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.
No comments:
Post a Comment