Same & Different – Special & Not Special
by Dr. Glenn Mathews
Recently I listened via CD to a sermon from a dear pastor friend in which he spoke of God’s Plan and, among other things, God’s Purpose. In that very practical message, he spoke to the membership of the congregation and pointed out that everyone is the “same, yet different”. Later, he spoke of everyone being “special”. Although he did not say it, the thought occurred to me that if everyone is special, then, in essence, no one is special! So, the following are some of my thoughts regarding the above-named topic. How is everyone the same, yet different? How is everyone special and yet not special?
In a plethora of ways, we are all the same. We are all created beings, all created in the image of God. In some manner beyond our comprehension, God chose our parents, our ethnicity, our body with all of its specifics, our intelligence level – in short, everything that makes us who we are. Beyond that, we are all sinful. “There is none righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:10). You may want to read the entire chapter to see just how sinful we are. We are all accountable to our creator. It is simple logic that the creator is greater than the creature. Thus, the creature owes its existence to the creator (whether that is a piece of pottery or a person) AND that creature is accountable to the creator. (Rom. 9:20) It is ludicrous to assume that the creator would create without having a purpose for the creation. We shall discuss that idea later in this article. We all are the recipients of God’s favor.
We may call it grace, blessings, gifts, etc., but it is “in him that we live and move and have our being”. (Acts 17:28) “Every good and perfect gift (including life, itself) is from above, and cometh down from the father of lights” (James 1:17). In these, and many other ways, we are all the same. Yet, we are all different!
You are unique! I am unique! One cannot say very unique or most unique, for unique cannot be modified by a descriptive adjective. Unique is, among other things “one of a kind”. We are told that no two snowflakes are the same – could it be less for us? Snowflakes were not “created in the image of God” as are we. How, then, is each of us unique? How are we different? We are different bodily. Our appearance is unique. Our fingerprints are uniquely “us”. We are different mentally. Our I.Q. score may be identical to someone else, but our scope of knowledge will be unique. All of us are both smart and ignorant! I may know history, but not chemistry. I may know English, but not Russian. You may know both chemistry and Russian, but not know history or English. We are different emotionally. I need not comment on that, except to say that there are optimists and pessimists – the glass is half empty vs. the glass is half full. We are different even in our sinfulness! Isaiah 53:6 says “All we like sheep have gone astray (we are the same), we have turned everyone to his own way” (we are different). One may turn the way of morality, another of immorality – one may be honest and another dishonest – one may recognize the existence of God, and another deny His existence – but we all have “gone astray”. Surely, you see that we are the same and different.
How is it that we are special and not special? If everyone is special, does that not negate our “specialness”? (My spell checker tells me that “specialness” is not a word, but it says what I want to convey, so I will use it.) In essence, each one is special because of our differences – our uniqueness. We are special in the mind of some other(s), simply because of relationships. To those who love us or to those who dislike us, we are special. To deny this status to each person is to make us cookie cutter creatures and thus deny the genius of the creation. Remember the children’s chorus “Jesus loves the little children”? Line four says “they are special in his sight”…and so we are. In the gospels, we have the accounts of Jesus raising three people from the dead. They are recorded in Luke 7, Luke 8 and John 11. One was about 12 years old, another a “young man” and the third an adult man. One had been dead but a few minutes, another for a few hours and the third for four days. It is of particular interest to me that each of the three was an only…only son, only daughter, only brother. The Lord does love each of us as an “only”. Is that not comforting to know? I believe Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning, God created”, but I am not awed at that. I would expect God to be able to do that. But, I stand in open-mouthed amazement that God would love me – as an “only! Each of us is special because of our uniqueness, but also because we are the objects of His love. That is beyond wonderful! Is there any more thrilling news than “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”? We are, individually, special.
How, then, are we not special? Among other ways, we are not special in that we receive preferential treatment in the matter of salvation. God does not allow some to go to heaven by one way and some to go to heaven by another way. We all must “needs go home by the way of the Cross, there’s no other way but this. I will ne’er get sight of the gates of life, if the way of the Cross I miss”. God does not even consider our best efforts as having value. “Our righteousness is as filthy rages in his sight” (Isa. 64:6). It is “not of works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us” (Titus 3:5).
We are also not special in that we will receive preferential treatment in the matter of rewards. We shall be rewarded for “things done in the body, whether it be good or bad” (II Cor. 5:10) We shall not be rewarded for what we knew, not even for what we had planned to do, but for what we have done. We ought to remember that salvation is all of grace, but judgment is all of works. Every judgment in both Old and New Testaments is predicated upon works. While God does not require us to be successful, he does require us to be faithful (I Cor. 4:2).
I have written much more than I had intended to write. Perhaps I will write more on it later. Suffice it to say for now, that we are the same, yet different. We are special and yet, not special. I would that this article has, at the least, caused you to reflect on who we are and what we do.