Who Do You Say I Am? The Stand of Athanasius and the Truth About Jesus

We often take the foundational truths of our faith for granted. We read our Bibles, sing our worship songs, and freely affirm that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. But what seems like self-evident truth to us today was once the center of intense, empire-shaking debate—a battle line where faithful believers had to risk everything to defend who Jesus really is.

Long before modern theology books were printed, early leaders of the faith had to stand firm when the culture—and even the government—pressured the Church to compromise.

When the Empire Stepped Into the Church

After the Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, he wanted unity across his empire. Division meant instability. So, Constantine took it upon himself to resolve theological disputes, calling together church bishops at government expense.

This culminated in AD 325 at the famous Council of Nicaea, where church leaders gathered to settle a pressing, heated question: Who is Jesus?

While state involvement in church affairs led to corruption—a key reason America’s founders later established the separation of church and state in the First Amendment—God still used faithful voices during this era to preserve core biblical truth. Chief among those voices was a young man named Athanasius.

Athanasius: The Defender of Truth

Born in Egypt around AD 298, Athanasius became the Bishop of Alexandria at age thirty. He was deeply loved by his congregation—remembered as a protector of widows, a father to orphans, and a shepherd to the poor. Yet, during his ministry, Athanasius was exiled by Roman emperors five separate times.

Why would the empire exile a pastor who cared so deeply for the needy? Because Athanasius refused to compromise on the deity of Jesus Christ.

During this time, two competing views dominated the empire:

• The Arian View: Led by Arius, this group argued that Jesus was a created being given special divine powers. They claimed Jesus had a beginning, was not eternal, and was like God, but not God Himself.
  
  
• The Orthodox View: Defended fiercely by Athanasius, this view held that Jesus is eternal, uncreated, and fully God—co-equal and co-eternal with the Father.
  
  

To many outsiders, it seemed like a dispute over words. But Athanasius recognized that if Jesus is not fully God, He cannot fully save us. A created man cannot pay the penalty for the sins of humanity. Only God Himself could step into human history to bear that weight.

Because Athanasius refused to bow to political or cultural pressure, his steadfastness laid the groundwork for what we now know as Christian orthodoxy—the historic, universally accepted truth of Scripture summarized in the Nicene Creed.

Testing the Spirits

This conflict wasn't new. Near the end of the first century, the Apostle John warned believers to evaluate every teaching carefully:

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God..." — 1 John 4:1-2

Throughout history, false teachings have tried to reduce Jesus to a good teacher, a prophet, or a higher creation. We see it today in various world religions and secular philosophies:

• Islam honors Jesus as a virgin-born prophet, but denies His deity and His death on the cross.
  
  
• Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus was created as an archangel before coming to Earth.
  
  
• Modern Skeptics view Him merely as a gentle moral philosopher whose followers exaggerated His story.
  
  

But Jesus never left room for us to view Him simply as a "good teacher."

Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?

When Jesus walked with His disciples, He asked them the ultimate question:

"Who do you say that I am?" — Matthew 16:15

Peter rightly answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

When you look at the life, claims, and resurrection of Jesus, you are left with only three logical conclusions regarding His identity:

1. Liar: If Jesus knew He was not God, yet claimed to be, He was a deceiver of the highest order, leading millions to die for a lie.
   
   
2. Lunatic: If He believed He was God but was mistaken, He was deluded—on the level of someone claiming to be an emperor today.
   
   
3. Lord: If He is neither lying nor deluded, then He is precisely who He claimed to be: the eternal God in human flesh, who died for our sins and rose from the grave.
   
   

Which Jesus Will You Stand For?

The mind of man cannot fully grasp the entire mystery of the Trinity, but our eternity depends on trusting the God who revealed Himself to us.

Athanasius spent forty-five years facing exiles, threats, and political opposition because he knew that the true identity of Jesus was a truth worth living and dying for.

Today, that same question echoes past the halls of Nicaea, past the early Church fathers, and directly into your life: Who do you say that Jesus is?

He is not just a figure of history. He is either a liar, a lunatic, or your Lord and God. The choice of how you answer changes everything. .

Originally delivered 2023.01.29