Exclusively Jesus

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“We live in an age of loud voices calling for tolerance and equality. The Jesus we celebrate at Christmas and Easter, strikes at the heart of this. What is the offense? The demands of His exclusivity.”

We live in an age of loud voices calling for tolerance and equality. The Jesus we celebrate at Christmas and Easter, strikes at the heart of this. What is the offense of Christ? The demands of His exclusivity.

Two of Jesus’ followers, Peter and John, were preaching before a large group of people following an astounding miracle. A paralyzed man was instantly healed. While they were speaking officials from the Sanhedrin came and arrested them. They sat in jail overnight before they were brought before the council to be questioned. The Sanhedrin was the highest and most powerful religious and political body in Israel. A couple months earlier they had sentenced Jesus to death.

After they were questioned about the miracle that happened, Peter gave a brief defense. Near the end of his remarks, he made this statement “…there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

These words were offensive to them. As a result, the council agreed and charged them to “…not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” (Acts 4:18) Why was Jesus so offensive? First, in their religion of Judaism, they were worshippers of the Lord God, who made heaven and earth. And they had their Jewish Bible, where they regularly read the writings of Moses and the prophets, which included the studying and following of the Torah. To tell the Sanhedrin that they can only find salvation in Jesus, was immensely divisive. Second, knowing what this council had done a couple months earlier, Peter confronted them. He directly addressed the evil they had done when they blatantly rejected Christ and crucified Him. Clearly, the council did not want Peter or anyone else speaking about Jesus, because of the guilt it brought on them for the evil they committed against the Son of God.

The same offenses surrounding Jesus, from centuries ago, are still offenses today. And the root of them is the exclusivity of Christ. Let me ask a question, “Can someone believe in God, but not Jesus?” That was an issue with the Jews Peter was addressing, and can still be a problem with some today. Jesus had an answer for that when He said, “I and the father are one.” (John 10:30) Jesus was communicating that because of the oneness of the Lord God and Him, the two cannot be separated. Therefore, if one truly believes in the Lord God, the evidence will also be his belief in Christ. To trust in Almighty God is to trust in Jesus.

Let me ask another question surrounding the exclusivity of Jesus, “Can a person believe in Jesus, and also other gods? That was an issue in Peter’s time, when the good news of Christ was shared among the Romans and Greeks, who had cultures filled with gods. In our day, the world is filled with multitudes of religions, and some religions themselves have numerous gods. Peter has a straight answer though when he says, “there is salvation in no one else.”

And another offense the Sanhedrin experienced, was how Jesus exposed their evil deeds. When the authentic good news of Jesus is shared, it will confront us with our own evil. It is naturally what the light of Jesus does. When a person turns to Christ, He wants them to be exclusively His. “Sin no more,” (John 8:11) Jesus once told a woman. Are you willing to trust in Jesus exclusively? What is keeping you from doing that today?

A prayer for you. “Lord God, we praise you for sending your beloved Son to die and rise again. He is worthy to be worshipped and followed with all our heart. Search us, O God, if we are trying to hold on to you and someone or something else. Right now, we give it to you. We declare our submission to you and you alone. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”