Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Romans 10 | Date: January 22, 2023 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Is Jesus the Only Way? Part Two

Romans chapter 10. We’re continuing our studies in the doctrine of salvation, wrapping it up today and then next Sunday as well, Lord willing. And today we take up the subject—remember we are taking up some remaining questions regarding the series that we’ve been through—today we’re looking at the subject of, “Is Jesus the only way?” And this is part two.

I guess any sermon ought to be instructive. Any message ought to be somewhat polemical. Every sermon ought to be somewhat inspirational. Sermons tend to one or the other depending on the topic and the passage at hand. This one today, because of the topic I’ve chosen, will tend more to the instructional side and even the polemical side as well because it’s such a contemporary question that is batted about in our postmodern world. You think that Jesus is the only way. You are arrogant to be so exclusive, and we need to be informed on our answers to that charge. So that’s what we’re doing this morning. Is Jesus the only way?

Romans chapter 10, I’ll begin reading with verse one:

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they be saved. I bear them witness that they have—here he’s speaking of Israel—I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart who will ascend to heaven,” (that is to bring Christ down), or “who will descend into the abyss,” (that is to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? And here from Deuteronomy chapter 30, “The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart.” That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified. And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call upon him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I ask, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation, and with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel, he says, “All day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we ask that you would open our hearts to the subject today. This is a topic of vital importance in its own right, additionally so today, because it is such a hated doctrine, and so disputed, and the pressure is such that many professing believers are fudging on it here and there. We pray that you will not only give us a conviction that this is right, but give us an understanding of why, and through it, give us a greater appreciation of the exclusive value of Jesus Christ. Make us better servants for him, through it we pray. In his name we ask, amen.

Two weeks ago, we backed up and we asked the question, “What is the gospel?” And we focused primarily on 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where Paul identifies the gospel as focusing on those twin issues of sin and Christ, sin and Christ. Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures and was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures. And in that, taking our sin in his death and resurrection, in our union with him in his death and resurrection, that is the good news. That’s the message that we take to the world, that Christ is an accomplished Savior. He has uniquely been able to accomplish what God requires of us and stand in the place of sinners and do for us all that God requires.

Well, once you’ve said all of that and you share that good news with others, the first question today in our postmodern world, our pluralistic society, when everything is supposed to be the same and you have your truth, I have my truth, and they’re all pretty much equal, the first question and the first response that comes up to that is, “Well, is Jesus the only way? That’s fine for you that you believe in Jesus. Must I believe in Jesus to be saved? And wouldn’t that be arrogant on your part to say that I have to believe what you believe to be saved?”

So we began the answer last time, and I tried to argue it from the rationale of Christianity itself. Paul’s argument in Romans 1 to 5, Paul is arguing essentially why the Christian gospel is here. Why is Christianity here at all? And we saw that Paul deals with the essential issues that we face as sinful creatures. And he deals with the problem of universal sin, the reality of our guilt before God, the demands of divine righteousness that we must be judged and that condemnation must come on the sinner. God is a righteous judge. He can’t overlook sin. The sinner must be judged. And it would seem we’re in a completely hopeless situation with that, but the answer that the gospel gives as Paul outlines it through Romans, especially in those early chapters, is that God has sent a Redeemer to accomplish for us what God requires of you. Here is one who has lived perfectly before God. Here is one who is perfectly righteous. And this one has stood in the place of sinners taking their punishment in their place, offered himself as a sacrifice to God. God is propitiated; his anger, his wrath is satisfied in that it is poured out on his Son in our place. And his righteousness becomes ours when we receive him by faith.

This was the teaching of Jesus himself. We emphasize that, that Jesus insists that he is the only savior. The apostles picked up on the same. We saw that Christ is the only savior, that he is the only way. And we saw that essentially to surrender the exclusive value of Jesus is to surrender everything. The gospel declares that Christ is the only savior and that we may be saved only through him. We tried to look quickly at the question of arrogance and the arrogance of exclusivism. And I tried to ask the question at the end with all of that: is it arrogant to believe Jesus? Or would it be humble to say that Jesus was mistaken? You’re forced into these kinds of dilemmas. Jesus declared plainly that he is the only way. The apostles declare plainly that Christ is the only savior. And to believe what Jesus and his apostles have told us is not arrogant; it’s simply in humble faith, acknowledging Jesus as our teacher.

But we also went further than that, and we said that truth, by the nature of the case, is exclusive. It’s either true or it’s not true. And the question is, you have sin, you have guilt before God. We are deserving of condemnation. Who is qualified to save you? And the whole argument in Romans is we have one. We have one who is able and qualified to save, and that is Jesus. And that takes us not only to the exclusivism of Christianity; it takes us really to the very heart of the gospel itself.

