Genius of Jesus by Dallas Willard

Our commitment to Jesus can stand on no other foundation than recognition that he is the one who knows the truth about our lives and our universe.  It is not possible to trust Jesus, or anyone else, in matters where we do not believe him to be competent.  We cannot pray for his help and rely on his collaboration in dealing with real-life matters we suspect might defeat his knowledge or abilities.

And can we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if he were not smart?  If he were divine, would he be dumb?  Or uninformed? Once you stop to think about it, how could he be what we take him to be in all other respects and not the best-informed and most intelligent person of all, the smartest person who ever lived?

That is exactly how his earliest apprentices in kingdom living thought of him.  He was not regarded as, perhaps, a magician, who only knew the “right words” to get results without understanding or who could effectively manipulate appearances.  Rather, he was regarded as the ultimate scientist, craftsman, and artist.

The biblical and continuing vision of Jesus was of one who made all of created reality and kept it working, literally “holding it together” (Colossians 1:17.  And today we think people are smart who make light bulbs and computer chips and rockets out of “stuff” already provided!  He made “the stuff!”)

At the literally mundane level, Jesus knew how to transform the molecular structure of water to make it wine.  That knowledge allowed him to take a few pieces of bread and some little fish and feed thousands of people.  He knew how to transform the tissues of the human body from sickness to health and from death to life.  He knew how to suspend gravity, interrupt weather patterns, and eliminate unfruitful trees without a saw or an ax. He only needed a word.  Surely he must be amused at what Nobel prizes are awarded for today.

In the ethical domain he brought an understanding of life that has influenced world thought more than any other.  And one of the greatest testimonies to his intelligence is surely that he knew how to enter physical death, actually to die, and then live on beyond death.  He seized death by the throat and defeated it.  Forget cryonics!

All these things show Jesus’ practical mastery of every phase of reality: physical, moral, spiritual.  He is Master only because he is Maestro.  “Jesus is Lord” can mean little in practice for anyone who has to hesitate before saying, “Jesus is smart.”

He’s not just nice, he is brilliant.  He always has the best information on everything and certainly also on the things that matter most in human life.