Jesus, One Of A Kind

Martin Lloyd Jones understood revival

Jesus was one of a kind. In God's holy Word, He speaks of Himself in this way, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." When the material universe began, God was already there. The personal name for God is "I AM," which identifies His eternal existence. The first words in John's Gospel say, "In the beginning was the Word, (the expression of God) and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Jesus is the only person in the universe to have existed before He was born a man. Jesus was one of a kind.

Jesus, One Of A Kind Is An Enigma

To answer the question that Jesus is both God and man adequately would take God Himself. What the believer knows by faith is intuitively given to them by God. When Peter answered Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am, by saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Matthew 16:16, Jesus declared the source of Peter's knowledge. "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven" Verse 17.

What we know by a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit is a gift that makes us accountable before the one true God. Jesus is the infinite and eternal God who was born to a virgin, grew to manhood, and began a ministry that was His and His alone. How can God be everywhere, eternal, and one place at a time? Jesus is one of a kind.

Jesus, One Of A Kind Is One Among Many Brethren

Jesus alone is God and man, and at the same time, God the Father chose His Son to have many brethren. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren" Romans 8:29. We, the brethren, are not God. Still, our destiny is to be like Him in character, bearing the fruit of His death, suffering, and resurrection.

Jesus, One Of A Kind, Calls His Brethren To Ministry

Some of Jesus' last words to His Apostles before ascending to the Father were, "Go therefore and make disciples " Matthew 28:19. What kind of ministry are we called to undertake? If you read Fox's Book of Martyrs, you will understand the world, at times, is very hostile to the message of Christ's Gospel.

In the 20th Century, a phenomenon occurred in many churches that became known as the "The Seeker Sensitive Movement." After a century of the church proclaiming God's love and downplaying God's wrath, it became clear to many that you can catch more with honey than with vinegar. At least get them into a building together, if nothing else. We find an interesting verse in Luke 2:52, "And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Until Jesus was about thirty, He was just another favored neighbor in Nazareth.

I doubt that Jesus enjoyed the favor of men because He knew what was in all men's hearts, as in John 2:24, "But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men..." The Gospels reveal controversy over Jesus, whether He is Christ or not. Some said He had a demon. Of the hundreds of thousands that He healed and offered the way of salvation, only maybe six to seven hundred followed Him when everyone else fell away.

What was it that made Jesus, who is the source of love, turn so many away from Him? It wasn't a lack of love; it was His message. Jesus, one of a kind, was a hell-fire preacher like no other. However, He led many spirit-filled people to their deaths with the same zeal for God He possessed. It is NOT the ministry of those who follow Christ to dumb down the message, not to hurt anyone's feelings. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, the revelation given to Moses was exposed as having been turned into a man-made religion.

The religious elites were exposed in Matthew 23 as being hypocrites 8 times, and the people were warned not to follow them. Confrontation followed Christ wherever He went, and confronting the hypocrisy of all was His day-to-day business. Twice, Jesus emptied the temple in nothing less than a violent manner to reveal it was His temple, and He was not pleased with everyone's behavior.

The person who preceded Jesus, and by God's plan was to pave the way for Christ's ministry, began his ministry by proclaiming, in Luke 3:7, "So he [began] saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

My dear readers, it is my conviction now in my later life, like many that have gone before me, in their later life, as 1 Peter 4:17 tells us, "For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" We dare not become a stumbling block to the lost. Still, unless we repent of worldliness, ruling in Christ's place, elevating our opinions above Christ, pride, placing numbers ahead of holiness, division, putting possessions ahead of humility, and disobedience to Matthew 18, we will suffer much loss at the Bema Seat of Christ.

Let us see Jesus as one of a kind. Let us follow Jesus in His way.