I have yet to meet anyone who has completely written off Jesus. They may call him a good teacher, or even a divine prophet, but few, if any, would call him a fraud.

But what did Jesus say about himself? And what did others, those who knew him best, think of this man from Bethlehem – the baby born in a manger?

He most definitely was different from any other prophet or teacher throughout the ages. As history shows through the Bible (the most reliable, accurate, and well preserved historical document of today), Jesus had a lot to say about himself…

John 5:24 – "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

John 7:38 – “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

John 12:26 – “My Father will honor the one who serves me.”

Matthew 28:18 – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

And most pointedly, in the book of John, Jesus declares, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me!”

Jesus made it very clear, he was the final authority.

Others who knew Jesus had a lot to say about him as well. These were individuals who later would die for their beliefs, unwilling to go back on their views of Jesus as the Son of God. Peter called him Christ (Mark 8:29), Thomas called him God (John 20:28), his disciples called him the Son of God (Matthew 14:33), and Stephen called him the Righteous One (Acts 7:52).

But maybe the most convincing of all were the views of Jesus’ enemies, as seen in John 10:33. In the process of attempting to kill Jesus, his accusers said, “‘we are not stoning you for any of these (reasons),” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’"

In fact, even at his trial Jesus was telling others he was the Son of God:

Mark 14:61-64 – “Again the high priest ask him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,’ said Jesus, ‘and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One’…The high priest tore his clothes, ‘Why do we need any more witnesses,’ he asked. ‘You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’”

So what do you think? As C.S. Lewis put it:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse … But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

For me – and thousands of others I know – Jesus proved himself to be God the Son because his divine promises have become true in our personal experience. I couldn’t ask for more than that.