Part 6: The Uniqueness of Christ - Other Considerations

(Evgeni Dinev - FreeDigital Photos.net)

Of course, the arguments for the uniqueness of Christ could go on and on.  One can easily begin to delve into the topic of biblical accuracy, historical documentation of Christ's life, and so on.  But I wanted (over the next few posts) to add a few more facts that I find both convincing and captivating.  Today, we will consider the nature of the Christ's sacrifice.

In John 15:13 Jesus tells His disciples that there is no greater love that a friend can show than to lay down his life for another.  This makes intuitive sense to most of us.  If I were about to be shot and a friend stepped in front of me and took the bullet and then died, I would certainly feel that there is no other action that could have shown me greater love.  I would feel indebted to this person and I would assume that for many of us, that would be marked as the watershed moment in our lives.

Following this logic, if Christ did die for my sins, I should feel a deep sense of awe and thankfulness.  But we must compound this fact with the biblical truth that Christ is God (Phil. 2).  So we re-phrase the sacrifice and note that God the Son gave up His life for me.  Next, we consider that He was perfect, completely sinless.  We have now arrived at the fact that God the Son, while completely perfect and innocent, died for my sins.  While we could add on many additional facts, lets us lastly add on that Christ died a brutal and shameful death through crucifixion.

Christ, God the Son, was completely innocent and completely perfect, and yet He died a brutal and shameful death for me.

It seems quite rational that if this is the case, then to say that there are many ways to God demeans the awesomeness of Christ and the Cross.  To do so essentially says, "While His sacrifice is great, He could have just not done such a thing, because I can work hard at being righteous and pious and, on my own, work my way to God and Heaven."

If the Cross is true, then the sacrifice made there was unimaginable.  It stands alone as the grandest act of love ever expressed.  We should be cautious before we say that such an act was merely one way to be spiritual and to receive salvation.

Tomorrow, we will consider the challenge of the many who choose to reject Christ and what their fate might be.

-tC