His Name is Jesus

by Rocky Fleming

Day 3:  Jesus is Totally Unique

“I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”  Napoleon Bonaparte

“There is no possible term of comparison,” are words of a man who admired Jesus.  Was Napoleon a follower of Christ?  There is nothing certain to say that he was or was not, but he sure was impressed with Him.  He had to admit that Jesus was the most special man who ever walked the earth by just looking at the facts and reading words spoken about Him.  This becomes a powerful tool when making a case for the deity of Christ, if an intelligent person wants to know factual truth. 

Bonaparte knew men.  What did he mean by saying this?  I think he was saying that he knew men and their weaknesses and strengths under the best and most trying conditions. Whether it is in peace or on a battlefield, a courageous man or a coward, an honest man or a scoundrel, a dedicated man or a non-committed man is eventually revealed. What is in a man will eventually show up, for he had seen them all under all conditions. He knew men.

Because he knew men, he also knew men who followed leaders. There were bad and good leaders, and the way men followed a leader said a lot about the leader.  Sometimes men would die for their leader if he was a good leader, but rarely would they die for a bad leader.  Therefore, there had to be a compelling reason why a group of men called Christ’s disciples and who knew Jesus best would live for Him and die for Him as they did.  This was intriguing to Napoleon for he knew men, and seeing these things about Jesus through those people’s eyes told him a lot about Jesus.

Napoleon was smart enough to know that certain things cannot be proven except by the examination of people who make a claim.  Is there any reason people would lie to convince someone of something?  Is there a benefit to institute and protect a lie?  What would a person or persons be willing to do to protect a lie?  To die with and to protect the lie, or to reveal the lie and then live, these were questions Napoleon could not reconcile. Bonaparte knew men, and he knew that someone would crack under pressure. But none of the disciples cracked.  This told him a lot about the truth these men believed and taught.  It also told him a lot about Jesus.  The only conclusion he could come to was that with Jesus, “there is no possible term of comparison,” and Jesus was who He claimed to be.

When discussing the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the fact of God, simply ask the intelligent skeptic if they know men. Then if they understand human nature, they would understand that the facts offer more answers about Jesus, if they are willing to look at them.  If they are willing to simply look at the facts, they will have to conclude that there is something more to Jesus that they don’t understand and these facts will require a decision.  This is where it becomes apparent that there is more to know about this man called Jesus and the next step is to get to know Him better. Then they can truly know what to believe or not believe.