Precious

I don’t remember who saw the activity on the monitor first, what I do remember is each of us speed-walking eagerly down the hall as we jockeyed to be the first to hold our new son that morning.  It was a Saturday and Traci and I had been up for an hour or so and Mikah was sleeping in.  He was about six months old, and even though we had just spent the past few months complaining about our lack of sleep, it now seemed odd not to have him up to care for him.  We had laid in bed enjoying our morning together, each of us keeping a diverted eye on the monitor waiting for one or two lights to start flickering to let us know that our baby boy was up. 

In these same first months I had become a master diaper changer.  I had learned lots of tricks and was even down to one wipe with the “messy” ones.  I think my best trick was the wee-wee shield.  This was done by opening up the new diaper and putting it down underneath the old one I was changing.  I could then maneuver the new diaper quickly into place over the top of our son in one seamless motion.  I had developed this process after my son, having felt the warmth of his diaper and then the rapid cold of it being removed, sent a stream of urine all over my hands, his new diaper, and the changing table.  There were many other frustrating times like this, which as a new dad exposed my feelings of helplessness like never before.  For me, becoming a father was one of the most trying times of my life, but also one of the most meaningful.  As a new dad I was often overcome with joy as I bonded with my son.  Such that at times I was left incapable of finding the right thoughts or phrases to express myself.  At these moments the word that came to me time and time again as I thought of my son was, “precious.”    

One dependable moment of peace in our developing schedule was when he would wake up from his late afternoon nap.  He was content, and readily smiled.  He cooed and kicked excitedly.  Naturally, there was one word on my mind, “Mikah, you are precious,” as I picked him up and held him for a while.  He has always been very energetic so holding him never lasted very long.  As I laid him down on the changing table I was struck again, “You are so precious.”  My tongue felt like there should be more to say, and I searched for the right words again to match my pierced and smitten heart.  Yet, nothing except, “Precious, precious, precious,” said through a chuckle and a smile.  A contented sigh and eyes wetted with tears—an experience my son would learn years later to name “happy tears”—filled the gap, which my words couldn’t express.  It dawned on me during one of these moments of bonding with my infant son: the Father must have thought the same thing about Jesus as He saw him newly born.  In some cosmic way I can almost picture our Abba holding Jesus as a baby with thoughts of how precious he is.

Jesus is God’s Only Begotten Son (KJV), the One and Only Son (NIV), the Only Son (ESV), his Only Begotten (unique) Son (AB).  The New Testament word from which “only begotten son” is translated, monogenes—monos meaning “only” and genos meaning “off-spring”—carries with it the idea of Jesus as unique, one of a kind, and special.  Jesus is the Father’s precious son.  We read in the prologue of John’s Gospel the uniqueness of Jesus.  He is the Word who was with God at creation and is God Himself.  He is the Life and Light of men, and full of glory.  The entire first chapter of Hebrews explains the uniqueness of Jesus as God’s Son, especially verses 2-4:

But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (ESV)

Colossians 1:15-19 echoes this same theme:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (ESV)

Jesus is one of a kind.  He is unique in all creation past, present and future.  There has not been, nor will there ever be another like him.  He is matchless and without equal. 

Jesus is the glory of God.   The end of John’s prologue says of Jesus, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only.”  Colossians speaks of Jesus as having all the fullness of God in bodily form.  Philippians states that Jesus in his very nature is God.  Also, in Hebrews 1:3, as previously referenced, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”  It is important to note the writer of Hebrews is writing to an audience of Jewish believers.  So when they read the words “radiant glory” they would have immediately connected with thoughts of Moses, who, “Whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out.  And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant.”  The glory Moses’ face reflected with radiance, is inherit in the very nature of Jesus.  These verses indicate Jesus has a glory all his own, not a glory he reflects from another source.  The very essence of Jesus is glory; radiant, beautiful, fear inducing glory.     

Peter recognizes Jesus as unique and precious when he confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  And later he was so dumbfounded with dread at the scene of Jesus’ transfiguration that he is basically speechless.  As Jesus rose from baptism it was clear to everyone that he was God’s precious and unique Son as they audibly heard the Father’s praise of him, “You are my Son, My Beloved!  In you I am well pleased and find delight.”  When the ground shook at Golgotha and the sky went black, the centurion watching over Jesus’ crucifixion was terrified and filled with awe as he stated, “Truly this was God’s Son.” 

A different centurion whom Jesus encountered during his time of ministry knew the uniqueness of Christ as the only one who could heal his child.  There was also a persistent Canaanite mother who knew Christ to be the only one who could heal her demon possessed daughter.  As well, the woman with a twelve year bleeding condition knew there was something special about Jesus, such that if she only touched the hem of his cloak she could be healed.  Life had brought these people to a desperate place.  They had tried every other option.  To them, Jesus shined as the monogenes who could solely give them composure out of their chaos.  Jesus, and He alone, is who they needed.  In the midst of their hurt His healing was the only solution.

