Was Jesus a Liar?

The argument is:
If Jesus was not God, and He knew He was not God, then He was lying.

Implications

The implications of Jesus being a liar are the following:

• He told others to be honest, whatever the cost. So, if He was a liar, then He was also a hypocrite.
• He deliberately told others to forsake their religious beliefs and trust Him for their eternal destiny. If He was a liar, this makes Him unspeakably evil.
• If Jesus knew He was lying, then He was a fool, because His claims led to His crucifixion.

Does It Make Sense?

Does Jesus as a liar make sense? Does His character match that of a liar?

His Teachings

To say Jesus was a liar will seem quite a stretch for most people, particularly if they think He was a great moral teacher. A great moral teacher would not, by definition, lie, and certainly not tell a lie of such magnitude as to claim to be God when He wasn’t.

If Christ was a liar, he somehow was a liar who left us with the most profound moral teachings in human history.

Even the philosopher John Stuart Mill, an agnostic and critic of Christianity wrote:

"But about the life and sayings of Jesus there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of insight…in the very first rank of men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre-eminent genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer, and martyr to that mission, who ever existed upon earth, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in pitching on this man as the ideal representative and guide of humanity; nor, even now, would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, than to endeavor so to live that Christ would approve our life."

It’s hard to square the above with the assertion that Christ was a liar.

His Behavior

More evidence against Christ being a liar — He does not engage in behavior you would expect from a lying religious leader, such as:

We do not see Jesus:

• becoming rich,
• taking advantage of people,
• engaging in sexual promiscuity, or
• pursuing power.

The gospels and the historical records do not show anything of the like.

In fact, we see him doing the exact opposite of what we would expect a liar to do — we see him dying for his "lie".

He Died for His "Lie"

The following verse from the book of Mark details where the high priest is seeking evidence he can use to force Pilate to put Christ to death.

Reference	Speaker	Verse
Mark 14:60-64	High priest	Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?"
	Jesus	But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.
	High priest	Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?"
	Jesus	"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
	High priest	The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. "You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?"
	All	They all condemned him as worthy of death.

NOTE: All Christ would have had to do to avoid a death sentence was disclaim he was the Son of God.
— If he was a liar he would have done this.