Galatians 1:1-12
1:1 Paul an apostle--sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead--
1:2 and all the members of God's family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
1:4 who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
1:5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--
1:7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!
1:9 As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!
1:10 Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
1:11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin;
1:12 for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
1:1 Paul an apostle--sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead--
1:2 and all the members of God's family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
1:4 who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
1:5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--
1:7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!
1:9 As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!
1:10 Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
1:11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin;
1:12 for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Do all
roads lead to God?
Are all people saved? Does everyone get to heaven?
Does it matter what religion you
embrace?
That is an interesting question –
does faith make a difference?
I found
that answer on a web not long ago. The
question had been posted on one of those sites in which anyone can join the
discussion.
And the
answers on that web page were mostly – no.
It makes no difference.
One
response had this to say, and it was fairly typical of the discussion:
“I think that as long as you are a good
person, don't hurt animals, molest children, murder, rape....you get the idea
and be kind to mother earth...there is room in heaven for you regardless if you
go to church or not. It is between you and who you believe to be higher power
above. God will accept everyone - Christian, Jew, wiccan, atheist, muslem,
....everyone.”
Actually, that statement is widely
accepted in our culture today.
But is that true?
Do all roads lead to heaven?
Paul, in our New Testament lesson
is upset. He is shocked! He is astonished to learn that people in Galatia
have deserted THE Gospel, for some other Gospel. To Paul, it mattered what your faith us.
Paul spoke as a man who changed his
faith. He went from being a devout Jew
who persecuted Christians, to becoming the leader of the Christian Church.
Paul would have been especially
astonished at our culture today.
This week the Stated Clerk of the
Presbyterian Church, USA,
issued his annual report on the membership of our denomination.
It is not
good news.
We’ve lost over 100,000
members.
In fact,
for the past ten years, we have had a net loss year after year.
Presbyterians
are not unique – this same statistic is reported from almost all Christian
denominations.
People are
leaving the church.
They are
forsaking the Gospel and turning to other faiths.
So let’s
ask the question – so what? What’s the
big deal about people leaving the faith?
Does it really make a difference?
Is Christ THE way?
Or is Christ one of many ways?
Now in John’s Gospel, Jesus said,
“I am THE way, THE truth, THE life. No
one comes to the Father, EXCEPT through me.”
Now if
you accept that as true, then you have a couple of problems. First of which is this – what about all those
were born, lived and died, without ever having even heard about Jesus? Are they doomed to hell because they never
heard the words of the one who said he THE way and the only way?
That
doesn’t seem fair does it?
In fact,
some people would say that it is arrogant of Christians to say they are the way
and the only way.
We all have loved ones and friends
who are Jews. Or Muslims. Or Hindu. Or who have no faith at all. Or who are simply confused about their
spirituality and have not yet taken the time or opportunity to make a decision
about what they believe.
It is hard to look at people we know and arrogantly
say, “I know the way. It’s the only way
to God.”
Some Christians resolve this by
adjusting their theology in such a manner that they refuse to believe that
Christ is THE way, but rather simply A way to
God. In our multi-cultural community, it
is comforting to many to believe that all roads lead to God.
Muslims worship the same God we worship. Historically speaking at least, Muslims and
Christians and Jews when speaking about God are talking about the God of Adam,
Noah, and Abraham. One of the bedrock principles in Islam says, “There is One
God.” Therefore surely anyone who
worships the one God will be saved.
Hindu, Buddhists, all of those
folks seek to develop their spirituality.
Won’t God honor their search?
And what about people who are just
plain good and descent people? Aren’t
they saved?
The Uniqueness of Christ
But if you resolve the problem of
the arrogance of Christians in this way, all you have succeeded in doing is
depriving Christ of His uniqueness.
Or as Paul would say in our New
Testament Lesson – you are forsaking the Gospel for another Gospel, and there
is no other Gospel but Christ’s.
The cornerstone of the Christian
faith is that Christ died for our sins.