Is Explicit Faith in Jesus Required?

So last time we took the subject of, “Is Jesus the only way?” We emphasize that Jesus is the only qualified savior. But now I want to deal with a related question this morning. It’s related to it, but it’s not the same question at all. And that is, is explicit faith in Jesus required?

So someone might say, “Okay, Jesus is the only savior. He’s the world’s savior. The Bible’s plain on that. And everyone who is saved is saved by Jesus. But those who have never heard the gospel, might they be saved apart from hearing and apart from believing in Jesus? There’s someone out there sincerely searching and looking for God. He’s never heard the gospel. He has no access to the gospel. Might he be saved anyway?”

That’s the question we’ll be taking up. Now our focus will be in Romans chapter 10, which we’ve read. I’ll get there in a minute. But again, I want to back up and I want to see Romans 10 in light of Paul’s argument through Romans to this point. So back again to Romans chapter one.

In chapters one to three, you remember Paul argues at great length for the universal need of justification by faith in Jesus. The need for it is found in the fact of universal guilt. Everyone has sinned. That’s the conclusion he comes to in chapter 3, verses 9 and following. Everyone has sinned. We’re all guilty before God. And Paul argues that this is true with regard to those who have never received any special revelation from God. And it is true of the Jews who have received special revelation from God. All of us to one degree or another have violated the revelation that we have received and we have suppressed it and rebelled against it. Each one of us knows better than what we have done. And we have sinned against God and we have sinned against conscience. And Paul argues that at length in Romans one through the first half of chapter three.

Then the last half of chapter three, and in the following chapters, Paul explains at length in a very brief, compact way in chapter three, verses 21 to 26. But then in the following chapters as well, he explains the means and the method of justification. And here he emphasizes two things, you remember. Number one, the uniqueness of the person and work of Jesus. Jesus is the only qualified savior. He has stood in place of sinners, offered sacrifice to God, satisfied the demands of his justice, we have his righteousness imputed to us, our sin imputed to him, and we receive him by faith. And so there are two arguments that Paul is making in Romans 3 and following. Number one, regarding the person and work of Christ, the unique value of Jesus—that’s what we saw last time. But number two, he argues, this is received by faith. I didn’t emphasize that as much last week; we come to that now.

Now I want you to see how in Romans three, Paul argues that. Look at chapter three, verses 23 and following:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.

There’s all of that that we’ve been arguing, that Paul expands on at length in these chapters. But then notice the last phrase, verse 25: “to be received by faith.” Now verse 26, “it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Then what becomes of our boasting? It’s excluded. By what kind of law? By law of works? No, by law of faith. We hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

You might remember way back in our series when we dealt with the doctrine of justification, we looked at the matter of saving faith as the suitable means of receiving the righteousness of Christ. Faith, not works, is the suitable means because in faith all we are saying is that Jesus is enough. In faith what we’re saying is, “I don’t have what it takes. He does. I’m resting in him.” And so faith is not a work for which we are rewarded. It is simply the nature of the case of resting in the one who is able to save. And so there’s no room left for boasting. No one anywhere can say, “Well, I was sincere enough. I served, I searched for God well enough, or I did enough works, or my heart was right.” Nobody can say any of that. All we can say is Jesus did it all. That’s the essence of saving faith as trust.

And that’s what Paul means in verse 31 when he says, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith,” the law with all of its rigid requirements of obedience and perfection? No, we don’t overthrow the law. On the contrary, we uphold the law. We uphold the law because the law has been kept in our place by our substitute and all of its demands met. The law has been perfectly upheld by Jesus. But notice again, the emphasis in all of this is that it is through faith. It is through faith that we are united to Jesus and through faith that we receive the salvation that he accomplished and that he embodies. Again, verse 25, “to be received by faith.” Verse 26, “it’s the one who has faith in Jesus.” Verse 27, “it’s the law of faith.” Verse 28, “the one who’s justified by faith.” All throughout, Paul is arguing that faith is necessary to receive what Jesus—the salvation that Jesus accomplished and embodies.

Now when Paul addresses the Jewish audience, typically, he has to argue against those who are just too self-confident. “We’ve done well enough. We’ve kept the law.” And he’ll argue that you have not upheld the law, because it is inevitable. If you say you are saved by your law-keeping, at some point, you’ve got to relax the standard. And you haven’t upheld the law. And so Paul has to push them and show that your self-righteousness is not enough. And for those who even in their sincerity were pursuing righteousness and keeping the law, Paul has to push and say, faith in Jesus Christ is required because only by union with Christ by faith and by faith alone can we have the salvation that he accomplished.

