For the next few days, let’s consider the story of a man who needs no introduction. Well, at least not in the time and town where he lived. Our story is about a young man with a lot of money. But this rich young man was contemplating mortality. Makes you wonder why. Maybe a young friend had died, and he had come face to face with death. Maybe he had had a near-death experience. For whatever reason, the man ran up to Jesus and fell on his knees before the Lord. The man wanted a fresh start.

Mark 10:17-18
And as [Jesus] was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Did this man know he was talking to God in the flesh? Doesn’t seem so. He addressed Jesus as an advisor…a spiritual consultant…a good, wise, and honest teacher. The man needed some spiritual counsel, and Jesus looked the part. Jesus did not deny that he was good but forced the man to understand that his only hope was in God. Jesus explained that “no one is good except God alone.” Only God is the answer to eternal life questions.

Many people acknowledge Jesus as a good teacher. Even other religions consider Jesus as a good man. We think we’re safe if we can keep Jesus contained as the man who taught the Golden Rule. But Jesus always forces us to make a decision. We must bow before him as Lord or not bow at all.

In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis makes the point that what Jesus claimed only makes sense if he is truly God in the flesh. Here is Lewis’ argument.

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. . . or else the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either he was the, 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.[1]

Today, Jesus is calling you to a fresh start. Bow down and call him Lord!

Lord Jesus, many times we who know you as Lord but treat you as an advisor. Forgive us. Help us always bow before you as Lord of our lives every day in every situation. Amen.

[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperSanFrancisco, 1952), 52.