Ever since the Fall, Christ is what has been missing.  Before Christ, humanity and all of creation    was the endlessly bitter winter in Lewis’ Narnia where it was, “Always winter but never Christmas.”  Before Christ we sounded like an off pitch harmonic line of music.  Christ’s resurrection is the melody that brings relief to our musical tension.  Christ is the warmth of sympathetic bedside manner to a difficult diagnosis.  He is the rest that finally comes to fitful hours of lying awake in bed.  To a bland dish, He is a mix of spices.  To an object out of focus, He is a set of glasses.  To bleary eyes, He is the destination to a night’s drive.  To a bout of seasickness, He is solid ground.  He is relief to anger, comfort to hurt, and love to fear.  In the ache of our sin Christ is a healing balm.

Not many places bring to mind the desperation for relief like the desert.  David, while he is wandering in the wilderness of Judah, describes the exhaustion he experienced from the desert in Psalm 63:1, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  Many times the desert or the wilderness is referenced in Scripture and represents a weariness of soul, or feeling lost without direction especially as it relates to God feeling absent from our lives.  Many Christians describe times in their lives as a desert period; to be sure I have experienced my own.  But the desert is more than a place of wandering.  It is life or death.   

I love the survival show, Man Vs. Wild with Bear Grylls.  Here are some survival skills he shares to give some context to the life or death perspective the desert demands.  Make sure to cover your head and the back of your neck or else your brain will literally boil inside your head from the intense heat.  (This brings a whole new appreciation to Psalm 121, “The sun will not harm you by day.”  If there were an Amplified Survivalist Translation it might read, “The sun will not harm you [cause your brain to boil inside your head] by day.” Look for the new ASTB version in your local Christian bookstore soon, haha.)  The sun in the desert is so brightly intense that you can experience temporary blindness from it.  So it is important to protect your eyes with sunglasses.  If you find yourself sans sunglasses they can be improvised by tying a piece of cloth around your eyes and cutting thin slits, or rubbing charcoal underneath your eyes.  Maintaining your body’s water stores is the most imperative goal for desert survival.  So reduce exertion to minimize sweating and avoid traveling during the heat of the day.  Just make sure if you travel by night you do so with a heavy footfall so the vibrations scare off poisonous snakes and scorpions who also like to be active after sundown.  And, if you are Bear Grylls and you come across these critters then you can cut off the head or stinger and eat them.  In the intense heat of the desert you would think it might be a good idea to strip down to minimal clothing, however this would lead to a horrendous sunburn and more rapid dehydration from the wind.  Reptiles, birds, and mammals—in that order—can go the longest without water, so if you see birds flying overhead somewhere there might be water, and a rabbit or a meerkat are a dead giveaway that water is nearby.  To find water in the desert you have to be creative.  You can dig a condensation still, chew on roots and leaves of non-poisonous plants, or know the right places to dig for it.  If you find wet sand you can fill your sock with it and squeeze out the water.  According to Bear that leaves more than a slight “flavor” to your water (and since he is British then it would be “flavour”).  If you can manage to do all these things then the desert just might let you out alive. 

In the face of death, surviving the desert is not just a relief—it is liberation.  In the desert we have created for ourselves by our sin there is no amount of determination or ability that will get us out alive.  We have to be rescued.  And oh, how Christ has liberated our souls from the death of our spiritual desert of sin!  He has transformed the endless sand dunes of the desert to the waves of a refreshing seashore.  All of a sudden sand is not your bane, it’s an enjoyable beach.  Your once desperate and wandering life of the desert is now swaying comfortably from a hammock between shading trees, nodding in and out of slumber as a salty seaside breeze floats past to the back drop of waves softly rolling over one another.  You have been saved, and your circumstance transformed.  Only the monogenes can do that!  Jesus is the only true way from sin to salvation.

Not only is Jesus our only hope for our present salvation he is the only one who can bring that to completion in our future glory.  Romans 8 describes our future glory revealing the uniqueness of Christ as the only one who could completely rescue humanity and all of creation from the restless curse of sin.  “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies,” Romans 8:22-23 (ESV).  In C. H. Spurgeon’s commentary on this passage of Scripture he writes, “Creation glows with a thousand beauties, even in its present fallen condition; yet clearly enough it is not as when it came from the Maker's hand—the slime of the serpent is on it all—this is not the world which God pronounced to be “very good.”’ 