So in Romans two and three, Paul argues that whatever special status the Jews might have had, they have sinned, and therefore they need Jesus, and Jesus can be had only by faith. Romans 2 and 3. Now Paul’s overall argument in Romans 1 to 3 is simply to say the same is true universally. What is true of his demands regarding Israel is true universally. There’s universal guilt, there’s universal need of Jesus, and there’s universal need for faith. Everyone is guilty before God, therefore everyone needs Jesus, and therefore they must believe.

Now then in Romans 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Paul expands wonderfully on the entailments of all of that and the benefits of justification and all of that. We’ve seen much of that. When we come now closer to our passage, we come to Romans 9 to 11, a question comes up. What about Israel? Now, if you are familiar with your Old Testament at all, you understand the seriousness of that question. Because the Old Testament is replete with promises of this glorious day coming for Israel. Messiah will come and she’ll receive him and she will be blessed. And now Messiah has come, he’s died for sin, he’s been raised from the dead, and Israel en masse has refused him. If you’re reading your Bible, you think, “This is a problem. What in the world can we do with that?”

And so Paul takes Romans 9 to 11 to answer that question. What about Israel? And he starts in Romans 9 to tell us that, as he summarizes in verse 6, not all who are of Israel are Israel. In other words, there’s an Israel and there’s a true Israel. Within Israel, there’s a true Israel, a believing Israel. And he carries that argument through Romans 9 to 11. So, in other words, in chapter 9, there are the elective purposes of God. We saw that in Sunday school last week. By the way, if you’re not coming to the adult Sunday school class, you need to. Eric’s just doing a great job leading us through Genesis. You’ll want to be here for that. But we saw that last time, that in Romans 9 then, Paul just picks up on the narrative of Genesis and says the difference between Isaac and Ishmael is a difference that God made—it’s his selective purpose. The same with Jacob and Esau—it’s a difference that God made, it’s elective purposes. The same within Israel, God’s promises to Israel. But within Israel, there’s a remnant, there is a believing Israel that will receive the promise.

Now then, we get to chapter 10. Why not Israel now at this point? Why not Israel now? And Paul starts by affirming his desire for Israel, verse one: “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,” and there it is again, “to everyone who believes.”

Notice two points in these verses. Number one, the exclusive value of Jesus. That’s verse three: being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they’re seeking to establish their own and they did not submit to God’s righteousness, that is God’s righteousness in Christ. That’s Paul’s argument in Romans three and four. Here in chapter 10, verses three and four, he reverts to that argument of the unique and exclusive value of Jesus. They are lost, why? Because they’ve refused Jesus. And then with that, the second area of emphasis in these verses is the demand of faith. That’s verse four: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Verse three, they didn’t submit to God’s righteousness, which means, verse four, they didn’t believe in Jesus. Well, that again is Paul’s argument in Romans three and four: the only remedy is Christ, and the only way to have Christ is through faith.

All right, so he’s set us up for that, and now look down to verse nine. In these verses, Paul lays out in specific detail the universal demand of faith. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Bible says,” and here he quotes Joel 2, “everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there’s no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

So in verses 9 and following here, we have the demand of faith. It’s emphatic. Verse 9, if you confess with your mouth and believe. And then verse 10 amplifies it: with the heart one believes and is justified, with the mouth one confesses and is saved. There must be a gospel embraced in order to be saved. It couldn’t be more clear. We have the same in verse 12, verse 13. It’s those who call on the name of the Lord who are saved. And we have that corresponding promise in verse 13: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” No one who calls on Jesus to be saved will be refused. So salvation is by faith and it is to everyone who believes.

And now verse 14, and here he gets even more pointed with the argument. He extends the argument a bit to speak of the exclusive requirement of faith as the ground of Christian mission: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” That is to say precisely because faith in Jesus is required. Precisely because apart from faith in Jesus, everyone is lost. This gospel must be preached because apart from this gospel message being preached and believed, people are lost. And so he concludes verse 17, “So then faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.” Salvation received through faith in Jesus as he’s presented in the gospel is the requirement.

Now it’s because of this conviction that the church from the beginning, from the very beginning, the Christian church has always insisted that it is our responsibility to take the gospel everywhere. Apart from Christ and apart from faith in Christ, people are lost. This is the ground of Christian missions. The church has historically affirmed that from the beginning, unquestioned, virtually unquestioned until modern days when we have the ecumenical movement and the more pluralistic society, when we have to give acknowledgement to all of the others as equally true and such. And the pressure to bend on this, that seems so clear in this passage, the pressure to bend on this is just enormous. And we have evangelicals who are bending on it as well.

