A Look at the Uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth

In part 1 of Why Believe in Jesus, we will take a look at the uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth that cannot be overstated.

For the past four years, I have been trying to encourage, inform and warn those who are followers of Jesus Christ and those that are not, that time as we know it is running out.

This site is my way of being a “voice crying in the wilderness to make way for the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3-8). I do this because I passionately love Jesus Christ and I (we) need to be about our Father’s business.

We are living in perilous times. No other manuscript other than the Christian Bible gives us prophecies beforehand concerning events in our past that have been fulfilled exactly as given with 100 percent accuracy. None!

Fulfilled prophecy is a unique characteristic of the Bible. There is no other book in the world that contains fulfilled prophecies. not one fulfilled prophecy in any of the sayings of Confucius or Buddha, the Koran, the Hindu Vedras, or the Book of Mormon.

Moreover, there are still prophecies left to be fulfilled.

J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy lists 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament, for a total of 1,817. These encompass 8,352 verses.

READ MORE HERE for a collection of articles, programs, and resources related to Bible prophecy.

This age is quickly ending. All the signs given for the last days are converging together. Jesus Christ is returning to set up His kingdom to rule and reign in righteousness. Judgment will be swift and impartial. For those who follow Him, we will be part of His kingdom for all eternity. Those who choose to ignore Him will spend eternity with Satan and his demons.

Since completing the posts on If God Is Good by Randy Alcorn, I feel that the Lord is impressing me to let people know that they can and must know that you can believe in, rely on, and have faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, using the book Why Believe in Jesus, by Tim LaHaye and other sources I will share the truth of why you can believe in God’s Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

Who is Jesus?

In His day He was known as Jesus of Nazareth. For most of His adult life, He worked as a Carpenter. However, He was so extraordinary in the way he lived and the influence He exerted on humanity that the word extraordinary doesn’t begin to describe Him.

No one else has contributed more to world history than Jesus.

No one comes close to equaling Jesus Christ and His influence on mankind.

11 Areas that Display the Uniqueness of Jesus

Jesus was unique in His:

1. Life and Teachings

• Jesus Christ is the most discussed, debated, and scrutinized person who ever lived. He has more defenders and opponents than any other single figure.
• There are literally thousands of academicians with the highest of degrees who willingly confessed Him as Lord.
• There are also thousands of others who would, if they could, destroy His credibility.

2. Moral Influence

• Jesus of Nazareth is unparalleled as a moral influence.
• His life and teachings remain unsurpassed in their ability to guide cultures, tribes, and peoples out of moral confusion.

3. An Artistic Influence

• Jesus inspired more of the world’s great art and music than any other person. He is the object of more books, music, and literature than any other individual.
• The Library of Congress considered the most complete repository of books in the world, catalogs more works about Jesus than any other person.

4. Humanitarian Influence

• More hospitals, orphanages, rest homes, and rescue missions have been dedicated to Him than to all other religious leaders combined.
• More people helping efforts have been founded, financed, and perpetrated by His followers than all others.

5. His Ability to Inspire Devotion.

Although Jesus never raised an army during His 3 1/2 years of ministry, multiplied millions of His followers have scattered to the uttermost parts of the earth to carry His message, not for money, lands, or earthly reward, but out of pure devotion to Him.

6. Scholastic Influence

• His teachings and followers have contributed to more literacy and educational institutions of all levels, from kindergarten to graduate school than all others combined.
  • In America alone, 128 colleges were established in the first 100 years of the nation’s history. All are founded by a church, denomination, or religious group.
  • Harvard, Princeton, and Yale were created to prepare ministers, missionaries, and Christian leaders.
• Before the gospel ever came to America, it was the followers of Jesus Christ who brought education to the children of ordinary citizens. The great reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin saw education as a means of teaching the Bible to whole generations who for the first time could read the scriptures in their mother tongues.
  • The pilgrims and Puritans furthered that pattern in the new world.
• By contrast, the secular cultures of the world have done little to bring literacy to the thousands of tribes and indigenous peoples who once lacked a written language. Yet the followers of Jesus have translated the Bible into countless tongues and have taught millions to read.

7. Impact on Women

• No one has done as much to raise the status of womanhood and motherhood as Jesus Christ.
  • Before Jesus came into the world women were considered only one step above animals. Many were traded for cattle, and few enjoyed personal rights before the law or the marriage alter.
• Where the message of Christ has permeated, women have been ennobled and respected as human beings made in the image of God.
• The followers of Christ led the women’s suffrage movement throughout Europe, England, and America.
  • Secular women in the West may not understand the debt they owe to Jesus Christ and His teachings, but they have the Nazarene and His followers to thank for the exalted status they enjoy today.

