No Other Name...

Every now and again I hear certain things from various people who name the name of Christ.

One of these things pertains to the exclusivity of Christ Jesus.

In other words, Him being the only way to heaven.

All throughout the bible though, it's declared that God is the only saviour. 

Isaiah 43:11

I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

 Even when God raises up people to save His people, He is still the one doing it so He is still the saviour.

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But for some reason, Christians have come up with this concept that there are other things that can save.

One thing of note is the church. Every now and again you'll hear someone say something like 'that church saved me'. Or 'I wouldn't be saved if not for that church'. Or 'church is keeping me saved'.

That is inconsistent with what the bible says. 

Acts 4:12

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

There are some churches that teach that Christians have the ability to grant salvation.

Never mind that Jesus is the only name, they take other verses out of context and give the granting of salvation to Christians.

It's actually the Christian that brings people into heaven don'cha know.

And when you get to heaven all the people who you've saved will be standing behind you to thank you... yes, I've actually heard this preached over the pulpit.

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Sometimes, you'll find that those who are bound by the unbiblical divisions known as denominations will grant salvation only to their specific denomination.

In other words, salvation is only obtained when you are part of this specific denomination.

Sometimes this even filters down to individual churches or fellowships. If you're not apart of their church or fellowship, then you aren't saved. Or if you are saved, you're lukewarm because you can only be on fire in this church/fellowship.

And if those weren't bad enough, there is the heretical belief that our works can save.

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Make no mistake... salvation is only found in Christ Jesus.

After all, who can turn way the wrath of the Father but the Son?

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How could this have happened though?

I think the answer is that a good amount of people who call themselves Christian do not have, know, or understand salvation.

Obviously they don't know because they've never been taught, which is the fault of the preacher(s)/pastor(s). But they stay in ignorance because of their lack of reading & studying the scriptures.

Because of their lack of knowledge regarding salvation, they are easily duped by unqualified preachers/pastors, when they give them false information... especially when its coupled with some twisted scripture.

So, what is Salvation? What does it mean to be Saved?

Salvation is the act that Christ has performed towards us in that He has saved us from having to pay the penalty/price for our sins.

He did this by paying the price of our sins Himself, by absorbing the righteous wrath of the Father that we incurred, and nailing it to the cross - being crucified.

You see, the price for sin is death.

Ezekiel 8:4
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Now, a lot of Christians will stop there, and start to talk about the great love that God has for us.

There isn't anything really wrong with that, but we have to remember that people do not understand what sin is or the reason why we have to die if we sin.

A lot of people, Christians even, would say that its a high price for something so small. You see, a lot of people, again... Christians included, see a lot of sin as small. How could a small lie be worthy of death?

And here's the kicker, it's not just because 'God says so'.

In everything God says and does, there is a purpose behind it.

But before we can unpack what sin is, we must first unpack who God is.

The bible declares that God is the creator of everything. Everything means... everything - visible and invisible.

The bible declares that God is holy, just, love, merciful, gracious, and many other things, but I think we can proceed with just those 5 characteristics and the 1 relational aspect.

When God created everything, He declared that it was good. At that moment in time, there was no evil, there was no bad, there was no sin.

God created the first two humans, Adam and Eve and had a relationship with them.

God, the creator of everything that was good, gave them an instruction, and they disobeyed, and from that point on, death entered the world.

Sin turned their hearts from pure to impure.

From here, we can start to form our understanding of what sin is.

Sin is the antithesis of God. In other words, it is the opposite of everything God is.

God brings life, but sin brings death. God seeks to protect, sin seeks to destroy. God seeks relationship, sin seeks selfishness.

Sin, therefore, is the ultimate expression of not wanting God.

The problem is though, we are God's creation (human), dwelling in God's creation (the earth), being kept alive by God's creation (air, food, water, etc). - Ultimately, being taken care of by the very God we've shown by our actions we don't want.

So, sin is a blight on the good work that God did.

How then could a God that is good, allow that which He created to reflect and stand for everything that is contrary to Him - boldly declaring that that creation does not what God?

He can not.

That is what sin is. That is what we do when we sin, support sin, enjoy sin, etc. We declare to God that we don't want Him. We declare to God that we would rather be without Him.

