God, why didn’t You have Your Son born in the most beautiful and glorious place on earth, with the whole world watching?  Why a quiet and lonely manger, with two young, uneducated parents, and animals and filth all around?

If I could ask this question, I think God would say:  “There is no place on earth beautiful and glorious enough to merit the birth of My Son.  There is no number of people large enough to fully appreciate His arrival.  I carefully chose the place and the time and the people and the surroundings. That’s all you need to know.”

That would be enough for me.

 

Good question.   Let’s look at the facts:  The Savior promised by God all through the Old Testament was going to be His Son.  “You are my Son, today I have begotten You.”  (Psalm 2:7) .  So what we’re asking is: could God have fathered more than one Son?

We know the answer to this question from one simple phrase:  Jesus is called the “only begotten Son of God”.  (John 1:14)  There are no other begotten sons of God.  Jesus is and always will be the only Son who was physically fathered by God.

 

One Savior/Messiah/Son of God was promised all through the Old Testament.  Only One.

If there had been or could be other begotten Sons of God, then there would be many Saviors.  But there was only One.

What are the implications of this, then?

• That means Jesus is the only way to salvation.  There is no salvation in any other person, or in any other name.   John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man comes to the Father except through Me.”
• And it means if anyone else ever comes along saying they are the Savior of the world, run very fast in the other direction.  “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we may be saved.”  Acts 4:12

With all the proofs of Who Jesus was, how can anyone not believe?

There is a very simple yet heartbreaking answer to this often-asked question.

Every person on earth is a sinner,   (“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23)  and sinners do not want to have their sins exposed by the Light, but instead end up hating the Light.  (John 3:19&20)

Well, then, you might say, if that’s true, how does anyone ever believe in Jesus (the Light)?

Here’s how:  even the ability to hate sin and the desire to be forgiven is a gift of God.   That gift can be accepted or rejected by each person because every person has free will.

Those who see they are sinners but do not want to humble themselves before God and ask for His forgiveness become haters of the light.  They refuse to believe, not because they don’t have enough proof of Who Jesus is, but because they don’t want to admit who they are in the eyes of the Holy God.