What makes Christianity unique

Pastor Don Porter,

What makes the Christian faith different from every other faith? At Christmas, I looked at the greatest gift ever given which is also the main thing that makes Christianity unique from every other religion, and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, who is the head of the church. The Christian faith is based upon the principle that God Himself came to earth in human form to do for us what we could not do for ourselves and that is to reconcile us to God. But what else makes Christianity unique? The next aspect of Christian uniqueness is the Holy Scriptures that we call the Bible. Nearly every religion is based on a book ancient or modern, mystical or historical; they all follow the teachings of some allegedly sacred book. But the Bible is unique because of its author. If we are to change our lives to follow the doctrines of any book the most important question to ask ourselves is, “Who is its author?” The Bible supplies the answer to its author in 2 Timothy 2:16 by saying, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting or training...” But don’t other religions claim that God is the author of their sacred books also? So what makes the Bible unique? Only the Bible speaks of God’s Son as the only Savior and is inspired by His Father. The main theme of the Bible is Christ. It is a book authored by a Father who is proud of His Son and His achievements. God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus is God; He came from the Father and has His same qualities. What do we mean that the Bible is “inspired?” Many different people wrote the various books contained in the Bible but I believe that God supervised each of them. God allowed each of the writers to express their personality in their writing, to research the facts for themselves and come to the right conclusions. But God supervised them and prevented them from error, or being deceived, and from writing something that would deceive others. God spoke directly to them to ensure that they received and recorded His message correctly. Nothing is in the Bible that God does not want and nothing has been left out that God knew was necessary for us to live a live pleasing to Him. The other thing that makes Christianity unique is the Cross. The Cross is the supreme evidence of God’s love for us and His willingness to sacrifice everything to restore our relationship with Him. We, with our human minds, will never be able to truly understand the full meaning of the Cross. Christianity is unique in that it claims that the only way a person can be reconciled to God is through the cross. Other religions point to other ways but God says the cross is the only way. A historian once said that “the history of humanity is one long search for God.” Christianity is distinctive in that Jesus Christ has done something about the problem. Because the reason for the separation is the evil within man only God could engineer the solution. Jesus willingly suffered the shame, humiliation and pain on the Cross so that we could be saved. The law of saving by self-giving is a law of the universe. Those who save others must sacrifice their safety and maybe their lives to do so. That is why the sacrifice of Christ for our sins on the Cross is the only way to reconnect us to our Creator.