So death, in essence, is God granting to us exactly what we want... that is, to be without God.

Many people don't see it that way, but it is. After all, if God created everything good because He is good, and we don't want God... logic dictates that we don't want anything that He deems as good either since you can't separate His goodness from Himself. So, He grants to us what we want... no mercy... no grace... no goodness.

This is death.

So, the soul that sins dies because that soul has chosen to not want God, who is life. The opposite of life is death. And so God grants the soul its wish.

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Now, all sins are not equal, and all deaths are not equal, but that's not the issue here.

The issue is that we, you and me, have sinned against God. We actively participate and enjoy in the things that are contrary to God. And have openly declared that we don't want God. Even going as far as to deny His very existence and replace Him with fairy tales of over active imaginations.

The bible declares that there will come a day when God will call us before Himself. And He will grant us our wish of being in a place without His love, goodness, mercifulness, graciousness, etc... to whatever degree our opposition to Him was - this is called hell.

The problem is that even though we don't want God, God wants us. As His creation, He loves us, and doesn't want us to be without Him. He wants us to rejoice in His goodness. He wants us to recognise, appreciate and love Him for who He is. Just like a father loves His children and wants His children to love Him, so God wants the same from us, His creation.

But the sin problem is still there. We still walk contrary to God. We still desire, and enjoy everything that shows we don't want God.

And what's worse, because God hasn't wiped off man from the face of the earth, sin continues and gets worse from generation to generation.

So now, instead of sinning because we make the conscious decision to do so (which we still do), but we are born sinners. We are born with impure hearts which doesn't reflect God. By nature, the things that are oppose to God comes naturally to us. The older we get, the worse our opposition to God becomes.

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So what does God do? God works with His creation. And makes a way for us to be with Him, even though we have sinned and deserve death.

Jesus, the Son of God, comes and willingly takes our place. He dies for the sins of all those who want to forsake sin, and be with God. The Father pours out His wrath on His son, Jesus. Jesus takes the "hell" that we should have taken and then dies. For the soul the sins will die.

But, because Jesus is God, the very one who created us, He rose from the dead, guaranteeing a brand new life for all those who turn away from their sin and turns to Him.

God gives us a promise that for all those who turn away from their sin, and turns to God asking Him for forgiveness, that He will forgive them.

Not only will He forgive them, but He will fill them with His very spirit so that their life right now will start to change and reflect Him rather than sin. They will become more and more like Jesus, who being God... did not sin.

God also creates in those people, a new soul. This new soul is made from the desire to turn away from sin and follow God.

When our bodies die, we will be resurrected in a new life just like Jesus was.

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This is the gospel. That Jesus, the Son of God, willingly came down from Heaven in order to save souls from hell, by taking upon Himself the payment of our sins - dying for us in order to establish the new life in resurrection.

When we realise that there is a creator, and we have willingly opposed Him, and that we do deserve to be separated from all that He is since we chose it - if at that point we turn to God begging for forgiveness seeking to turn away from our sin so we can be with Him, He will then be granted a relationship with Him which will grow for all eternity.

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Our hearts should be sorrowful for our sins, and at the same time thankful that God would have mercy upon us and accept us when we have done nothing but oppose Him.

Jesus is our saviour, not only laying down His life, but picking it back up again so that we can be brought back into relationship with Himself.

Salvation is only in Jesus, because He is the only one who paid the price that we rightfully incurred. In Jesus alone was salvation made available. In Jesus alone can our sins be forgiven. In Jesus alone can we truly begin to live right before God or creator and father. Loving Him as only a child could to a Father who constantly shows love towards us.

If you have this experience, being brought low because of the great multitude of your sin only to be lifted up off the ground by the hand of the King, then you are His. He has bought you for a price. Don't forget it.

For those who may call themselves Christian, but have not had this experience, examine yourself. Are you truly His? Because He personally comes to you, but only when you humble yourself and are ready to confess that you have done all the things that shows you never loved or wanted Him. He will come when your desire for Him is greater than your desire for sin.

He is our inheritance. He is our Joy. He is our life. He is our rock and our salvation. And it's by His name we are called... because we belong to Him.