It is only fitting that the following series devoted to the personhood of Jesus Christ be commenced with an understanding of His uniqueness. Virtually everything about Christ, who He was and is, what He did and will do, is thoroughly unique. The word “unique” conveys the one-of-a-kind meaning that must surely apply to Christ. So many things that are true of Him are not true of any other being. He stands utterly alone. Christ is unique in His constitution and position in the triune Godhead, unique in His subordination to His Father, in His pre-Bethlehem existence. He is unique in His commission from God the Father, in His incarnation, and in His mission and ministry to Israel. He alone is unique in His impeccability, in His mission to the world, and unique in His subsequent rejection by the nation of Israel, extending to the present rejection by the world at large. In all the annals of human history has anyone, other than this One, ever had assignments like these to fulfill and fulfill them so thoroughly?
The list goes on. Christ and Christ alone was unique in the authentication of His person and identity, in the miracles He performed, all of which pointed to the reality of a coming kingdom He had come to provide in His very own death, which, also, was truly unique. Never man lived like this Man. Never man died like this Man. His uniqueness in His death reached to the unparalleled value of that life surrendered, a life so unique and so incomparably valuable it became the coin of eternity, responsible for the redemption of all humanity.
And, His uniqueness extended beyond His death to His equally unique resurrection. Does anyone else come to mind that you may compare to that? His post-resurrection ministry extended to forty days wherein He was seen of above 500 witnesses at once. Is not this uniqueness magnified?
His promise to return was given to His apostles immediately before rising, bodily, before their very eyes as they watched Him ascend into the heavens, and that promised so raised their morale and their confidence they were willing to die rather than surrender the truth He had given them. How unique is that?
But, there is more. Christ never ceased to be unique simply because He was no longer on earth. His uniqueness extended to the formation of the Church, which is His spiritual body, following the national rejection by Israel of their Messiah. This Church was formed based on the abundance of revelations given to Paul, the apostle, and the subsequent letters he was inspired to write to the several churches in the New Testament. There’s more! The uniqueness of this One has no limits. He will be unique in His Second Coming, in His dispatching of the enemies of a newly believing Israel, in His assuming the reign and kingship over all the earth, unique in His judgeship over all, in His installation over all of creation, and in the provision for all the redeemed in the following eternal state. Never man spake like this man…unique, utterly unique in every way.
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