Tuesday, September 3, 2024

THE CHALLENGE OF BEING EXCLUSIVE

 John 14:6 (NIV)

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

               I have been reading Erwin Lutzer’s book “Christ Among Other Gods.” In it he relates his experience at the Parliament of World Religions in 1993. The goal of that gathering was to bring all of the world religions together into some kind of a unified whole. The different religions were all recognized and celebrated, as long as they did not portray themselves as exclusive. The ultimate goal was to eliminate all differences and unite around the principle of love and human well-being.

               Although the goal of the Parliament has not been achieved, the push to be “tolerant and inclusive” has continued to be championed in our world. Although some people want to just ignore Jesus, most people struggle to make him fit into our new world order. The most common way to do that is to see him as just one among many religious leaders who have influenced the course of human history. They were willing to honor him, but not to give him an exclusive place of authority.

               There are others who want to reduce Jesus to just a man who was elevated after his death to the place of deity by his followers. They claim that the historical Jesus, if he lived at all, was just an unfortunate idealist who met a tragic death. The Jesus of faith is a construct of the early church to continue the legacy of Jesus.

               In these, and many other ways, many people want to deny Jesus’ claim to be the exclusive way to God.

               At the very heart of our faith is the reality that Jesus stands alone on the landscape of human history. We believe that Jesus is the unique Son of God who came into the world to save all of humanity from our sins. As John has said it so eloquently, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:1-5 (NIV)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth
. John 1:14 (NIV)

               The attempt to make Jesus just another man is not new. The early church struggled with the same issue. John addressed it in his first letter to the saints. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:1-4 (NIV)

               John’s point is that we cannot have a relationship with God the Father without God the Son. The two go hand in hand. We cannot separate one from the other. John goes on to make that point very clear. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:11-12 (NIV)

               We face increasing pressure to compromise our faith by diminishing who Jesus is. We can honor him as a great moral and spiritual leader, but we cannot call him the exclusive Savior of the world. As we move forward, this pressure is only going to increase. We need to hold fast to the truth that Jesus is the exclusive way to God. There are no others. All others are dead ends.

Hebrews 10:23 (NIV)
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

 



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