power-crazed dictators and fanatics who have claimed to be God, even these individuals recognized and acknowledged that their assumption of divinity was only relative — they hardly imagined that they had created the stars or even their own mothers! But Jesus Christ was God in the highest sense, the Creator of all things (Col. 1:16), and He claimed to be God on many occasions and in many ways. He was also man in the fullest sense, except that He had no sin. He was not half-man and half-God, but rather all man and all God, in a perfect and indissoluble union. No other man was ever thus — indeed, no other man ever claimed to be thus.
Sinless Life. Of no one else in history could the claim ever be made in seriousness that he lived a whole lifetime without one sin, in thought or word or deed. But this very thing was claimed by Jesus' closest friends, by His worst enemies, by the greatest of the apostles, and by Jesus himself. Peter said, "[He] did no sin" (1 Pet. 2:22), and John said, "In him is no sin" (1 John 3:5). Judas said, "I have betrayed the innocent blood" (Matt. 27:4), and Pilate said, "I find in him no fault at all" (John 18:38). Paul said, "[He] knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21), and Jesus said concerning himself, "The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him" (John 8:29). Jesus Christ was the one man who never sinned; He was the unique, representative Son of Man, man as God intended man to be.
Unique Teachings. Many non-Christians have acknowledged Christ to be the greatest teacher of all time. The Sermon on the Mount is without parallel, and the beauty and power of the Upper Room discourse, the compelling majesty of the sermon on the Mount of Olives, the power of His parables, and all His other teachings are separated by a great gulf from even the finest teaching of other men. And yet His teachings continually include both the claim and the internal awareness that He was uniquely God's Son, and that His teachings were absolutely true because of this. In no other religious writings does one find such a phenomenon as this.
His Unique Death. After a cruel mockery of a trial and a period of incomprehensible suffering in prison and on the cross, "He said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost" (John 19:30). Literally, He "dismissed His spirit." No one else can die like this. It is evidently quite a difficult task even to commit suicide, but certainly no one can simply decide to die and then, by his mere volition, proceed to die. But Jesus did! He said, "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself" (John 10:18).
The Resurrection of Christ
Not only did Christ die by His own power, but He rose again on the third day by His own power. "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." (John 10:18). The overwhelming proof of the bodily resurrection of Christ will be discussed later, but here it is merely noted that this constitutes the final and greatest proof of His absolute uniqueness. All other religious founders and leaders are dead. In most cases, their tombs are known and venerated. But the tomb of Christ was occupied only three days and thereafter became empty forever. Other men have been temporarily restored to life after dying, but only Christ is "alive forevermore" (Rev. 1:18). Death is man's last and greatest enemy (1 Cor. 15:26), which conquers all alike, no matter how brilliant or powerful. Christ alone conquered death, thereby demonstrating forever that He is "the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25).
The Book
The Bible (meaning "the Book") is not only the greatest and most widely read book ever written, but it stands in a class altogether by itself in several critical respects:
Unity in Diversity. Consisting of 66 separate books written by about 40 different authors over a time span of at least 2,000 years, brought gradually together into one volume by a process which no one has ever been able to describe in full, the Book presents a marvelous unity and a magnificent development of its great themes from beginning to end, with no errors and no internal discrepancies. There is nothing remotely comparable to this among all the millions of books written by man.
Fulfilled Prophecy. There are hundreds of prophecies recorded in Scripture which have been meticulously fulfilled, often hundreds of years later. This is a unique characteristic of the Bible, not found in the Vedas or the Koran or any of the other "scriptures" of mankind. The so-called prophecies of Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, Jeanne Dixon, and others of like kind are of a completely different order than those in the Bible, always dark and ambiguous and, much more often than not, later proved wrong.
Accuracy. Not only has the Bible proved accurate in its prophecies, but also in its very frequent references to matters of history and principles of natural science. Although some problems remain, it is still true that not a single uncontroverted fact of history or science refutes a single statement in the Bible. It is also true that archaeological and historical research has confirmed the biblical references in hundreds of instances and that scores of now-known facts of science were written in the Bible long before men recognized them in nature. Once again, there is no other book ever written of which the above things can be said.
Unique Preservation. No other book has ever been the object of such antagonism as has the Bible. In both ancient and modern times, kings and priests have tried desperately to destroy it and unbelieving intellectuals to ridicule and refute it. Untold numbers of copies have been burned and mutilated, and hosts of its advocates persecuted and killed. But it has only multiplied the more, and today is read and believed by more people in more nations and languages than ever before, continually remaining for centuries the world's best seller.
Claims of its Writers. The writers of the Bible maintain again and again that their writings were inspired by God, often even consisting of the directly recorded words of God. Although other writers such as Mohammed have claimed divine inspiration for their writings, the frequency and variety of such assertions are unique to the Bible. And, still more remarkable, in the same Book and often in the same contexts in which such statements are made, the writers condemn falsehood and hypocrisy in terms of burning fury. It is inconceivable that writings with claims to divine authority could be intertwined with such exhortations to holiness and condemnations of deception unless either the writers truly were writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit or else were themselves monsters of hypocrisy and evil. The latter alternative, however, is utterly inconceivable in view of the unique character and history of the Book which they produced.
Salvation by Grace
The final proof of uniqueness to be offered in this section is that of the all-important teaching concerning salvation. The Bible uniquely teaches salvation through faith alone. All other religions teach salvation through faith plus works.
Of course, the specific objects of faith and the specific list of works required for salvation vary widely from one religion to another. But the basic principle is universal.
Biblical Christianity alone, among all the religions of mankind, teaches that eternal salvation is the free gift of God's grace, to be received by faith alone, apart from works of any kind. The watchword of other religions is "Believe and do"; of Christianity, the word is "Believe and live."
This does not by any means imply that Christianity has a lower or easier standard than other religions. To the contrary, the standard of works in Christianity is so high as to be unattainable by the natural man, so that no man could ever earn salvation by his own good works. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). "For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10). "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4).
Nor does it imply that Christian salvation is cheap, for the price of redemption was the blood of Christ. "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold …But with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
Although the idea of salvation by grace goes against the grain of human nature, since man's pride is at stake here, it clearly must be of divine origin. Man would never invent