In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, we read,
“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
And of course, what is probably the
most familiar passage of Scripture teaches us in John 3:16, “For God so loved
the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall
not perish but have eternal life.”[2]
The belief that Christ is the only
way to salvation has historically been a cornerstone of the Presbyterian faith.[3] But some people in our culture are now saying
that “all roads lead to God.” They
suggest that it is time to put apparent arrogance aside and say, Christ is not
the only way, but one of many ways.
But ----
When you say that, you strip Christ
of His uniqueness.
If all roads lead to God, then why
send the Son of God to suffer and die for our salvation?
If all roads lead to God, then why
not just send the Son of God to teach us and inspire us and leave it at that?
Let’s skip the nails the cross and the grave.
So is Christ really the ONLY way to
God?
All Roads DO Lead To God – But…
Actually, the truth of the matter
is that the Bible does teach that all roads do lead to God.
Jesus did not say, “No one comes to
God except through me.”
What
Jesus said in John’s Gospel was, “No one comes to the Father
except through me.”
Did you hear the difference?
Jesus did not say, “No one comes to
God except through me.”
He said, “No one comes to the Father
except through me.”
All roads lead to God. The Christian road. The Jewish road. The Muslim road. Even the Atheistic road.
Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel
that there will be a time when all people will end their journey and come face
to face with God.
However, while all roads lead to
God, it is not necessarily what we all people might hope for.
Jesus puts it this way: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and
all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him.”
Well, so far, so good. All roads lead to God. “All nations will be gathered around
him.” But, Jesus continues.
“All the nations will be gathered
before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. He
will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.”
Now, as Jesus explains it, He will
say to some, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance,
the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”
But then, Jesus looks at the others
and will say, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.”[4]
All roads lead to God, but at the end
of most roads, people encounter God as a judge.
We read about this final judgment often in
Scripture. In St. Paul’s letter to the
Corinthians, we read, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in
the body, whether good or bad.” II
Corinthians 5:10
In Revelation, there is a stunningly visual account
in which the writer says, “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the
throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of
life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the
books.” (Rev 20:12)
A Road To
God The Judge, Or To God The Father
Well, if all roads lead to God and that at the end
of that road we find a judge, why say there is anything unique about Christ and
Christianity?
It all goes back to what Jesus said and didn’t say.
Jesus did not say “No one comes to God except
through me.” He said, “No one comes to
the Father except through me.”
If all roads lead to God anyway, then at the end of
that road I would rather face God my Father, rather than God my Judge.
I want to approach God as one of his children.
Now how do we become children of God – rather the
accused in the courtroom of God?
St. John
said it plainly at the beginning of his Gospel: “to all who received Christ, to
those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
John 1:12-13
Or as Jesus put it, “No one comes
to the Father except through me.”
What about the non-Christians? Will they have eternal life? It’s best to let God be the Judge.
James warned us in his epistle
(James 4:11-12), “Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks
against the law and judges it … There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one
who is able to save and destroy. But you-- who are you to judge your neighbor?”
And Jesus said (in Matthew 7:1),
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”
All of the people in our community,
whatever their faith, will be led to God.
We let God judge them. It’s not
our place to judge.
But never forget there is a
uniqueness about Christ that allows us to approach God as His children.
To forget that is to forget
Christ’s own words when he said, “I am the THE way, the truth, the life, no one
comes to the Father except through me.”
And to forget that, is to run the
risk of being guilty of what so astonished Paul in this morning’s New Testament
Lesson – to forsake the Gospel for another, when in fact there is no other
Gospel at all.
Copyright
– Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
2013
All rights
reserved
[1]
This concept appears several times in Scripture, including Isaiah 65:9: “I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah
those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and
there will my servants live.” (NIV)
[2] Other texts for
consideration: Isaiah 53:6 – “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each
of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of
us all.” I Peter 3:18, “For
Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring
you to God.” I John 3:16, “This
is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
Matthew 20:28, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many." I Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds
you have been healed.”
[3] In
the Presbyterian Church, we have several statements of faith that we have
collected in our Book of Confessions. In
that book there are clear statements of what we believe and teach. One of these statements of faith is called
the Second Helvitic Confession, and it has this to say: “Jesus Christ is the only savior of the
world.” (Second Helvitic Confession,
Chapter 11).
[4] Matthew
25
