The Only One

Day Nineteen                  

The Only One                     

Colossians 1:15-23

“The problem with you Christians,” we hear, repeatedly, “is that you have taken a remarkable man, and you have made him out to be more than he ever claimed for himself. Jesus of Nazareth was a wonderfully gifted teacher, but you have made him into the divine Christ.” The complaint is far from new. For centuries, critics have argued that Paul took the simple message of Jesus, that we should love one another, and made it into a complicated theological conundrum called the Trinity. If only, they say, we would return to Jesus, we would stop being so judgmental. We would recognize the supremacy of love over all things, and we would see the spark of the divine in all people and every religion. It is Christianity that has ruined the message of Jesus.

The problem with this is that it is impossible to drive a wedge between Jesus and Christ. As C.S. Lewis pointed out many years ago, if Jesus did not claim to be divine, then His words make no more sense than a man who claims to be a fried egg. Jesus is either “cracked,” in that He is not in possession of His faculties; or, He is a criminal, in that He seeks to deceive us; or, He is Christ, and His claims are correct. It simply will not do to call Jesus a wonderful teacher without taking seriously the claims He made.

Christians have long understood the central claim of the New Testament to be that Jesus of Nazareth was and is God. Uniquely, among the claimants to the throne of the Messiah, Jesus did not stop at prophecy. He was so much more than a uniquely gifted human being. In Bethlehem, God came down to us, in the person of the Son. This is heresy to the Jews; it is nonsense to the Greeks; but it is what we believe. Jesus was “true God of true God, Light of Light eternal,” begotten, not created.

The first chapter of John’s Gospel assumes the divinity of Christ. By identifying the Word with the child born to Mary, Jesus ascribes divine status to Jesus. This can also be seen in the unusual phrase found in John 1:18. “No one has ever seen God,” writes John, “but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.” There can be no doubt that, as in verse 14, John is using very precise language to identify Jesus, the “One and Only,” as God, the One who makes the Father known. We do not need to understand this fully in order to accept it. Here, as in so many other places, faith precedes understanding, and leads to praise.

Lord Christ, I praise You. In ways too deep for words, You have opened my eyes to the Father’s glory. Now, seeing You, I am able to respond in adoration and praise to the God who made me and sustains me day by day. I kneel in wonder beside the manger and bring You the offering of my heart. Amen.