Friends: George Bebawi hated modern Christmas but thoroughly understood the uniqueness of Christ.  First of a Christmas series. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #994

December 2, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Unique Gifts, Part 1

By Bob Walters

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth …” – John 1:14

I am sure there is no better Christmas gift than God joining humanity; or a better Christmas wish than embracing, adopting, and internalizing God’s grace and truth.

This is what we have in Jesus Christ, and He is why we celebrate Christmas.

It is a unique thing, this Christianity. There is nothing else in the human or cosmic experience like Christ, and no other religion on earth replicates its saving relationship with God.  Jesus is unique, alone, different, the Son, the beloved, sender of the Holy Spirit, and our only way to the Father. He is the only peace that counts, our only gate to the eternal, our only escape from sin, and our one and true meaning of life.

Woe to the person who says, “All religions are the same.” That is a bare admission of poor, absent, or lazy scholarship. And while knowledge of Jesus is a fine thing, it is not a saving thing.  Faith in Jesus is a saving thing; it is the only saving thing.

In these weeks leading to Christmas, let’s examine the uniqueness of Christ. I’ve pulled off my shelf the first teaching series George Bebawi presented at East 91^st Street Christian Church back in the fall of 2004.  George – an Egyptian Bible translator and Cambridge PhD / Divinity lecturer who retired to Carmel, Indiana earlier that year – presented weekly Bible / theology / Christology / church history and doctrine lectures.

To George, ironically but seriously and with a droll sense of humor, modern western “Christmas” practice is a vile deformity of its true meaning, to wit: “And the Word became flesh.” The Word of God, the Logos – i.e., Jesus the Incarnation, fully God, fully man, fully worthy – entered humanity through the fleshly womb of Mary.

George provided deep, complex, historical citations of the great theologians, but thankfully, he also had simpler, accessible lists of nearly everything. Beginning with the uniqueness of the revelation of Jesus – His arrival on earth taking on human flesh – here we will stick with George’s simpler axioms and then I’ll throw in a thought.

1.    Christ united God and humanity with his person and thus abolished the importance of time, seasons, rituals, and shrines as a means of reaching God.

George frequently made the point that while the old covenant relied on the strict temporal and physical observations by Israel of God’s laws, Jesus in his new covenant of faith brought God’s heart – the Holy Spirit – to dwell in man’s heart perpetually.

2.  By making faith the first and the only requirement of being in fellowship with him, Christ abolished all possible mediators and established fellowship in the human heart; thus following Him means nothing other than believing.

George was keenly aware of fallen humanity’s mistaken attraction to works of obedience as a measure of “earning” one’s way into the Kingdom. If I learned anything from George, it is that God’s love is pure grace, not a transaction; love, not payment.

3.    Jesus revealed in Himself divine love as a personal relationship.  This love is not subjected to our imagination but is part of His divine revelation where His death on the cross is the seal for divine love and any authentic love.

God is transcendent – apart from us – but also with us personally in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This relationship is not something man conceived, but is God’s eternal plan for those created in His own image: humanity. God did it purely, uniquely, for love.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has all 14 years of George’s E91 lecture notes, and back in April presented this column: Person of Faith with George’s “Ten Reason’s to Believe the Incarnation.” It’s a good refresher for the reason for the season.