UNIQUENESS OF CHRIST
When our second son was born, I
bought my Molly a larger diamond than I could have afforded when we first
married. About twenty years later, I bought her an even larger diamond. When I
bought the third diamond, I told the jeweler that I would trade in her second
diamond on the larger one. But when I gave Molly the third diamond at Christmas
and explained that I needed to trade in her other diamond, she balked. She
said: "That is Danny's diamond and I am not giving it up." She said I
could take the other diamond back to the jewelers. You can probably guess what
happened. She kept both of them. When we moved to
The Concise Oxford English
Dictionary (
There are features of Christ as a
person and of his life that are not unique-features that are common to man.
After all, he was born of a woman, just as all of us were born of a woman. He
grew up in an insignificant town among uneducated or undereducated people. The
prophet Isaiah 750 years before Christ was born provided insight into the kind
of person the Messiah would be. "For he shall grow up before him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness;
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him"
(Isa. 53:2). In his excellent commentary, Exposition of Isaiah (Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1971), Dr. H. C. Leupold, a distinguished Lutheran
scholar, says concerning the verse I read to you from Isaiah: "The humble
beginnings of his (Christ's) life seem inauspicious. When he grew up as a lad
in the streets of
We would expect the Jewish
Messiah-the Savior of the world-to be university educated or to come from a
prominent family or to have great riches. That is not how our Lord came into
the world. If you did not know his spectacular miracles and his powerful
teaching, you probably would not have known he would have the power to save the
world from sin. He looked like any other Jewish man in the first century. He
apparently worked with his hands like other men. He ate the same food, offered
the same sacrifices, attended the same synagogue and lived just like all other
faithful Jews of his generation. None of that makes Jesus of Nazareth unusual
or unique. So what is there about Christ that places him in a class by himself?
Jesus Christ is the only world
religion's founder whose birth, life, death and resurrection were the objects
of prophecies that were made hundreds and hundreds of years before he was born.
Time will allow me to summarize just a few of those Old Testament prophecies.
The very first book of the Bible points to the coming of Jesus Christ. After
Adam and Eve rebelled against God, the Lord God himself predicted of the
serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel"
(Gen. 3:15). In his book, The Genesis Record: A Scientific & Devotional
Commentary on the Book of Beginnings
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976),
Dr. Henry Morris paraphrases the Lord's words to the serpent (Satan's
representative): "There will come One who will not be of the man's seed,
and who therefore will not be under your dominion. He will be uniquely the Seed
of the woman, miraculously conceived and virgin-born. Though you will succeed
in grievously injuring Him, He will completely crush you and all your evil
ambitions" (p. 120).
Was God predicting the virgin birth
of our Savior? Of this you can be absolutely certain: the virgin birth of
Christ was one of the most unusual events in the history of the world. I am
fully aware that most liberal theologians like John Shelby Spong and Leslie
Weatherhead deny the virgin birth of Christ. Frankly, I prefer the words of the
Holy Spirit to the rantings and ravings of radical theologians. The great
Messianic prophet predicted: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a
sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel" (Isa.7:14). By divine inspiration, both Matthew and Luke record
the fulfillment of that remarkable prophecy (Mt. 1 :22-23; Lk. 1 :31-35). Please
remember that Luke was a Greek physician who would not have reported this event
had there been the slightest doubt about its accuracy.
Not one of the founders of the
so-called "great religions" can point to even one prophecy that
foretold his coming and the work he would do. Jesus alone fulfills hundreds of
prophecies from the Old Testament. Does this not prove his uniqueness among all
the founders of the various religions and all the leaders in those religions?
In my judgment, there is no stronger argument for the uniqueness of Christ than
the fulfillment of prophecy. The apostle Peter mentions the transfiguration of
Christ and then adds: "We have something more sure, the word of prophecy;
whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark
place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this
first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For
the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. 1:19-21). So how did Isaiah
know 750 years before Jesus was born that he would be born of a virgin? How did
Micah, Isaiah's younger contemporary, know Christ would be born in Bethlehem of
Judea? The answer to both questions is simple: Isaiah, Micah and all the other
true prophets "spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."
The teachings of Jesus prove
conclusively that he was unique among all the founders of the other religions.
Oh I am aware that many of our Lord's teachings were grounded in the Old
Testament. On one occasion, the Pharisees asked Jesus: "Is it lawful for a
man to put away his wife for every cause?" Christ answered: "Have you
not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,
and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife: and they two shall be one flesh" (Mt. 19:3-5)? Our
Lord was quoting the words of Genesis 1:26-27 and Genesis 2:24. The New
Testament records dozens of other examples of Christ's use of the Old
Testament.
