The Only

I have had no small numbers of people -- I'm talking self-identified Christians -- who have told me "I don't like your God." For some the concept of His Sovereignty is not palatable. "You're saying He's in charge of everything? You've neglected my Free Will!" For others His justice is unacceptable. "Punish sin with eternal hell? No way!" There are certain aspects of the God I see plainly represented in the pages of God's Word that a significant amount of Christians find offensive.

When Scripture describes Man, it uses an "only" term. "Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Gen 6:5). That wasn't a passing condition. He said again, "The intent of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen 8:21). "There is none righteous; no, not one. There is none who does good; no, not one." (Rom 3:10, 12). And so on. It remains so to this day. When Scripture talks about God, it uses several "only" terms. Jesus is the "only begotten Son" (John 3:16, etc.). God is "the only God" (Jude 1:25). He is "our only Master and Lord" (Jude 1:4). There is "only one Lawgiver and Judge" (James 4:12). He is the "only Sovereign" (1 Tim 6:15). He is "the only wise God" (Rom 16:27). Over and over He gets these unique labels. And it grinds on us.

We humans (remember, the ones with the "only evil continually" hearts) like to think we are wise, we are sovereign in some sense, we are lawgivers and judges, we are masters and lords. We find the cross offensive because it stands in stark contrast to our self-perception that says, "No! God is not the only!" followed by "I will be like the Most High!"

It takes something other than human effort to relegate oneself to "less than" in these terms. We would have to admit that we are not the pinnacle of wisdom and we could, unfortunately, be wrong ... yikes! ... in a lot of our thinking. We'd have to agree that we are not sovereign. We make choices -- we aren't coerced -- but in the end God alone is Sovereign. Oh, that chafes. As Christians we nod and agree that we are saved by grace apart from works ... and then continue to think that we have a part -- a major part -- in our own salvation. "God is not our only Salvation! Jesus saved me, and I helped!" What do we have to do to surrender all that? It turns out, then, that the "only" aspects of God are our only hope. And it turns out that that's a good thing.