Scripture Readings: Matthew 16:24-28, Romans 4:13-25

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at its meeting last week considered how we ought to confess our faith in Jesus Christ. Presbyterian Christians from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania urged the church to "acknowledge and embrace the singular Lordship of Christ." Presbyterian Christians from Eastern Tennessee argued: "That Jesus Christ was and is the only begotten Son of God the Father; That Jesus Christ, possessing in Himself the infinite goodness of God, was and is the only sufficient sacrifice to make propitiation for the Sins of all who are saved; and That by Him only can any person come to God." Presbyterian Christians from San Diego demanded accountability for promoting "belief in salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord…not only for us, but for all humanity."

Though the language varies, the point is unmistakable. Many Presbyterians believe salvation comes only through Jesus Christ and that all churches should unequivocally proclaim this belief.

This belief, of course, is grounded in scripture. However, in the Bible salvation is ascribed to God – to God alone in the Old Testament, and to God in Christ in the New Testament. The Hebrew scriptures that Christians read as the Old Testament attribute salvation to the LORD God known to Israel through the law and the prophets. In the New Testament Paul argues that the faith of Abraham is the kind of faith Christians should have. As Abraham enters the story of Israel more than a millennium before Jesus, the faith of Abraham has nothing to do with Jesus Christ but is in God alone. So, Paul affirms that salvation is by the grace of God, which was known before Jesus lived by Abraham and other people of faith, and is now known through the church, which Paul describes metaphorically as the body of Christ.

We know from his letters in the New Testament that Paul spent his life trying to convince Jews and pagans to accept Christ Jesus as Lord. In Romans 9-11, however, Paul claims that God will not reject the Jews, who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Jewish resistance led Paul and other apostles to reach out beyond the Jewish community, so Paul sees this resistance as part of God's plan. Surely, Paul argues, all Jews and Gentiles, who have done the will of God, will be saved.

Yet, there is little in the New Testament gospels to support Paul's claim that God will save Jews as well as Christians. Moreover, the New Testament does not state that God's grace may be present in the religions of the world (as many of us believe today), and for most of its history the church has claimed salvation comes only through Jesus Christ. So, how might contemporary Christians justify a more inclusive view of salvation?

In Matthew 16:28 we find Jesus saying to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." This statement is also found in Mark 9:1 and Luke 9:27. Lest we are unsure about what it means for the Son of Man to come, in Matthew 24:29-31 Jesus says: "Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ [Dan 7:13] with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elected from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." In Matthew 24:34 Jesus again says, "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place."

Clearly, almost two thousand years later, we are in a very different time and place. First, we are not living in a pagan Roman Empire, where worship of the Emperor was mandatory. We are living in a largely secular world, not only with Jews and pagans but also with men and women who embrace religious traditions rooted in other cultures that are almost as old or even older than the church. Moreover, members of these various religious communities are neighbors, and in the United States we all enjoy religious freedom to an extent inconceivable two millennia ago.

Second, we also have two thousand years of Christian witness to consider. The proclamation of the church that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ has not only led to the conversion of millions of people, but also has led to wars and the persecution of "heretics," Jews, indigenous peoples, Muslims, and other religious groups. Furthermore, because Christians have often not kept the commandments to love God and their neighbors, we can hardly be surprised that many people have rejected the church’s claim to manifest the saving love of God for the whole world.

Third, we also know now that the New Testament is wrong in claiming the Son of Man will come on the clouds to bring about God’s kingdom on earth within the generation of his disciples. It did not happen. Either Jesus was mistaken, or he did not say this and the gospels erred in saying that he did. In either case, this error in scripture reminds us that the Bible reflects human understanding and misunderstanding. We also know today that God is not dwelling in heaven above the clouds and thus that the imagery of the end of time written into the New Testament reflects a view of the universe that no longer is accurate.

For all these reasons, we must now interpret the metaphors in scripture about Jesus Christ in a way that makes sense both of what we now know and what, as finite beings, we cannot know.

From this perspective, the claim that Jesus is the only Lord and Savior, even if biblical, is clearly not yet verified by history. It seems that God has allowed Jews to maintain their tradition of faith, and has also permitted other religious traditions to flourish. Moreover, today many people of different religious traditions are working together, with mutual respect, to care for those in need. Let us remember that the parable of the Great Judgment in Matthew 25:31-46 does not say only Christians will enter the kingdom of heaven. The parable asserts that "the righteous" - those who care for "the least" among us - will be saved.

In addition, many of us have friends and some of us have family members, who are Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim or Mormon or agnostic, and who manifest the love of God as much (or as little) as most of the Christians we know. If faith is known by its fruits, as the New Testament parables suggest, then faith is not restricted to individuals confessing their faith in Jesus Christ. Even as Paul acknowledged the faith of Abraham and of the Jews who resisted Jesus, our faith in God is confirmed by the faithfulness of those we know who are not Christians.

Finally, as our knowledge of the cosmos has grown, we have come to realize that homo sapiens may not be the only intelligent life in a universe with a hundred billion galaxies that each have about a hundred billion solar systems. As we gaze at the night sky and contemplate this mystery, the claim that Jesus Christ is the only Lord and Savior in God's creation seems foolish indeed.

For us, however, Jesus Christ is the way we know God, and therein lies our salvation. So, we are called here on earth to share our faith in God and in Christ through the ministry of the church.

What did the General Assembly decide about the Lordship of Jesus Christ? By a vote of 497 to 11 it passed a statement entitled "Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ" that contains this paragraph: "Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, and all people everywhere are called to place their faith, hope and love in him. No one is saved by virtue of inherent goodness or admirable living, 'for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God' (Eph. 2: 8). No one is saved apart from God's gracious redemption in Jesus Christ. Yet we do not presume to limit the sovereign freedom of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2: 3-4). Thus, we neither restrict the grace of God to those who profess explicit faith in Christ nor assume that all people are saved regardless of faith."

We need to understand that the General Assembly did not make this statement, or any other defining statement, a required belief for ordination in the Presbyterian Church. The Book of Order continues to require elders, deacons and clergy to answer this question: "Do you trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, acknowledge him Lord of all and Head of the Church, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?" [G-14.0207(a)] This vow is not a statement of belief that only Christians are saved. This vow is a statement of faith affirming our trust in the God we know through the Bible and through our life together in the church.

We are all called. Like Paul and other Christians, we are all called. We are all called to proclaim the love of God we know in Jesus Christ. We are all called to manifest the love of God for Christians and also for all those who choose not to join a church. We are all called to "do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly" with our God. (Micah 6:8) Amen.

23 June 2002 

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1 in Faith: A Christian Bible Study † Copyright © 2000 by Robert Traer