A Unique Savior

It’s like men who try to go through life without directions. Don’t step above this rung on the ladder - what do they know? Find yourself flat on your back. Snowblower – picture of a hand with fingers sliced off. Ignore it. So foolish to ignore directions. So foolish to think we can do life without Jesus, our unique Savior, God’s final word.

But Jesus is worth listening to because he is even more than that.

He is God in the flesh

When I was a kid, we kept bugging our bus driver to tell us if he believed in God (little evangelists). Finally, he told us, “I am God.” We were like, “Yeah, right. Like God would be driving a little yellow school bus for $7.50 an hour!”

What would God do if he were here on this earth? Well, look at verse 3 again, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…” Jesus is not only God’s final word, He’s God in the flesh, the exact representation of God the Father. He’s true man and true God all in one. That makes him unique.

In fact, that makes him really unique when you think about it. If he’s God, then he’s a pretty humble God. Crammed into the womb of a Carpenter’s wife, catapulted into a cold world, coddled by cattle in a manger. Touching a leprous man covered in seeping sores. Sighing at the misfortune of a blind man. Embracing a prostitute and a cheat. Talking to Samaritan woman (Jews didn’t talk to Samaritans and important men didn’t talk to women, but Jesus did). Shedding tears at the tomb of his friend. Holding little children in his hands. Befriending a bunch of hicks from Galilee.

Bleeding buckets of blood, turning the cheek, flogged for our failures, carrying our cross, suffering our shame, paying the price for our sins.

And remember, he’s God in the flesh. “Like God would be driving a little yellow school bus for $7.50 an hour.” I don’t know…He did humble himself to death, even death on a cross. And he did it for you. If that doesn’t make him unique, I don’t know what does. If that doesn’t make him worth following, I don’t know what does.

I know that most of you have heard the tragic story of Deputy Shannon from Adam’s county. When a situation came up, he was so eager to help. He was heading home from work, but, as the paper reported, “he offered to assist at the scene. He said, ‘I’ll help,’ and there he went. He answered the call.” A few minutes later, he was dead. So quick to serve. Jesus is God in the flesh, and yet he also is so quick to serve.

There’s your motivation when your faith flounders, when you’ve got the spiritual blahs. Jesus is God in the flesh. He’s not just any God, he’s your God and your brother. He touches you, he sighs at your pain, he forgives you, he takes you up in his arms and comforts you. He knows what you are going through because he’s human, and he can help you like no one else because he’s God.

A school board in Rhode Island did an exhaustive search for a new principle. After meeting with several candidates, they held a press conference. The president of the board walked to a microphone and said, “After finding no qualified candidates for the position of principal, the school board is extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. David Steele to the position.”