I watched an interesting DVD last night called "The Perfect Stranger". It is a story about an unbelieving lawyer who gets a mysterious invitation to dinner. The invitation is signed Jesus Christ. Thinking it was a prank, she decides to go. The man she met was supposedly Jesus. In the course of their conversation, the lawyer brought up many objections and posed many questions which the Jesus figure answered. They were on the topic of Jesus being the only way to God in light of other religions. She brought up the religion of Islam. The mysterious guest asked the woman what was a human's greatest need. The answer she gave was to be loved. Knowing that Islam is a religion of pure submission with no concept of love, he answered with a question (paraphrased): "Why would God create man with the greatest need to be loved and never fulfill that need?"
One witness to the truth of the message of Christ is that of love. Only in the suffering and sacrifice of Christ do we see a God that with a perfect love--a love that can meet that great need the human heart yearns for and is unable to find. We find love in this world, but it is always an imperfect love, a love that falls short. Our longing is to be loved perfectly.
On memorial day, we remember the fallen heroes. Those individuals who gave the greatest sacrifice to secure our freedom--their lives. Jesus said "Greater love has no one that this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13 NKJV). These men and women never got to live out the full span of their lives. Many of them barely reached adulthood. The very fabric of our being cries out "honorable" and "noble" and "virtuous".
Christ laid down his life for us so that all of our sin and rebellion against God could be laid upon him instead of us. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16 NKJV).
That is why there is no other path to God. To choose another religion or no religion at all is to say no to the greatest love gift. It would be like going to the cemetery where the fallen soldiers lie and curse and deface the gravestones of those who gave their lives to secure your happiness. Such an act is so blatantly disrespectful and ungrateful that it cries out for comdemnation. Listen to the seriousness of rejecting the One who gave all to secure our eternal happiness:
Hebrews 10:29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
In the end the lawyer from that DVD saw the message of Christ in a new light that she had never seen before. When the love of Christ has clearly presented, it is not difficult to see why it is reasonable to believe and forsake all that tries to rival his love.
No comments:
Post a Comment