The current groaning of believers and creation is one of heartache.  It’s not the groan of someone lost in a desert fearing death as he languishes under the scorching sun without hope of rescue.  It’s the groan of one who has found his way from the desert to the beach.  Yet, it’s a beach upon a deserted island, and your heart groans to be home with family and all whom you love.  This groan of Romans 8 is of the believer who has been rescued and liberated from sin.  Yet, who still faces daily the scarring of sin upon his soul as the future glory of heaven awaits him.  Spurgeon continues to give insight into this type of groaning, “The man that yearns after more holiness, the man that sighs after God, the man that groans after perfection, the man that is discontented with his sinful self, the man that feels he cannot be easy till he is made like Christ, that is the man who is blessed indeed. May God help you, and help me, to groan all our days with that kind of groaning.”  This is a kind of groaning which caused Paul to exclaim, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Only the monogenes can rescue us to heaven!  In him alone is the hope of our future glory.

Jesus is special in his ability to make payment for sin by being the only one who can suffer under the full wrath of the Father.  At times we think we might be able to pay for our own sins if we can outweigh them with acts of compassion, or if we can feel guilty enough, or pay enough of our own penance.  It reminds me of lyrics from one of my favorite bands, Counting Crows, whose lead singer writes about his many mistakes and misfortunes in love.  He says in Angels of the Silences, after trying to make sense of a broken relationship where his girlfriend left him, “All my sins…I said that I would pay for them if I could come back to you.”  In a softer acoustic version of this song on a live album he really brings the confusion and pain of these lyrics to life.  Almost saying, “Just let me know what I need to do to fix this and I’ll do it; I’m desperate, don’t let me go, I need you back.”  This is the anguish our hearts need to feel in our broken relationship with God.  Yet, unlike the song there is nothing we can do to pay for our sins.  God’s wrath against our sin is too great.  We see small examples of God’s wrath expressed against sin in the Old Testament—once against the inhabitants of a city and once against all of creation in the flood.  The flood was God’s wrath against evil and sin from humanity up to that point in history.  On a smaller scale He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness.  In both accounts it is said God is grieved by sin.  He then exercises His wrath against sin with incredible destruction. 

Now, take those two instances, which seem great in our mind, and try to compare the wisp in time of those two occasions to the entire sum of mankind past, present, and future.  Try to imagine the grief God has for the totality of evil submerged in the heart of humanity, and the great wrath he has toward it.  This is the wrath under which he subjected His Son for destruction on the cross.  Just as God sent fire and brimstone to pummel a city, Jesus endured the pummeling of soldiers striking him as he began capturing the wrath of the Father against sin.  Then on the cross, Jesus was left alone to swallow the flood of God’s wrath.  And after he had contained God’s righteous anger against sin he declared the payment to be finished, tetelestia.  Only the monogenes can bear underneath that anger!  Jesus is the precious wrath absorber so that we might “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Rm. 5:1).

Jesus is God’s precious son, who suffered under God’s wrath, so that through faith in him we might appear precious in the sight of God as well.  He did this so that he could assign his righteousness to us and bring us to God, (1 Pet. 3:18).  And we are not just brought to God as strangers, we are adopted as sons.  In this Jesus is unique to fulfill the promise given to Abraham (Gen. 12, 18, & 22): that he will be a great nation, that all nations will be blessed through him, and that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars.  This is seen through a review of Galatians 3:   

Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham (v.7)…So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith (v.9)…You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (v.26-27)…If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (v.29).

Romans 9:7-8 emphasizes this same point:  

Nor because [the people of Israel] are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."  In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.

God’s intention all along was to use his Son to make us his children.  He has always desired to draw us near and hold us close with his affection.  He desires to nurture us completely rather than for us lift ourselves to the idols of our lives with their fleeting comfort and inevitable despair.  He desires us to follow his direction as good children, not spurn him in rebellion.  He desires us to look to His provision instead of continuing to toil under the curse of providing for ourselves.  As his children he has removed our hearts of stone and given us a heart of flesh, which is sensitive to the direction of his Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27).    

Not only are we children with the privilege of God’s affection, nurture, direction, and provision, we are also heirs.

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Gal. 4:4-7)

As heirs God has given us an inheritance with him in heaven; the promise of eternal life!  He has also given us an inheritance of abundant life here on earth while we groan in longing for our heavenly dwelling.  Both inheritances come through Christ and his Spirit by whom we are saved and sealed.  Only the monogenes could make us children and heirs of God!

The Father gave up his precious son so that we also might become His precious children. When I think of all the uniqueness that belongs to Christ he stands out as a priceless treasure, and I am brought back to thoughts of my own son who is precious to me.  I could never think of giving him up.  Just as in some cosmic way I can picture our Abba holding his infant son with joy, I can also imagine a time when he must have wanted to hold him again.  Though this time out of a sense of pain.  I can barely begin to tread upon the emotion that God must have felt when, at His precious son’s crucifixion, he must have wanted to reach through heaven and draw him back to himself.  To comfort the immense pain of His son as he cried, “Why have you forsaken me?”  If it were me, I would have sent the legions of angels, taken my son down from that horrible cross, and carried him away back to heaven.  But God didn’t.  Instead, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus,” (Ephesians 2:6-7).  I do not understand God’s grace.  I am helpless to comprehend his love.