No Salvation apart from Christ?

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

            Acts 4:12; NKJV

 

Van Gogh, Weeping Woman

    In her best-selling book Beyond Belief religious scholar Elaine Pagels tells of a close friend of hers who was tragically killed in a car accident at age sixteen. Ms. Pagels was attending an evangelical church at the time, and was distressed to hear that since her friend was Jewish he was not born again, and hence was doomed to hell. "Distressed and disagreeing with their interpretation – and finding no room for discussion – I realized that I was no longer at home in their world and left that church" (Beyond Belief, p. 31).
    The story is tragic, and one can readily sympathize with Ms. Pagels. Unfortunately we cannot delude ourselves here, as terrible as the truth may seem. It would be nice to imagine that all well-meaning and sincere people go to heaven when they die. But so to imagine is to lose sight of the bigger picture. As we have seen, no human being meets God's standard of righteousness, and the this is because of the dark forces that are at work in every human heart. There are many different religions and philosophies in the world, each with many earnest and sincere followers. But we must face the fact that as human beings we simply do not measure up to God's standards, and this creates a problem – a huge problem.
    As we have also seen, the answer involves an atonement of some sort, but then this raises the further question as to who is qualified to provide the atonement. And that, in turn, raises yet another problem: the atonement has to be the substitution of one life for another. But in order for it to be a genuine substitution it has to be of equivalent value to the original. If I smash up your brand new Mercedes and offer you my beat-up old Ford in return, it is hardly a fair exchange. Sacrifices of animals were made in the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem, but the blood of a bull or a goat can never really be the substitute for the life of a human being. Something more is needed. It must be a human life for a human life.

Van Gogh, Man Reading the Bible

    Moreover, the person being sacrificed must be perfectly innocent himself. Trading the life of one condemned criminal for that of another condemned criminal hardly satisfies the demands of justice. They both deserve to die on their own accounts. The substitute has to be innocent in order to offer his life in exchange for that of the criminal. It is for these reasons that there is only one person who is qualified to fill the role, and the person is Jesus Christ. Because He is true man He can act as the representative of the human race; and because He is true God His death is of innocent value and sufficient to cover the sins of the entire human race if need be. Moreover, because He was perfectly sinless He did not have to die for His own sins, and thus was in a position to give His life as an atonement for others. Thus He was able to do what no purely human priest or animal sacrifice could possibly do, and that was to really and truly atone for our sins.
    This is why there is no salvation apart from Christ. From the very nature of the case He is the only one who is in a position to secure salvation for us. Far from being tyrannical, for God to send His only Son into this sin-cursed world to die for our sins was an extraordinary demonstration of mercy and kindness. The person who throws a life-preserver to a drowning man is not being a tyrant; he is trying to save the man's life.
    What makes Christianity unique among the world's religions is that it offers mankind a Savior. If you think that you are a righteous person, if you think that your own good works are sufficient to merit heaven when you die, then there are other religions for you. But if you are honest with yourself, and can see some of the evil that is ingrained within human nature, if you can see that you could never stand before a righteous and holy God on the basis of your own merit, then you need a Savior. Every other religion offers a way to heaven paved with the pretense of human goodness. Christianity offers sinners salvation through a Redeemer. Let every person judge for himself what truly meets the need.

     

What Is the Answer to Sin?

David, the Psalmist -- Asking Forgiveness

   We have been considering the problem of human evil, with a brief detour through the subjects of abortion, capitalism, and the nature of morality in general. Today we ask the question, what is God's response to the problem of evil?
    Sometimes people will ask, "Why can't God just forgive us, the way a human parent would forgive his child?" Others object, "Why would a good and loving God allow evil to exist in the world?" There is, in fact, a moral dilemma here, and this dilemma is reflected in the Old Testament. On the one hand there is a whole class of psalms called "imprecatory" psalms, in which the psalmist calls down the wrath of God upon his enemies. For example, in Psalm 35 we hear David praying, "Let those be brought to shame and brought to dishonor / Who seek after my life; / Let those be turned back and brought to confusion / Who plot my hurt? (v. 4; NKJV). On the other hand there is another whole class of psalms called "penitential" psalms, in which the psalmist asks for forgiveness for his own sins. Thus, for example, in Psalm 38 David pleads, "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, / Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure!" (v. 1).
    We might well stand back in utter amazement and wonder how David could be so hypocritical. But David is reflecting on his own experience. When we are the victims, we naturally want justice. The nature of evil is all too obvious. "For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit, / Which they have dug without cause for my life" (Ps. 35:7). Something inside of us tells us that evil is wrong. But, when we have been the perpetrators of evil, and we know that we have done something that was wrong, we cry out for relief from the crushing sense of guilt. "For my iniquities have gone over my head; / Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me" (Ps. 38:4).
    How, then, to resolve the dilemma? First of all, the Bible is very that God is just, and that someday there will be a day of reckoning. This day is still off in the future, which means that in the meantime good and evil exist side-by-side. Why does God delay justice? The delay is a mark of His benevolence towards us. He tolerates evil in the short run in order to give us the opportunity to repent. "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" (Rom. 2:4).
    Although the day of reckoning may be far off in the future, it will nevertheless come, and when it does come God's justice will be sure and true. God "will render to each one according to his deeds" (v. 6; possibly quoting either Psalm 62:12 or Prov. 24:12). Everyone will get exactly what he deserves – those who strove after righteousness will receive eternal life (vv. 7,10), but "to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish . . . " (vv. 8,9). And then Paul notes, "For there is no partiality with God" (v. 11).
    God must punish sin. To take an extreme example, what is God likely to have said to Hitler when the latter appeared before Him upon his suicide in 1945? "Boys will be boys, and we all make mistakes"? Hardly. But where does one draw the line? God is just and justice will be done. "For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. / He shall judge the world with righteousness, / And the peoples with His truth" (Ps. 96:13).