Some of Jesus’ quotations are well-known, such as: “Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”, but people do not sufficiently appreciate how extraordinary are Jesus’ answers.

This was not simply a comment but it was a quick-fire answer to the Pharisees who set out to entangle Jesus in His talk in the company of the Herodians, asking Him if it was lawful to give taxes to Caesar. This well-known saying was His reply Mat 22:15-22. By any consideration, His answer was exceedingly perceptive and showed His capability to deal with difficult questions, and His answer persists to the present day.

Yet, how many people stop to consider how extraordinary was this Person Who could provide such answers? His many answers are available for anyone to read and consider.

Not to be outdone, the Sadducees then tried to trip up Jesus with one of their central questions. They did not believe in life after death nor in resurrection and so they gave Jesus a poser about marriage and the resurrection Mat 22:22-30. Jesus scuttled them by pointing out their ignorance of Scripture, that in the world to come there was no marriage but people were like the angels of God in heaven. Not only does this show His extraordinary knowledge of Scripture and of the world to come, but He followed up this teaching by demonstrating the truth of the resurrection from God’s own words, that when He called Himself the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, that He was not the God of the dead but of the living Mat 22:31-32. This teaching astonished the onlookers to the debate, and it ought to astonish us because it demonstrated life after death from God’s own words about Himself. The souls of dead people are still alive in God’s eyes.

These are just two of Jesus’ answers. But His opponents were not finished with Him. “When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they were gathered together” and brought another question. When Jesus answered that one just as promptly and fully, they considered how to follow it up. In the silence, Jesus now took the initiative and asked them a powerful question that completely stumped them Mat 22:41-46. He showed how little they understood their own scriptures, and this can still be demonstrated to this day. This is why it is so important to read and study Jesus’ own words.

Jesus’ self-confident authority is seen repeatedly throughout the four Gospels. His extraordinary answers are available for anyone to study.

His correction of their teaching on the Ten Commandments is seen in the Sermon on the Mount Mat 5:17-48.

It is about time that people read the Bible and found out more about Jesus Himself and discovered His extraordinary teaching.

This post is long enough so more illustrations of Jesus’ extraordinary teaching and Personality will need to follow in another post.