Advent - "O" - "One and Only"

December 14, 2011

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in, (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not come to destruction and be lost but have eternal (everlasting) life” (John 3:16).

We are all born as unique individuals with our own unique fingerprints, looks, personality, DNA. But there is only one Who is supremely unique – Jesus Christ. He was the only one born of a virgin, Who fulfilled every prophecy for the Messiah of the world and He will be the only One who will return as our coming King.

Jesus Christ is the only one who lived a sinless life. He is the only one Who has been the expression of God – the out-raying of the divine, and He is the only one Who had the perfect imprint and very image of God’s nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. Jesus is the One and Only Who when He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3).

Jesus was the One and Only Who was the highest thought of God and the “altogether lovely” (S.S. 5:16). He is the One and Only Who was born to some day be King of the world, but today to be King of our hearts. As Dr. S. M. Lockeridge put it, “He’s the only one Who is enduringly strong, He’s entirely sincere, He’s eternally steadfast, He’s immortally full of grace, He’s imperially powerful, He’s impartially merciful, He’s God’s Son!”

There was only one, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the babe of Bethlehem; the boy in the temple Who confounded the wise teachers; the Man who healed the sick and raised the dead and spoke as no other man; the man Who was crucified on a Roman cross, bled and died, rose from the grave and ascended into heaven – and all for our sins! There will never be another. He was the One and Only Who “finished” God’s plan of salvation. He is the only one Who has the power to deliver us from the pit; to keep us from falling; to give us a new heart and mind, and abundant life (here and now) and then life eternal.

He is the only one Who deserves the praise, honor, power and glory! He is the Lamb, the One and Only, Who was slain before the foundation of the world, He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the only one Who we will be worshipping and never stop saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was and Who is and Who is to come.

I sing with the songwriter, Thoro Harris, “Who can cheer the heart like Jesus, by His presence all divine? True and tender, pure and precious, O how blest to call Him mine!
All that thrills my soul is Jesus, He is more than life to me; and the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed Lord I see.” Jesus Christ is the ONE AND ONLY! There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) One Solitary Life Here is a young man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to a college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. While He was still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross, between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth, and that was His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries wide have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race; and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as has that ONE SOLITARY LIFE. (Anon.)