of wisdom the world has seen: Jesus never went to college, never traveled the world, and never wrote a single book. Most importantly, Jesus never claimed to be merely a spiritual guide or transcendental guru; instead, he made the unique and exclusive claim that he was (and is) the one true God in the flesh.

Some will debate this point for one of two reasons:
1. They don’t believe that Jesus was God.
2. They don’t believe that Jesus believed he was God. 

While the first objection is perfectly understandable, the second is not. Much has been written and said by smarter men than us to show, beyond all reasonable doubt, that Jesus claimed to be Immanuel, “God with us” (this video by Gavin Ortlund offers a good summary). Some skeptics have rightly pointed out that Jesus never said the words I AM GOD verbatim, but he didn’t need to. He left us with more than enough evidence in the gospels to safely assume that, as he walked the earth, Jesus absolutely believed himself to be God:

• He was a Jewish man who controlled the weather and the sea, something that Jews believed only God could do. (Mark 4:39)
• He forgave sins, a privilege reserved for God alone. (Mark 2:5, Matthew 9:2)
• He claimed that he existed before Abraham. (John 8:58)
• He repeatedly allowed people to worship him, something that no other Jewish rabbi dared allow because it would have been in violation of the first Commandment. (Matthew 2:11, 14:33, 28:9, 28:17, John 9:38, Luke 24:52)
• He claimed to have authority over the Sabbath Law (ie, the Law of God). (Luke 6:5)
• When the disciple Thomas referred to Jesus as “my Lord and my God,” Jesus did not correct or chastise him. (John 20:28)
• Astonishingly, Jesus told his disciples that he would soon be crucified and raised from the dead three days later, and that’s exactly what happened. (Matthew 17:22-23)
• He said, “I and the Father are one” and “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 10:30 and John 14:9)
• He claimed to have existed eternally when he said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58)

Therefore, while it’s undeniable that Jesus was a wise teacher, it would be a mistake to think of him as only that, because he clearly believed that he was God. Given this conclusion, we are left with CS Lewis’ famous trilemma: Jesus of Nazareth was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. 

If Jesus is the Lord, then his words are not merely suggestions—they are absolute Truth.  If you believe that Jesus holds all authority in heaven and on earth, then it’s a safe bet to let him have authority over your life, too. And most importantly, if Jesus has already claimed victory over our Enemy, the corrupting Deceiver, then you have nothing to fear because he’s nothing but a desperate, defeated foe, pathetic and frantic in his wretched attempts to keep you from seeing the Truth.

When it comes to rewriting the corrupted code of our minds, this is where freedom begins: not with self-improvement or behavior modification, but with the choice to trust the supremacy of Jesus Christ and to find our freedom and confidence in him.

With our next installment, we’ll address the humanity of Jesus. He didn’t just appear on earth like an angel from heaven; he entered the human story by way of a troubled and traumatized family tree. In this way, he sent us a clear message: he was delivered through past trauma to deliver us from ours.

To be continued…