8. Freedom and Justice

• No one has more deeply promoted personal freedom and justice before the law than Jesus and His followers, armed with His standard of law.
  • English and American law, once considered the model throughout the world, was made possible primarily through John Locke, William Gladstone, William Wilberforce, William Blackstone (of England) James Witherspoon, John Adams, James Madison, and John Marshall (of America).
  • All were committed followers of Christ who knew and applied His principles and teachings to the preservation of individual rights and freedom under the law. All these influential men freely admitted they owed their greatness to Him.
  • The climax of this commitment to individual freedom came in the United States Declaration of Independence, in which the words “all men are created equal” became the cornerstone of the freest nation in world history.
• America was founded to preserve religious freedom: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for everyone.
• No matter what fear of wholesome human activity you consider, Jesus Christ’s influence on Western civilization looms larger than anyone else.
  • History shows that wherever the story of His life and message has been taken, lives have been transformed, resulting in tremendous gains in education, law, society, and culture.

9. Personal life

• Jesus’s holy life also sets Him apart from anyone else. Moreover, even His enemies could not find any fault in Him.
  • In all human history, only one man who claimed to be perfect has ever been taken seriously by both His friends and His enemies.
• Jesus never had to apologize or ask for forgiveness. He is unique in that He never sinned.
• The magnificent teachings of this humble Carpenter from Galilee also lift Jesus into a category by himself.
• Most Western historians, philosophers, and many from other traditions acknowledge Him as the greatest teacher who ever lived.
  • Almost all historians agree that this world would be a far better place if everyone followed the teachings of the Nazarene.

10. The Miracles of Jesus

• His ability to relieve every malady and cure every infirmity shows He had the power of God within Him like no one else.
• Most importantly, He gave himself sacrificially for the sins of the world, then performed the greatest of all miracles: He rose from the dead.
• That event commemorated each year as one of the two most sacred dates on the Christian calendar sets Him apart as the most extraordinary person who ever lived.

11. Effect on People

• The power of Jesus is unique and unparalleled light has produced a near-universal response in those who accept His claims to deity.
• People who come to know Him want to live righteously.
• No one has ever had such a positive influence on more people.

The Influencer of Influencers

The single fact that Jesus of Nazareth has influenced this world more than anyone who ever lived should be sufficient to establish His unique place in human history. However, when you factor in the many other unique features of His life, we are struck with an incredibly difficult dilemma.

How do you explain this on a purely human level, particularly when He made His entire life contribution in only 3 1/2 years?

When one man stands on such a lofty pedestal, far above all others in human history, surely there must be some reason, what was it? Could it be because of His…

• Parentage?
  • His mother was a simple Jewish maiden and His father was a humble village carpenter.
• Material possessions?
  • He had no money, not even a place “to lay His head.” – Matthew 8:20
  • He was tried before legal officials in a borrowed robe and buried in a borrowed tomb.
• Education?
  • There is no record that He attended school, yet at age 12, He confounded the “doctors of theology” by “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” – Luke 2:41-52
• World travels?
  • With the exception of a brief trip to Egypt when He was an infant, He never journeyed more than 100 miles from where He was reared.
  • It was not because He lived and ministered in an influential country. He spent His entire life in the obscure little land of Israel.
  • He was reared in a city that prompted the question, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” – John 1:46
• Influential friends?
  • His followers were mostly fishermen, tax collectors, and other ordinary men and women.
  • Religious leaders and the political elite repeatedly tried to kill Him and finally crucified Him.
• Long and successful life and ministry?
  • He was only 33 when He sacrificed His life for others.Ministry was only 3 1/2 years.By human standards, He died an ignominious failure on a roughhewn cross.
  • It was not because He established so many organizations to perpetrate His memory.
    • He founded only one, His church, and that was not begun until after His death.

How Did Jesus of Nazareth Manage It?

So, what accounts for the unique status of Jesus Christ? How did this man influence more lives and affect human history more deeply than all others? In all history, no one even comes close. And yet He did all this in only 3 1/2 years! All honest doubters must answer the question, “How did He manage it?”

As Jesus Christ walks through the pages of human history, He is lifted into a category all by himself, unbelievers cannot ignore Him, so great have been His incredible contributions to humanity; neither can they explain His existence without acknowledging His deity.

There is no mere human explanation why a simple though brilliant man, a man who should have been forgotten long ago by the entire world, would still be the most loved and respected person who ever lived, 2000 years after His death.

Human explanations alone cannot account for the astonishing grip He still holds over this planet.

Assigning humanity alone to Jesus is not good enough. Only one fact explains the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. To accomplish what He did in both His life and teachings requires both God and man, working together in one person. That person is Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus truly was the divine Son of God
who came in human flesh,
just as He claimed.

Read the complete series here.