ULDAH MINISTRY

No,79　　MAY. 2002

【 SINGLE WAY OF SALVATION 】

　 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. …For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of god. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effort. No, I worked harder than all of them -yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. …For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. …If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God -I say this to your shame. … And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed -in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
1 CORINTHIANS 15.

Apostle Paul expounds the essence of the gospel that Christ died by offering Himself as a sacrifice for our sins once and for all and that He was buried and that he was raised from the dead as the first-fruit, guaranteeing the resurrection of all of God's redeemed people. In order to inherit the kingdom of God, or in other words, to gain victory over death, the last enemy of human-beings, man's perishable body must be transformed to an imperishable body, i.e., a resurrection body. Now this has been guaranteed to Jesus' followers, grounded in the historical fact of Christ's death and resurrection and this will take place in an instant at the last trumpet call when the Lord's elect are gathered from all over the world. This wonderful news of the final victory, the saving message of Christ has graciously been offered from God. Therefore, the gospel which Jesus' disciples preached and took their stand on, is a gift from God, whereas religion is a human invention. The essence of the message of the gospel and that of a religion contrast sharply, although faith in Jesus Christ is generally counted as one of the world religions. Paul, who had been changed dramatically by his encounter with the resurrected Christ by the grace of God held steadfastly to his hope in Christ that if one would continue in faith to the end and firmly hold his confidence in Christ, his eternal salvation would be promised by the life-giving resurrection event of Christ.
This gospel, the good news is distinct from religions in the following points.
1) God Himself made the way down to human-beings. Through Jesus, God presented His view of man, i.e., man's fallen state, in order to turn them away completely from their sinful ways which had caused man's separation from God, and therefore to restore their broken relationship with Him. Prophet Isaiah's description in Isaiah 64 might help us to visualise God's dynamic intervention to man: 'Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! …For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, … Since ancient times no-one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.' (Lines added) Luke also precisely depicted this saving intervention of God through Jesus Christ in Zechariah's song: "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, … because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun (Jesus Christ) will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." (Lines added)
2) The information we received from God (not our own) about our real condition and the instructions written in the Bible is enough to answer all our questions about the past, present and the future and eternal life. Although we are given the choice to accept or to reject the God-given salvation, the consequences of our decision are already divinely determined and clearly revealed to us. Therefore, as God commanded the Israelites to choose to live: 'This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.' (Deuteronomy 30:19~20), so to choose life through the way of Jesus is God's commandment for all men: 'the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and what to speak, and I know that his commands mean eternal life.' (John 12:49~50 Line added) Accordingly, there is no other alternate way of salvation than the God-given single path of Jesus on the cross.
In the Hebrew Bible two examples of salvation as a foreshadow of Jesus' cross are illustrated; Noah's ark which saved only eight people out of the Flood and which reveals the stern fact that salvation is only brought about through means devised by God. The other example is the bronze snake which was raised up on a pole as a sign of God's salvation during time of Israelites' wanderings in the wilderness. In Both cases it is significant that only those who faithfully obeyed God's commands, which may at face value seemed absurd, for example, by building a gigantic ship or simply looking up at a snake without seeking human reasons or wits, despite being surrounded by unbelievers and mockers. Indeed, the way of our salvation through Christ, generally speaking, might appear foolish to those who attempt to attain salvation through religion and philosophies, i.e., devices of human hands. However, Jesus' death and resurrection were a declaration of a single way for salvation. At the cross all other attempts to gain salvation were reduced to nothing.
3) The gospel, a revelation of God's redemptive plan, and the saviour's historical and geographical appearance; birth, ministry, death and resurrection had been prophesied progressively in the Hebrew Bible and in no other religion can we see the literal fulfillment of such long handed-over prophecies. The Bible, the Word of God is a complete work of God and therefore, there is no higher authority than the Bible. Any new revelation beyond the scope of biblical messages is dubious and should not be taken without thorough examination.
4) The gospel enables those who believe in Jesus as their Lord and also those who faithfully
obey His commands, to materialise the 'kingdom of God' around them here and now even in this world. People around Jesus' followers should see the clear difference between them and other religious people because they are a flock of sheep that are already living in God's kingdom under the kingship of Jesus.
