Reflection
The Exclusiveness of Jesus
I became a Christian in the Students’ Union of the University of Strathclyde in 1969, and on meeting up with my then girlfriend that evening, she took one look at me, and before I could speak a word she said, “What’s happened to you? You’re different!” The change that she saw at that point ultimately led to us splitting up, as she didn’t want what I now had and we no longer had much in common. It was probably best for both of us that way, although I always wished that she could have found that new life in Jesus for herself. </p><p>
No Christ, no life, know Christ, know life! That also made me think of Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me,” and that made me think of the exclusiveness of Jesus. While making it clear that the offer of eternal life is open to all in verses like John3; 16 (whoever believes will be saved) and Matthew 11; 28 (Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest), He also points out that this is an offer that is totally exclusive – no-one comes to the Father (God) except through Him. As the apostles pointed out in Acts, “There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4; 12) </p><p>
Attempts to soften this by talking about there being different paths up the mountain, or that what matters is being sincere, are completely at odds with not only the verses that we’ve looked at already, but with the whole tenor of Scripture. In reality, the paths are up different mountains, and most of them are dead ends; we can be sincere, but at the same time sincerely mistaken or misled. </p><p>
In one of the most challenging passages of the New Testament, Paul makes the same claim that we’ve been looking at. In Romans 1; 16. He says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God to everyone who believes.” He goes on to describe the society of his day, which was very like the society of our day, with its search for real life leading people into all kinds of lifestyles and practices in their desire to find life in all its fulness, with the resulting frustration, decadence and emptiness that characterise people and cultures without Jesus – no Christ, no life! </p><p>
However, Paul is also very clear that when we accept Jesus’ claims and put our trust in Him then that all changes – know Christ, know life! “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5; 1) “Since we have been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him?” (Romans 5; 9) “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” (Romans 6; 8) </p><p>
Peace, salvation and life, the things that humans are frantically striving to attain, and all available only in Jesus; all available freely in Jesus! I believe that we are living in times when the exclusiveness of Jesus needs to be made known more clearly and more adamantly. We have soft-pedalled that message for too long and allowed all sorts of muddled thinking about the way to God and to life to enter our message and even our theology. We’ve allowed the world, the culture we live in, to mould our thinking and water down our message, robbing the Gospel of its power and the people around us of the life that only Jesus offers. </p><p>
It may be costly and, in some quarters, make us unpopular, but are we prepared to proclaim the exclusiveness of Jesus in our day and generation? No Christ, no life, know Christ, know life! </p>