No Other Rock

A few years ago, a religious leader in Seattle made big news when she defined herself as both Christian and Muslim. Furthermore, she said about Jesus, and I quote: “I don't think God said, "Let me send this special person so that I can kill him for the benefit of the rest of humanity." That's not the kind of sacrifice I think that God desires.” End quote. Her supervisor says that her declaration that she is both a Christian and a Muslim to be “exciting” in terms of interfaith understanding. What do you think?

Well, let me tell you what I think. The God who reveals Himself through the Bible claims that He is the only true God. And it’s not like he’s silent on the issue of other religions. Consider our Old Testament lesson for today from Isaiah 44. There the Lord Almighty says: “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come—yes, let him foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one."

Does that sound like a God who would say, “Oh yeah, those other gods are fine. There’s really no difference?” No way. There is no other rock on which to stand when all other ground is sinking sand. It’s the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, or it’s false. It’s reliance on Jesus’ death and his resurrection or it’s wrong. If the Christian Church loses this truth, the church is lost.

This is not intolerance; it is simply repeating what God has said. It’s simply repeating what Jesus said in John’s gospel: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” It’s simply repeating what the apostles said in the book of Acts: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4: 12)”

If we think we have the right to cut and paste the parts of the faith we like and ignore the rest, we’re just playing god. But guess what? The Holy One will not accept us as fellow gods either. This takes right to the heart of our deepest problems. When we kick God off of the throne and put ourselves there, there will only be heartache and misery and pain, not to mention isolation and death. There’s got to be a better way to live. And there is.

So often, Christianity gets criticized for being narrow. The claims of Jesus are disputed because He sounds so exclusive. But is being narrow and exclusive such a bad thing?

Think of it this way: Let’s say tomorrow that medical scientists announce a one hundred percent cure for all heart disease. It’s been tested and proven to work in every case. And the medicine will only be available in liquid form, kind of like cough syrup. As foolish as it sounds, there would probably be people who complain that it should be available in pill form too! All you have to do is drink it down and you heart is healthy again! Is that narrow? I guess so, but so what? It gives life! You really want to go get a quadruple bypass instead?

            The message of Jesus is exclusive. That’s true. It is absolutely narrow and unique. And I can prove it to you. Because all religion works one way, and new life in Jesus works another way, an entirely different way.

Without exception, every religion gives you a list of things to do, and you do the list to earn God’s favor. You do the list to improve yourself. You do the list to climb up a ladder to God. You do the list to make the world a better place. And if you do the list well enough, there might be some rewards for you. But inevitably, people can’t do the list very well at all, and it becomes a burden as they try harder. It becomes a terror to their conscience. Or they can be deceived that they are doing the list to perfection.

Only the Christian faith, with its focus on the saving words and actions of Jesus, presents the way of grace, of God giving us what we could never achieve. Only the Christian faith says God climbed down the ladder to come and bless you. Only the Christian faith says that God chose you and adopted you, and you didn’t have a thing to do with it except exist. Only the Christian faith says that someone has paid off the debt that you owed God. Religion says you’ve got to work hard to get God to love you; the Christian faith says because God loved you, He worked himself to death to have you.

 This is the life-saving medicine that is available to everyone. The only way to take that medicine is to trust that Jesus is your substitute. When you take that medicine, you’ll discover a love that has no limit, a power for living that never runs dry. Don’t you want that for yourself? Don’t you want that for our world?