Thus, the gospel, which Paul and Jesus' followers have continually preached for two thousand years at whatever cost, sometimes, even at the cost of losing their own lives and which Christians are still witnessing today, should be regarded separately from other religions. In other words, what Christians believe in is not a religion, a man-made search of God, but rather in a person, Jesus as their Saviour, and Lord. This gospel is a personal encounter with a God who Himself is searching for people, 'the lost' in biblical terms.
Then, how does the Bible assess religion? It is understood that where man finds a gap, his creative nature is motivated to search for a solution and to invent something fill the emptiness. This characteristic of man has served to develop science, medicine, and technology and contributed to the advancement of civilisation and likewise, it has also attempted to fill the gap between God and man created by man's sin. The result was the invention of religion. Werner Gitt explains this process to have produced thousands of religions in the following way: 'by giving man a conscience, the creator has provided not only born-again believers but also heathens with an indicator which demonstrates that there is good and evil. …Man knows, however, that he must someday answer for his actions. Wrong behaviour, called "sin" in the Bible, burdens us and thus demonstrates the gap between man and God. This situation has been recognised throughout time as a fundamental problem, and thus human creativity became active in an attempt to: make things right with God and make peace with our conscience. Man has made many attempts to reach this goal. Many different concepts of God have been created.' (What About The Other Religions? CLV) He defines religion as 'any and every human concept of god, as well as every philosophy with indisputable statements of belief and norms for behaviour, which consciously or unconsciously replaces the Creator God mentioned in the Bible.'
The Hebrew Bible persistently warns God's people Israel of the danger of human-made alternatives in the place of God; pictures, statutes, idols, buildings, money, other objects, rituals, ceremonies, and rules. It strictly forbids idol worship, idolatry, sorcery, divination and it tells us that God refuses all religious efforts to please Him.
The New Testament also states that the sin of idolatry excludes one from entering the kingdom of God. It is important to clearly understand why the intimate relationship between the Lord and His followers is likened to that of a marital relationship in the Bible. If adultery and harlotry are perversion of marriage and not accepted, idolatry will also be regarded as betrayal against the Lord and not be permitted for His followers. To put it another way, when one accepts Jesus as his Lord and determines to follow Him, he is entering into a binding covenant with God, much like the marriage vows, and therefore it follows that any attempts to turn to other "gods" is nothing short of spiritual adultery, i.e., idolatry. For him there is no alternate way of the Lord. Wholehearted commitments are now required for His followers: "No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
Therefore, the Bible teaches that all human concepts of salvation are wrong paths, leading only to perversion, and radically denies the wishful view that all religions lead to the same goal, the one God. This exclusiveness of the gospel tends to disturb many good-willed, friendly people and they are tempted to feel like holding such a delusive view. In our contemporary world of religious pluralism, even having fully understood the biblical statement about salvation, a question might remain: 'What about good non-Christians?' In reality, we very often come across better non-believing or better other religious people who are humble, loving, caring and giving than Christians. They seem to be achieving God's commands from man's point of view. However, we must remember God's assessment of man: 'All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a loaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.' (Isaiah 64:6) It teaches us that from God's point of view, man's merit is utterly invalid to achieve His salvation. Although we simply do not know how God judges such kind good non-Christians, the Lord, who knows the heart of man and who never ceases to search for man, will surely fulfil His promise to those who seek no matter what they might believe in for the present, by providing them with opportunities of receiving his salvation by His amazing grace: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
The central truth of the gospel is the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has provided us the only way of salvation through Christ. This means that any idea of salvation through good works or merit does not exist, i.e., religion cannot save man.

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　　This month a money gift has been sent to IBS to support their out-reach project to people in Northern China with the Word of God.
IBS reports of the dramatic way in which one Chinese woman was saved through picking up a scrap of paper on the roadside, which happened to be a single page from the Gospel of John chapter 3. After her salvation, she established six churches with some 12,000 members in just six months with the help of the Holy Spirit, even without possessing the entire Bible.
Her amazing story of how many have come to Christ through her faith is a great encouragement for workers of the Lord to carry on evangelism under very limited and less fortunate circumstances. They desperately need the Bibles written in Chinese for their sound knowledge of God and the gospel. Pray for the efficient work of the translators and also for broader distribution of the Chinese Versions of Scriptures.

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