It’s been about, I suppose, 16, 18 years ago, one of the professors here at Biblical Seminary in our area—it’s a seminary I attended, I graduated from twice, Pastor Boyd graduated from there—in my day, I loved the place, a wonderful education there. Some years ago, there were some things happening to the left. And there are many of us who thought it’s not wrong at all to call the seminary and try to pressure them to stay where they’ve been instead of drifting where they’re going somewhere else. Just one of the episodes in all of that saga was one of the professors gave a talk at an Evangelical Theological Society meeting, published the lecture later. And the title of the lecture was, “Is There a Reformed Way to Get the Benefits of the Atonement to Those Who Have Never Heard?” And he tried to argue that positively there is.

To address a subject from his angle, you just have to go to Romans chapter 10, even though it’s the toughest one, but he went to Romans chapter 10, and here’s what he said about this passage that we’ve just worked through. He said in Romans 10, Paul’s teaching describes the way God ordinarily reaches his elect. Romans 10 describes how God ordinarily reaches his elect. Now notice that word ordinarily. Isn’t that subtle? Is there anything about Romans 10 that we’ve looked through that sounds like God’s ordinary means? Is it Paul’s argument that this is the exclusive means? That apart from the gospel, men and women are lost? Paul’s whole reason that this is the reason the gospel must be preached, the whole force of the argument, is that there’s exclusive value of Jesus and the informed faith is the exclusive means of union with Jesus in whom we may be saved. We must call upon Jesus. We must confess Jesus as Lord. Therefore, the gospel must be heard, and therefore, the gospel must be preached. That’s Paul’s argument throughout.

Gospel mission is mandatory. Men and women are lost. It would seem to me that if people who have never heard the gospel can be saved apart from the gospel, then the most dangerous thing you could ever do with them is preach the gospel to them, because now they can’t be saved because they refused it. There’s nothing in this passage at all that even hints of “this is God’s ordinary means of salvation,” but you throw in little words like that, it opens up a whole new way of looking at it. It’s a subtle tactic, but it’s just not what the passage—the force of the argument—is. This is God’s exclusive means of salvation: faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the gospel must be preached or men and women will be lost.

Now, once again, this reflects the teaching of Jesus himself and of his apostles elsewhere. And I want to survey some of those passages with you. Let’s look again at Matthew chapter 28. By the way, I invited that professor out to lunch and discussed this, but I don’t know if it was helpful or not. We hope.

Matthew 28, verses 18 and 19: Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Remember the context. Jesus has just died and raised from the dead. He’s now the successful, accomplished Savior. “All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He is the universally qualified Savior and judge. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you.” Notice here, Jesus claims universal authority to save. Sounds like unique authority to save, doesn’t it? And on this ground, he commands that the message of Jesus must be proclaimed universally and universally men and women must be called in submission to Christ. And the plain implication is apart from their discipleship to Christ, they are lost.

John chapter three, here we have John giving us the teaching of Jesus. And notice here, I’m going to read verses 16–18. Notice here that John affirms both that Jesus is the divine Son of God whom he is sent to save, and he affirms that all those who refuse to believe, who do not believe in him, are already condemned. Verse 16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Again, Jesus is the unique savior that God has sent to save, and two, faith in Jesus is required.

There’s one other passage—we don’t have time to go into detail, but glance if you would at Acts chapter 17. Here we have the famous incident of Paul on Mars Hill when he goes to stand at the Areopagus and argue with the philosophers there. They want to hear this new teaching that Paul has brought in. You remember the scene, Paul walks in, he sees the idols to everything and his heart is stirred because of the idolatry of the place. He sees one statue of some kind, some monument, and the inscription on it is “to the unknown God.” And so he picks up on that. And then verse 30—remember he’s addressing religious people here and he insists—notice here that he’ll insist that repentance is necessary or they won’t survive the final judgment. Verse 30: “I see that,” remember he has said, verse 22, “I see that you’re very religious people and all of that.” Now verse 30: “God commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Now note, these people were very religious. Paul tells them that. They’re very religious people. And although they were sincere in their religious commitments, even though they acknowledge the existence of the true God—they have a monument to him, the unknown God—in spite of that, Paul insists, number one, your religion is wrong. And number two, you must repent of it. And the implication is if you don’t repent of it, you won’t survive the judgment.

Well, I’d like to stay there longer. We’ve got to go on. But notice now that this conviction is not something that was dreamed up by a snobby Christian culture later on somewhere in the history of the church. This was inherited by the church from Jesus and his apostles. It was received from our Lord himself and it’s rooted in the uniqueness of Jesus and the exclusive value of his saving work.

