A good man--call Jesus a good man--set him up as high as you please, build as lofty a pedestal for him as you will, but Almighty God-- _Never!_ Over against this exaltation of Christ as a merely good man, and the persistent denial that he was God, stands the unmistakable claim which Jesus Christ himself made--that he was God. He made that claim in many ways. He claimed it by declaring his power and authority to forgive sin. That was a striking moment when he proclaimed it for the first time. Four men had brought a paralytic to the house where he was preaching. When they could not get in because of the crowd, they climbed up on the roof, took off some of the tiling, and by means of ropes or corners of the mattress let the man down to the very feet of Jesus. When he saw _their_ faith, he turned to the sick man and said, "Son (son of Abraham), thy sins are forgiven thee." At once there was an uproar. The leading men, sitting round and watching him, burst out with a protest, charging him with blasphemy, saying that God only could forgive sin. And they were right. No mere man can forgive sin. Again and again the Scriptures teach us that forgiveness is with God that he may be feared. In announcing the man's sins forgiven, Jesus clearly claimed the prerogative, power and authority, which belong to God. He claimed this equality by declaring himself to be the Son of God. To the Jews, "Son of God" was equivalent to "God the Son." It meant to them, the moment he styled himself by that name, an unqualified claim to essential equality with the Father. Because of this they raged against him and would have killed him, crying out that he had made himself equal with God. He made this claim in terms which admit of no misunderstanding. He said: "I and my Father are one." When Philip said, "Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us," he answered and said: "Hast thou been with me so long time and hast thou not known me, Philip? From henceforth ye know him and have seen him." To Philip he had also said: "I am the way and the truth and the life--no man cometh unto the Father but by me." By this statement he deliberately shut out all other men as the ground and means of approach to God. He declares that God, the Father, can be found in and through him alone; that he is the supreme way, the very truth and the very life; not that he knows some truth and has a measure of life in common with men, but that he is _the_ truth--the _absolute_ life. Such attitude, such claimed rights, privileges and powers, belong alone to God. But he goes beyond this. He testifies that he has been from all eternity the manifestation of the very selfhood of the Father. Hear what he says: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."