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"What Think Ye of Christ?" Matthew 22:42
One of the greatest questions of the gospel age, if not the greatest question of the gospel age,
was asked by Jesus. He was in the temple. The record says, "While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?" (Mt. 22:42).
Jesus is willing for the moment to refrain from pressing his own claim to be the Christ, but he
inquires whose son the true Christ must be. The answer they gave is the answer Jesus would
have given. They said, "The son of David." Jesus then propounds another question, one which
overwhelmed the Pharisees, one which puts anyone who gives such an answer in a dilemma from
which he cannot escape. He said, "How then doth David in spirit call him Lord?" (Mt. 22:43).
If David, in the spirit, that is, by inspiration, called Christ his Lord, as he did in Psalm 110:1, how
could Christ be at the same time David's Lord and David's son? The two are inconsistent if the
Christ is not the Son of God as well as the Son of man. They could not answer the question
without acknowledging the divinity of the Christ so the Scriptures say: "No man was able to answer
him a word" (Mt. 22:46).
Today there are many opinions concerning the Christ. Some worship him as the Lord, while
others reject him. Some admit that he was the Son of man, but do not believe he was the Son of
God. Jesus Christ was not the only one who ever claimed to be divine, while also human, but he is
the only one whose claims are authentic and convincing. The witnesses to his divinity are so
numerous and impressive as to create wonder and awe, and to leave no doubt that he was
indeed the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Have you faced this great question of the gospel
age. What do you think about Christ? What think ye of Christ? Let us notice some of the great
characters of the pages of history and of their conception of the Christ
Secular History Confirms the Divinity of Jesus
Ancient disciples, such men as Barnabas, Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp, wrote at length about
Jesus' life and teachings, and would not retract their testimony, even under penalty of death.
Josephus, a Jewish historian who was not a Christian, wrote in his book, Antiquities of the Jews,
Book XVII, Chapter 3, "Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of
wonder works ... he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had
foretold." Other secular historians who acknowledge the wonderful life and work of Jesus are,
among others: Tacitus (A.D. 55-120). Lucian (A.D. 120-190), a Greek historian and Gaius
Paterculus (19 B.C. - A.D. 37), who was a Roman historian. There is much other written testimony
in existence by others who claimed that they met Jesus.
Jesus Claimed to be the Son of God
Some have made the assertion that Jesus himself did not claim to be the Son of God, but those
who make such an assertion simply do not know the teaching of the New Testament. For example,
Jesus made the statement "I and my Father are one" (Jn. 10:30). The Pharisees certainly
understood that Jesus claimed divinity in this statement, because they took up stones, saying that
Jesus had blasphemed "because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God" (Jn. 10:33).
When Jesus stood before the high priest, he was asked, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the
Blessed?" And Jesus said, "I am" (Mk. 14:61, 62). What could be more emphatic than that
statement? Throughout his entire life, Jesus made claims that only Divinity would make. Let us
look at his claims.