Things scripture does not allow

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they” (Hebrews 1:1-4).

Whew.  What a sentence.

The Lord Jesus Christ was God’s last word to Planet Earth.  Everything He had to say.  Man’s last and greatest hope.

Man’s only hope.

Jesus spoke of a landowner who leased out a property to some renters who refused to be accountable.  When his servants arrived to collect his rents, the unscrupulous tenants “beat one, killed one, and stoned another.”  Showing more patience than perhaps he ought, the owner “sent other servants, more than the first.”  These were given the same treatment as the first.  Then our Lord said, “Last of all, he sent his son.”  (Matthew 21:33ff.).

Last of all, God sent His Son.

Jesus Christ was the fulfilment of the promises and types and stories of the Old Testament.  He was the culmination of the Abraham story, the Moses saga, the David chronicle.

It’s all about Jesus.

This is the consistent teaching of the New Testament.

The implications are enormous.

–There is no other Savior.

–There is no other salvation.

–God has no other plan.

–Humanity has no other hope.

Other religions may possess admirable traits and some may even be helpful to a point.  But only one “Way” is revealed from Heaven, and that is the way of Christ.

Philosophers have often had brilliant insights, but only One Person has possessed the wisdom of Heaven and been wisdom incarnate.

Jesus Christ was unique. He was one of a kind, a one-time act of a Heavenly Father for mankind’s salvation.

The record of that–the only record–is the New Testament.

Only Jesus. Only the Holy Bible. Only salvation by grace through faith.

Scripture will not admit any variations on the Truth given from Heaven.

If we find that offensive to our modern mindset and our (ahem) more charitable-mindedness, that’s our problem.

“Our God is in the Heavens; He does whatever He pleases” (Psalm 115:3). And what pleased God?  Well, for starters, it pleased God that…

–“In Jesus all fullness of the Godhead should dwell” (Colossians 1:19).

–“These things (would be hidden) from the wise and the prudent and revealed to infants” (Luke 10:21).

Those two statements pretty well sum it up: Jesus Christ is unique and the know-it-alls among us, the self-important and the big-shots, cannot allow that.  They miss it.

Only the simple folk, whom Scripture calls “babes” or “infants,” get it.

I know people who believe God has other plans of salvation and other saviors.  They even speak of “Other Christs.”  They find light, they say, in other scriptures from different religions.

Fine. Just don’t say all this lines up with the New Testament and its revelation about Jesus Christ, because it will not allow that.

They will accuse Bible believers of narrow-mindedness and egotism.  They will attack our doctrine and dismiss our evangelism.

Sometimes they are right. At times, we can be narrow-minded and we have certainly shown a capacity for egotistical preachings.  My understanding of doctrine is often partial and certainly open to question in places.  Our attempts at evangelism have sometimes been well-thought out and biblical and at times manipulative and shallow.

So, we are liable to these charges.

But this is not about us.  Scripture allows that “we are but dust” (Psalm 103:14) and among us there is “none righteous” (Romans 3:10).

We do not preach ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:5).

We preach Jesus.

“Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

“All things have been handed over to me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father.  Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27).

I suspect that one reason–perhaps the main reason–some among us rush to deny the uniqueness of Jesus and the once-and-for-allness of His salvation (Hebrews 9:26) is that if we believed it, we would have to reorder our lives.

If we believed Jesus was God’s unique Son and man’s only hope, we would be forced to deal only with Him.

If we believed the New Testament, we would be obligated to take this gospel to the ends of the earth to make certain everyone heard and received the opportunity to act on it.

How much easier to discount the New Testament’s clear and well-articulated message so we can continue in our sin, revel in our complacency, and dismiss the Paul Reveres among us as so many doomsdayers.

Jesus Christ is coming.  Judgment is coming. We shall give account.

Every eye shall see. Every knee shall bend. Every tongue shall confess.

Jesus is Lord.

 

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