C.S. Lewis's Famous Trilemma

Jesus: Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?

C.S. Lewis is one of the most famous fiction writers of the 20th century. At one point in his life Lewis was an atheist. Against God and angry at the pain and suffering he saw in the world he argued that God could not exist while the problem of evil exists.

But upon reflection Lewis learned that the existence of evil proved that a standard of good existed by which he could see evil. Eventually his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings series, helped Lewis come to faith in Christ. After his conversion C.S. Lewis became a great Christian apologist, using reason and logic to defend the truths of the Christian faith.

One of Lewis's most compelling arguments was concerning the deity and authority of the claims of Jesus Christ. After a careful reading of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament, Lewis concluded that Jesus did not leave himself open to be just another wise man along the path of history. But rather He was God in the flesh come to save humanity from itself.

Lewis stated his argument as follows:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone 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 was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the 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. 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 patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God." - Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity, London: Collins, 1952, pp. 54–56. (In all editions, this is Bk. II, Ch. 3, "The Shocking Alternative.")

Lewis sees that the words of Jesus shouldn't be taken lightly, that He didn't just teach people to be good to each other. Jesus's words cut people to the core. Jesus came to bring the dead to life, to find the lost, and redeem the created to live eternally with the Creator.

So which is the best option to choose of Lewis's great trilemma?

Liar?

Was Jesus a liar? Was he really the promised Messiah that was foretold in the Jewish scriptures? Why think he was a liar? Jesus's life is one of the most well attested biographies of the ancient world. Tens of thousands of manuscripts from early writings after Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection remain today. These represent vastly more attestations than any other ancient figure. We can at least be assured that what he said and did was recorded accurately, but does that mean that He was telling the truth? Or that He really is the Son of God?

One piece of evidence we can search out is the rise of the early church. Rising among the backdrop of Judaism and Roman paganism, the early church was persecuted heavily for their beliefs and practices. All of the apostles, except for John, dies a martyr's death. If Jesus was a liar, then these men died for a lie. But none recanted their stories. And all died horrible deaths separated from one another. What could have possibly been their motive?

Lunatic?

Was Jesus a crazy man? Was he on the level of a David Koresh, just a mere mortal with delusions of being another god? What kind of crazy would you have to be to challenge the rule of Caesar? The world has been transformed by this man over the last 2000 years. Modern science, hospitals, orphanages, humanitarian aid have all been instituted in the name of this supposed lunatic! Read the New Testament for yourself and you most likely won't come away thinking the words of Jesus were conjured up out of lunacy.

Lord?

The only option left is that Jesus is who He said he is: the Light of the world, the Son of Man, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world. Not only did Jesus come to preach righteousness and God's perfect moral code, but the New Testament records that He came as a sacrifice to redeem the lost so that by his shed blood alone could man be reconciled with God and be brought back to fellowship with the Creator of the universe.

If this is the case, then every man, woman, and child owes Jesus their allegiance and their very lives. We owe eternal gratitude and worship to the one who gave up eternity to suffer at the hands of His own creation. He should rightly be seated at the right hand of the Father, and worshiped day and night by the people who gave their lives so that all could know the good news!

So Lewis's trilemma stands before us all today. How will you choose?