“We are Christian” is a phrase that may be becoming articulately ‘old fashioned.’ But this does not have to be and should not be. No, we Christians, we who are Followers of the Way of Christ, must continue to be the bold standard-bearers of the Word of God. We must proclaim the teachings of the Word of God to be the final and authoritative standard by which all our beliefs and behaviors are to be determined and assessed. We must not subject ourselves to the multi-cultural belief that we are all alike because we have ten toes and ten fingers. We are not all alike, but those of us who do know Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord discover, “But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ like a garment. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:25-29 HCSB.
From Genesis, the Book of Beginnings, we find that we are male and female, and from that moment until this we have known our kinship as the children of God through His grace by faith in His risen Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. There is no other God but He. Yes, there are multitudes of gods created in the image of humanity, but God to whom we belong was not created, He simply has always been. In His Son we find salvation and “This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders,which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.” Acts 4:11-12. The crowd standing around Peter were asking for his pedigree, as it were, and wanted to know in what authority given to him was he able to heal a broken man who could not walk. We who know Christ should respond to our culture in the same way, “We stand here before you in the Name of Jesus Christ and in Him only can anyone be saved.”
“Diversity” seems to be the catch-all theme of our time. We hear things like, “There are no Democrats; there are no Republicans, male nor female in the Church!” This is true to some degree. The truth of these two things is simple: Christians do not murder, and God created male and female. Just as Paul said to the church at Galatia, “we are all one in Christ Jesus.” We must stand on the Truth, on the Name of Jesus who said before the coming crucifixion, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” John 14:6-7.
Jesus was in His final hours of human existence as He encouraged the Twelve to continue in His message of grace and truth. They now walked into the Garden of Gethsemane moments before being arrested. In John 17 we find an awesome prayer spoken by the Christ while His closest friends slept, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me Through their message. May they all be one,as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You.May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me. I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.” vv 20-23.
Yes, we find diversity expressed in Scripture, but this is NOT the message concerning salvation for this is a theme of strict exclusion; there is no other Name by which anyone can be saved. Paul wrote many affirmations about this Message, but there are two I want to leave here:
1.”The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:8-13.
2. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.” Romans 1:16-20.
Jesus is Lord.
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