Related Considerations

I’d like to have spent some time dealing with some related considerations. Let me just mention these quickly. One related consideration here that I think is very important is to consider the gospel warnings—that is the warnings that attend the gospel—that apart from faith and repentance, there’s only condemnation. So for example, Luke chapter 13, verses three to five, twice Jesus insists that unless you repent, you will perish. In John three, verse 18, which we’ve just seen a moment ago, Jesus insists that those who do not believe are condemned already. And then of course here in Acts chapter 17, Paul warns that apart from repentance, even from a sincere religion, they will not survive judgment. Now the best question that I’ve ever seen with regard to these gospel warnings was asked by J.I. Packer. He said, “When the apostles and Jesus gave these warnings, were they just bluffing?” Isn’t that a great question? What are we to say—that Jesus didn’t mean it when he said, “unless you repent, you will perish”? We have the Bible replete with these kinds of warnings that apart from faith in Jesus Christ, you are lost.

Another related consideration: we have biblical characterizations of those who are saved and everywhere, everywhere in the Bible, those who are saved are described in terms of believers. I’ve got a list of them here. I won’t take time to go through them all. They’re called believers. They’re called faithful. They’re called sanctified by faith. Those who endure to the end, they’re overcomers, they’re conquerors. In every case, those who are saved are described in terms of faith. The New Testament knows nothing, nothing of an unbelieving yet saved person.

Is It Fair?

All right, now we have to deal with an objection. I have to hurry through this. The leading objection that comes up to this is largely an emotional one. And you’re already hearing it. Is it fair? Is it fair that God should send people to hell who have never heard the gospel? Is it fair for God to send people to hell who have never heard of Jesus?

There’s a certain emotional advantage that the person asking that question has. And the reason he has the emotional advantage is because the question—and it’s a common question—smuggles in some assumptions. Number one, it assumes that people who don’t hear the gospel are innocent, that they don’t become guilty until they hear and refuse the gospel. And you remember what Paul’s argument has been from Romans one onward. Every one of us has received some degree of revelation from God and every one of us to some degree or another has rebelled against it and therefore every one of us is guilty. Asking the question that way assumes that condemnation is based solely on a rejection of the gospel.

Now Jesus argues himself in Matthew chapter 11 that those who have heard him and seen him and refused him will receive a greater punishment. But the guilt is already established. It’s one of those passages that deals with degrees of punishment in hell. Guilt is already established. And so I think it would be better to ask the question something like this way: is it just that God should condemn the guilty? You see, that asks the same question but in an entirely different way, doesn’t it? Is it just that God should condemn the guilty? And once we ask the question that way, the question of whether or not they have heard the gospel is entirely secondary. Paul’s flow of thought in Romans is: chapters 1 to 3, universal guilt; chapter three and following, the remedy that God has given is Jesus. He’s received by faith in Romans chapter 10. Now there’s the necessity of gospel mission so that people may hear and believe and be saved.

Is There Then Any Hope for Those Who Have Never Heard?

One other question that is asked: is there then any hope for those who have never heard? And the answer is the answer Paul gives in Romans chapter 10. Yes, there’s hope—the same hope everybody has: hearing the gospel. And that’s the importance of the Christian mission, to take the gospel to everyone. In fact, that’s the whole purpose of this age. This gospel of the kingdom, Jesus says in Matthew 24, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached through all the world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come.”

Big picture: God has determined not to leave the world in its rebellion and sin and condemn the world. God is determined to reclaim the world. He is determined to save the world by a sampling of people from out of every tribe and nation and tongue under heaven. And to accomplish that, he sent his Son as the world’s only savior. And now he has sent his apostles and us to all the world with the gospel message so that those who hear and believe will be saved. And in the end, we will have a redeemed world: men and women from every tribe and kindred and tongue and nation confessing Jesus as Lord and professing that they are saved because of him.

Now, as I said last time, the Bible then does not dodge the hard questions. The Bible faces these hard questions square on and it provides real answers. And the great thing is it doesn’t leave us pretending. The uniqueness of Jesus and his saving work is the sole answer to human sin. God is just. We all know it. We also know that we’re accountable to him. And we also know that we’re guilty. What do you do about that? What we need is someone qualified to stand in our place to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. And that leaves us shut up to Jesus. And in the end, we’ll all sing the same song: that it was Jesus who saved us. And in the meantime, the message is, if you have not yet bowed your knee before Jesus, you are lost. Apart from faith in Jesus Christ, you have no hope at all. Amen.