John 3:16; one of the greatest messages and reminders we have today of God’s love. We may all be considered the children of God as John 1:12 would put it: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Yet only Him – the Him this verse displays the light and radiance of, the one John 1:14 goes on to speak of saying “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus – the Word of God, the Word that commands all else; a glory we know that gives us hope, that we would gladly give our lives to; this is God’s only Son, the only Begotten of God, the true light that would light our way, the only one worthy to atone in sacrifice for the weight of all men’s sins; that is the Son of God who died for us!
But though we may call ourselves children of God, only Jesus Christ alone is unique Son of God and Son of Man, part of the Holy Trinity, the Godhead, three in one. Tracy had an invigorating journal earlier this week about God being absolute, perfect truth, revolving around John 14:6: “Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I thought of that verse while writing this too; only in Christ can we find salvation. Only through Him can we hope to come to & know God. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:5: “ For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Who else is worthy to stand in front of God on our behalf? When our own sin damns us, who else but the perfect, true Son of God would be able to grant our pardon from what we’ve deserved? Only Jesus Christ, Son of God, could save us!
There is none other like Jesus; no one else to live a sinless life in the flesh, who could satisfy the wrath of God. No other could step down from heaven to earth, and demonstrate to us what it means to be different from the world. In prayer today, I thank God for His Son, the one and only, who did what no other man could do for us: dying a death in the flesh so we may live a life beyond it. I praise God for the unique role He set aside for Christ, and I praise Christ for being willing to step up to that role for us. I humble myself in awe at the magnitude of His plan, of His perfection, and pray a simple prayer that in this perfect love Christ showed, I could look and learn a little more every day how to love more like Him. I hope you can join me in this prayer as well. Together, may we flood a world in need with a love resembling His unique love for us.