Jesus, Supreme and Exclusive
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007My heart was wearied as our Discovery Team drove through village after village (which possess no evangelical church or gospel witness) in six differerent Eastern European Countries. Is Jesus the only way to heaven? If so, then the majority of people in countries like Montenegro (600,000 people with only three evangelical churches) and Slovakia (5.5 million people and 23 Baptist churches, less than 2,000 Baptists and less than 10,000 evangelical believers in the whole country) are destined to eternally perish. Is there no other way? What about sincere people? What about people who acknowledge God (Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim) but who don’t view Christ as the only Savior and grace as the only means to salvation? My own heart needed encouragement. So on Tuesday after returning I wrote a little 5-page discussion of Jesus as the supreme and exclusive way for people to be saved. I’m sharing it this evening, Wednesday the 25th of April, with my Mere Christianity group.
Why, in the Christian concept, Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven(A discussion on the supremacy and exclusivity of Jesus Christ)
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:11-12
I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26
Life’s greatest quest is to discover what is worth our lives. What is worth loving, serving, investing, thinking about, working for, expending. Moment by moment, everyone trades something for their life. What is your life worth?
“the worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured byt he object of its love” - Henry Scougal
The Life of God in the Soul of Man p. 62
(Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1986)
We waste the eternal value of our being on things unworthy of our pursuit and in the process diminish the excellency of our souls
The heart is known by its delights
And pleasures never lie
Since God created humanity He alone can offer humanity the reasoning necessary to fulfill their existence, is the only source of humanity’s greatest happiness and the ultimate end of humanity’s existence. He is genuinely the Alpha and Omega of human life. The greatest good God can do humanity is to free them from any hindrance or bondage that blinds or subdues them and interferes with their greatest happiness and to open their eyes, hearts, minds and wills to their own greatest good, God Himself.
“The most ravishing pleasures, the most solid and substantial delights that human nature is capable of, are those which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection”
– Scougal in Life of God, p. 86
What is a well-placed and successful affection? To determine what is of eternal worth and thus of limitless value to human beings, we must determine what is of the greatest worth to God. What is the object of God’s love that evidences that God has “well placed and successful affection” such that He has the most worthy and excellent soul?
To know this is to know:
1 – What makes God, God.
2 – What makes Jesus the only way to God.
3 – What makes humanity most fulfilled, happy and glorious.
1 - Who is God? God is the eternal, all and self-sufficient, simple Being who is perfect and complete within Himself in every way.
Thus, God is the all-satisfying end of everything God has created and as such, anything and everything He commands of His creation is to their good, even though they do not realize it and may rebel against it.
2 – Jesus is God, whom God loves most and as such, loves Himself the most.
I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:17
Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
Isaiah 42:1
For God to love anything else more than He loves Himself would be idol worship and unrighteous since nothing is deserving of God’s love more than God, Who is in and of Himself alone worthy of honor, praise, love and adoration.
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation 4:11
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth
and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
Revelation 5:12
God cannot love anything more than Himself for He is perfect in His affections and perfect in His righteousness and perfect in His actions. If He did love anything else above or more than Himself, He would immediately cease to be God.
But, God’s love for Himself is not antithetical to His love for me. His love for Himself ensures that He can be my God and that my best interests are the same as His own design.
“Enter into the joy of your master.’
Matthew 15:21 & 23
How joyful is God? How joyful would you be if you had found the ‘one thing’ in life that could make you most joyful now and forever. But God is even more joyful because God, in His perfections, enjoys it perfectly, eternally perfectly, without blemish or alteration. God’s joy is eternal and as such, is boundless. (Think of eternity not only as time but space as well)
Thus, everything God does, He does for His own glory and joy (which is only righteous).
Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God.
- 2 Samuel 7:22-24
For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name‘s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself.
1 Samuel 12:22
To what name is God so committed that He created a people to declare His praises throughout the earth?
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church… - Ephesians 1:16-22
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11
The Father seeks to glorify the Son (which is only righteous and thus best for God and humanity since Jesus is the source and end of humanity) and the Son seeks to glorify the Father
“Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.” John 8:50
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my
own will but the will of him who sent me. John 6:38
God has “well-placed” affections which are to eternally glorify Himself, are thus “successful” affections in that His affections (because/although they cannot increase or decrease His happiness) maintain His Godness and bless His people.
(On the other hand, humanity does not well place its affections and, as a direct result, is unsuccessful in its quest for fulfillment and happiness, ultimately ruining their own existence and necessitating the Son’s redemptive mission. There is nothing in this world capable of filling the vacuum that exists in every human being (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Everything dependent on time comes to an end and everything about creation points to this truth intended to increase mankind’s hunger for what is else and more. This saving endeavor (in time) involves the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who with the Father and the Son, seeks to glorify God and which must be entirely successful else the Father cannot completely glorify His Son or be completely glorified in His Son. Look how the Trinity has eternally cooperated toward a single goal of uniting all things in Christ.)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us (The Father planned redemption) in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, (The Son purchased redemption) the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit…(The Spirit protects redemption) Ephesians 1:3-13
This is why Jesus is the only way to God. God cannot, does not and will not do anything more than, less than, other than, seek the Son’s honor/fame which is to seek the glory of the Trinity. If God sought to glorify anything or anyone else beside Himself (there is nothing beyond Himself) He would not be God and all hope for anyone’s eternal bliss would be lost. Thus, God’s self-righteous, self-centeredness is man’s only hope for salvation.
3 – So what makes humanity the most happy is the discovery of that purpose for which they were created, glorifying God. Hence, God’s command to…
love the LORD your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5
…is not a grievous or burdensome command but an invitation to endless delight.
Imagine discovering and then being enabled to love what is most lovely and inherently most rewarding to love? That is God!
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,
46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-46
He is not fool who gives up what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose - Jim Elliot
Jesus was born, lived, died, was resurrected and is exalted that we might gain what we cannot lose. The struggle inherent to humanity’s depraved existence is the fight against surrendering what we cannot keep. We try to save our own lives and in the process lose them (Mat 10:39). We are blind, our hearts are hard, our minds are darkened and we are alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18). We have suppressed what we know to be true about God (Romans 1:18-23) and live in conflict with God’s great goal, His own glory, and thus within ourselves and amongst ourselves.
Sin is the soul’s suicide of exchanging what is valueless for what is beyond value. Righteousness is prizing what is worth prizing, the correct appraisal of genuine treasure.
Indeed, if we consider unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis
Preached originally as a sermon in the Church of St Mary the Virgin,
Oxford on June 8, 1942
God’s great commitment to His own glory, which is the same thing as our own good is the reason that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Salvation is God’s pleasure as our pleasure.