Many of Christ's ideas were almost
certainly known in
Which of the founders of the
so-called "great religions" ever performed the spectacular miracles
Christ performed? Time will not allow for a complete listing of our Lord's
great miracles. Jesus claimed to be able to raise dead people. Jesus told some
of his Jewish countrymen: "My Father works until now, and I work."
The Jews understood what many modem theologians seem not to understand. They
knew that Christ was claiming equality with God. They wanted to kill him
because they believed he was guilty of blasphemy. And he was guilty of
blasphemy if he were not equal with the Father. He responded: "For as the
Father raises up the dead, and quickens them; even so the Son quickens whom he
will" (John 5:17, 21). The word "quicken" means to make alive.
Could Jesus actually raise dead people, as he claimed?
The book of John tells of Christ's
raising Lazarus. Someone reported to Jesus Christ that his friend Lazarus was
sick. Jesus stayed two days in the place where he was before he left to go to
the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. He told his disciples: "Our friend
Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awaken him out of his sleep." His
disciples said, "If he sleeps, he shall do well." Then Jesus said
very plainly: "Lazarus is dead. I am glad for your sakes that I was not
there, to the intent that you may believe; nevertheless let us go unto
him." Martha was disturbed that Jesus had not come more quickly to their
home. She believed that Christ could have saved her brother from dying. Jesus
said to her: "Your brother shall rise again." She knew he would be
raised in the last day. Then Jesus told Martha: "I am the resurrection and
the life: he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and
whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
Martha replied: "Yes, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of
God, which should come into the world" (John 11: 3-27).
How many of the founders of the
so-called "great religions" would have made these remarkable claims?
If they had made the claims, could they have performed what Jesus did? I am
aware that Richard Roberts reported that his father, Oral Roberts, had
resuscitated a child who had died in one of the Roberts' evangelistic campaigns.
But no reasonable person believes that. But please listen to what occurred in
If the founder of any of the
so-called "great religions" had stood before a grave and commanded
the occupant to come forth, he probably would have been carried away by men in
white coats or whatever color coats they wore in those days. Not one of those
founders ever attempted to raise a dead person. The reason they did not try was
because they knew they did not have the power. Jesus Christ alone had the power
over life and death. Jesus said to his disciples: "I am the bread of life:
he who comes to me shall never hunger; and he who believes on me shall never
thirst. ... And this is the Father's will who has sent me, that of all whom he
has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son,
and believes on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the
last day" (John 6:35, 39-40). Did any of the founders of the different religions
ever promise anyone: "I will raise him up at the last day?" They did
not make such a promise. Jesus Christ is unique in that respect, as in many
other respects.
Jesus Christ is unique in that he
foretold his death and his resurrection. What did Christ mean when he told his
disciples: "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:28)? Several
times in John Jesus Christ spoke of being lifted up. Was he foretelling the
manner of his death? If you have any doubt, please listen to these words from
John: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, shall draw all men unto
me. This he said, signifying what death he should die" (John 12:32-33). It
is conceivable that a man might correctly predict the manner of his death, but
who has ever successfully predicted his resurrection? The answer to my question
is very simple: Only Christ has ever foretold his resurrection. In his Parable
of the Good Shepherd, Jesus told his disciples: "Therefore does my Father
love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again. No man
takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to
lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. This commandment have I
received of the Father" (John 10:17-18).
There are other wonderful miracles I
would like to discuss with you, but let us consider the most spectacular
miracle of all-the resurrection of our Lord. Do you have any idea where the
founders of the so-called "great religions" are today? Moses was not
the founder of Judaism, although some theologians seem to believe he was. But
where is the great lawgiver today? His body is still in the grave and will be
until the final resurrection? David was
The apostle Paul affirms that Jesus
Christ "was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared
to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1: 3-4). The word "declared"
is a translation of the Greek horizo, a word that comes
into English in the word "horizon." In his great set of books, Word
Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1931),
Dr. A. T. Robertson, one of the world's greatest Greek scholars, comments on
the word "declared": Jesus Christ "was the Son of God in his
preincarnate state and still so after his incarnation, but it was the
resurrection of the dead that definitely marked Jesus off as God's Son because
of his claims about himself as God's Son and his prophecy that he would rise
again on the third day" (volume 4, p. 3:24).
In view of the information I have
given you today, how can there be any doubt about the uniqueness of Christ? But
believing these great truths is not enough. We must love God sufficiently to
obey the gospel. Is that not what Christ meant when he said: "If you love
me, keep my commandments" (John 14: 15)?
Winford Claiborne
The International Gospel Hour
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