Billy Graham: Jesus Is a Uniquely Different Child of God
While all Christians are children of God like Jesus, there is something exceedingly special about God's only son, the Rev. Billy Graham wrote in a recent post.
Responding to a question posted on the Kansas City Star, the 97-year-old evangelical leader explained that although God breathed life into all of us, Jesus is uniquely different than any other person who has ever lived.
It is wrong to think that "we're just like Jesus, and Jesus is just like us," Graham writes. "Jesus Christ is unlike any other person who ever lived — or ever will live."
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What makes Jesus so different from the rest of us is "because he alone was both fully human and fully God," the Baptist minister explains. "On that first Christmas a miracle took place that we can barely imagine: God came down from heaven and became a man. Jesus wasn't just like God. He was God, in human flesh."
This lesson is especially important for our salvation, because we as sinners were saved when Jesus was crucified on the cross, Graham says. "It's possible only because on the cross Jesus Christ — who was without sin — took upon himself the guilt and judgment that we deserve."
It is through this gift on the cross that we are able to be welcomed into God's family for eternity, the minister concludes.
Graham is arguably the most well-known evangelical in the world, with his massive crusades and preaching through various media platforms resulting in over 3 million people responding to the call to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior, according to his staff. He is also famous for his pastoral relationship to many U.S. presidents and meetings with international leaders.
A central emphasis in Graham's preaching is that Christianity is different from other religions in the world, and Jesus is the only true way to achieving salvation.
"Something distinguishes Christianity from all the religions of the world," Graham previously wrote. "Not only does it carry the truth of the redemption, by the death of our Savior for our sins on the cross, but it carries the fact that Christ rose again."
Jesus is the only religious leader in the world to have conquered death, Graham adds. "Christianity has no shrines to visit, no dusty remains to venerate, no tombs at which to worship. Many good men have lived, and still live, in the memory of those who knew them, but there is only one Man who conquered death — Jesus Christ — and He will live forever."
Graham's son, the Rev. Franklin Graham, has also spoken on the uniqueness of Christianity, but has warned that he fears Christianity is losing ground in the U.S.
Franklin recently launched his Decision America Tour to encourage Christians to become involved in the political debate ahead of the 2016 election.
"The only hope for this country is God and we have taken God out of the political debate, and we have taken him out of the public space, and I want to put him back in," Graham said in March when announcing his tour. "We are asking people to come to the capitol steps and we are going to all 50 state capitals and we asking people to join me."
