A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
C. S. LewisRead
You must make your choice: either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. 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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of making a definitive choice about Jesus' identity, arguing against the notion of viewing him merely as a great moral teacher.
C. S. Lewis argues that one cannot simply regard Jesus as a wise teacher without acknowledging his divine claims. According to Lewis, Jesus presents a compelling choice: either accept him as the Son of God or dismiss him as a madman or worse, emphasizing that neutrality or diluted views of his identity are not legitimate options. This assertion challenges individuals to confront their beliefs regarding Jesus seriously and to recognize the implications of his teachings.
Themes
JesusChoiceIdentityFaithBelief
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon discussing faith, one could use this quote to provoke thought about who Jesus is to each individual.
More from C. S. Lewis
All quotes →I enjoyed my breakfast this morning, and I think that was a good thing and do not think it was condemned by God. But I do not think myself a good man for enjoying it.
C. S. LewisRead
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
C. S. LewisRead
Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.
C. S. LewisRead
I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. It doesn't change God - it changes me.
C. S. LewisRead
The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred
C. S. LewisRead
Similar quotes
Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.
Rachel Naomi RemenRead
I try to make sense of things. Which is why, I guess, I believe in destiny. There must be a reason that I am as I am. There must be.
Robin WilliamsRead
Shadow work is the path of the heart warrior.
Carl JungRead
Desire demands only a constant attention to the unknown gravitational field which surrounds us and from which we can recharge ourselves every moment, as if breathing from the atmosphere of possibility itself. A life’s work is not a series of stepping-stones onto which we calmly place our feet, but more like an ocean crossing where there is no path, only a heading, a direction, which, of itself, is in conversation with the elements.
David WhyteRead
Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.
H. L. MenckenRead
If there be a God and one has never sought him, it will be small consolation to remember that one could not get proof of his existence.
George MacdonaldRead