Doctrine of Christ (part 25)

Is Christ the Only Way of Salvation?

Today we want to come to the topic of “Is Christ the Only Way of Salvation?” which is, I think, the burning question under the Work of Christ. Is the work of Christ alone the way of salvation or are there other avenues to salvation apart of Christ?

Scriptural Data

Acts 4:12 says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” This was the message that the earliest apostles of Christ believed and that they preached. That name of which they spoke was, of course, the name of Jesus Christ. They believed and preached that salvation was exclusively available through Jesus Christ alone.

Indeed, I think, the entire New Testament teaches that salvation is obtained exclusively through the work of Christ. Let’s look first at what Paul has to say about this subject. Ephesians 2:12 is an interesting verse because Paul is here writing to former Greek pagans who have converted to Christianity, and he invites them to recall what it was like in those pre-Christian days. He says in Ephesians 2:12: “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” What a poignant description of those apart from Christ – having no hope and without God in the world! For Paul, these pagan religions were not an alternative avenue of salvation. Those who were involved in them were hopeless and were without God.

In fact, it is the burden of Paul’s opening chapters of his letter to the Romans to show that this desolate condition is the general situation of mankind. In Romans 1:20 Paul says that God’s power and deity are universally known throughout creation. He says, “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” All men everywhere at any time can know that there is a Creator God of the universe. Moreover in Romans 2:15, Paul says that God’s moral law is written on the hearts of all men. In 2:15 he says, “They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them.” Even those who are apart from the Mosaic Law and the Jewish covenant have an instinctive grasp of the moral requirements of the Law because God has written them on their hearts.

In Romans 2:7, Paul says that God offers eternal life to everyone who will seek for him in doing good. He says, “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” This is a bona fide offer of salvation to anyone who will appropriately respond to God’s general revelation in nature and in conscience. Unfortunately, the testimony of Paul in Romans 1:21-32 is that, rather than worship the Creator and obey his moral law, people ignore the Creator and fashion false gods to worship. They flout his moral law and plunge themselves into degeneracy and immorality.1 Romans 1:21-32:

The conclusion then comes in Romans 3:9-12 – all men, therefore, find themselves condemned before God and under the power of sin. In Romans 3:9-12 Paul says,

Fortunately, God has provided a means of salvation out of this desolate state of condemnation in which people naturally find themselves. Paul says in Romans 3 that no one can redeem himself from this condemnation through righteous living. Romans 3:19-20:

No one, through doing righteous works, can redeem himself from this state of condemnation.

But Christ is God’s sacrificial offering for sin and is, therefore, the only means by which forgiveness and salvation can be obtained. Romans 3:21-26:

So, for Paul, the atoning death of Christ is the only means by which salvation can be obtained.

This doctrine was not peculiar by any means to the apostle Paul. Look at the writings of the apostle John as well. First, in John’s Gospel, John 14:6, where Jesus is speaking: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” So John’s Jesus is one who is exclusively the way of salvation.2 John 3:18 points out that apart from Christ all men are already under God’s condemnation. Again, Jesus speaking, says, “He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” So the one who does not believe in Christ is already condemned; he finds himself in a state of condemnation even prior to being confronted with the decision to believe in Christ. Similarly, in John’s epistles we have the same emphasis. Turn over to 1 John 5:12 – this is a bald statement, a stark statement – “He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.” Finally, in the book of Revelation, John describes the heavenly vision of the Lamb of God in heaven. In Revelation 5:1-14 he says that only the Lamb can open the scroll that is presented before the throne. He says,

Here you see so dramatically portrayed the uniqueness and worthiness of the Lamb of God, who was, of course, Jesus, who was slain for the sins of the world. In Revelation 20:15, everyone who is not found written in the Lamb’s book of life is cast into hell. 20:15 says, “If any one's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” So John, like Paul, thinks of Christ as the unique atoning sacrifice for sin and the only way of salvation available to men.

I think it is not improbable that this was the attitude of Jesus himself – that the historical Jesus actually believed this. Look at Luke 12:8-9. This is a saying which New Testament scholars generally recognize to be an authentic word of Jesus, and he says,

Here Jesus says that he is the hinge upon which people’s destiny depends.3 Those who confess him will be saved, those who deny him will be lost. Finally, Matthew 7:13-14 seems to suggest, at least, that in Jesus’ thinking only a minority of mankind will be saved. This is from the Sermon on the Mount:

This is a doctrine which is not peculiar to certain New Testament authors. This is a doctrine throughout the New Testament and characteristic, I think, of Jesus himself. Christ alone is the way of salvation. The logic of the New Testament, I think, is very clear. Think of it. Given the universality of sin and the uniqueness of Christ’s atoning death, it logically follows that the only way of salvation is through Christ alone. Given the universal condemnation of mankind and the uniqueness of Christ’s atoning death, it is only through Christ that salvation is available.

This exclusivistic doctrine was just as scandalous in the polytheistic world of the 1^st century as it is in 21^st century western society. Early Christians were persecuted because it was thought by the populace at large that they were atheists because they denied the reality of the pagan deities of Greece and Rome and denied that they were legitimate avenues of salvation. This exclusivism was so offensive to Greco-Roman pagans that Christians became ruthlessly, horribly, murderously tortured and persecuted for their faith because they would refuse the simple act of throwing some incense on a bowl of flame and offering a sacrifice to a pagan deity. They preferred to go to the rack, to have their flesh raked with blades, to be roasted alive on fires rather than to say that there were other avenues of salvation apart from Christ alone.

As the Christian religion, however, supplanted the Greco-Roman religions – after the conversion of Constantine and Christianity became the standard religion of the Roman Empire – this scandal also receded. Indeed, for medieval thinkers like Augustine and Aquinas, one of the marks of the true church was its catholicity – that is to say, its universality. To them it seemed unthinkable that this great edifice of the Christian church filling all of civilization could have been predicated upon a falsehood. So the very universality of the Christian church and the Christian religion was taken to be one of the earmarks and indications of the truth of the Christian religion.

What we will see next time is how this doctrine met its demise during the so-called Expansion of Europe.