Christian Exceptionalism
The Christian Worldview #6
Christianity, a Foundationally Different Religion
I’ve heard it said in various ways that all of the world religions are fundamentally the same—their differences are only superficial. But that’s quite a big misunderstanding. There is actually one difference that puts Christianity in a lane entirely of its own.
Salvation in the Christian faith is not dependent on human works or merit. If you’re going to inherit salvation in any religion besides Christianity, you need to have done more good on this earth than bad. If the scales tip toward the bad, you can’t be saved.
Through the heavy burdens of works-based religions, Jesus emerges and says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).
Paul writes, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23-25).
Similarly he writes to Ephesus, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”(Ephesians 2:8-10).
The Christian faith does not assume that human beings could offer to God anything worthy of salvation. In fact, it presupposes an inability on man’s part, which is the only reason God sent his Son to suffer so terribly on our behalf. Salvation is totally the work of God, a gift of his grace—unearned and undeserved.
I want to really dwell on this fact. I want you to consider what all of the other religions have wrong about both man and God when they assume that anyone could attain to heaven by his own might or merit.
If a man could ascend to God by his own works, it would imply one of two things, or both: 1) either that man is capable of personally reaching a divine status, or 2) God is only as holy as the average good man.
Neither of those conclusions ring true with what we know. Men—even the best of men—are profoundly convicted of personal sins and shortcomings and errors, and even the best of men still say, “I do the things I don’t want to do, and I don’t do the things I do want to do!”
If fallible man achieves God’s throne in such an imperfect way, what does that say of the height of God’s throne? What would it say of God’s character—if sinful man were at the level of God’s righteousness?
Works-based religions either deify sinful man, or they condescend the holy God. It doesn’t work no matter how you slice it. If God is eternal and righteous in an infinite sense, could a man reach him by payment or merit? Do you see that this elevates man far above what we know of man? And do you see that it lowers God to a place less than absolute divinity?
Works-based religions always think of man too highly and God too lowly. Always. If God made the world and everything in it, what could I pay him? Paul used this same apologetic when he was in Athens. He said, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24-25).
Do you see? If man by his own faculties could provide for a need of God, be it a house or the cost of man’s sin, it either makes man independent of God or God dependent on man.
I want to show you for just a moment the infinite disparity between God and man. To have a rightly framed Christian worldview, we must see this disparity and we must have an answer for it.
Of man the Scripture reads thusly, “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written, ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one’” (Romans 3:9-12).
And of God the Scriptures say, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Isaiah says elsewhere, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’” (Isaiah 6:1-3).
Do you see the disparity? God is too high and man is too low for the bridge to be gapped by human means. When the men at the city of Babel attempted to build a tower which would reach the heights of God, notice how the text describes it: “Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.’ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built” (Genesis 11:4-5).
When man built his highest tower into the heavens, still God had to come down to see it. In other words, man’s best efforts cannot approach the heights of God’s throne.
Let me tell you something. When you realize the great chasm between sinful man and the Living and True God, there ought to be a conclusion of despair. You ought to cry out in true poverty of spirit. Who could reach such heights? Imagine somebody who’s been given God’s perfect standard. When they see it honestly, they will say, it’s too high, it’s too deep. I can’t attain to it.
And here is the gospel answer: Paul writes, “6 But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”‘ (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 ‘or “Who will descend into the abyss?” ‘ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”(Romans 10:6-9).
Do you see? When we rightly grasp the height of God’s standard, we should ask, “Who will ascend into heaven—to get it for us?” And the gospel says, NOBODY. Nobody can, and nobody could. So Christ came down. Christ brought the righteous standard of God down to us. The standard was far beyond our grasp. And Christ brought it down. This does not mean he lowered the standard, for he did not. It means that he made the standard accessible to us, by living among us, by teaching us, and by giving his perfect self on the cross of Calvary.
But the point is further elaborated. When we rightly grasp the lowness of our status—being ourselves dead—we should ask, “And who will descend into the depths on our behalf?” And the gospel says, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Christ descended from heaven, bringing righteousness down to us. And he rose from the grave, bringing life back up from death. He brought righteousness down from heaven, and he brought life up from the grave.
In every religion, Christianity aside, the burden of salvation is placed on the backs of men. This is why Jihadists strap themselves with bombs. This is why the Jews have endless sabbath laws. And this is why both Hindus and Buddhists carry the implicit burden that, if their works don’t suffice, they will emerge from their death into a miserable reincarnation.
And many of the sweetest Christians I’ve ever known have said on their death beds, “I sure hope I’ve done enough!” And they carry that burden with them every day, not because Christianity puts it there, but because of a misconception of the Christian faith. Even many Christians do not understand, we aren’t saved by having done enough. The fact is, nobody will ever have done enough. The only one who did enough was Jesus, the Christ!
The foundational difference between Christianity and every other religion on earth is that our righteousness is actually God’s righteousness. What could man do to impress a holy God? What could we pay him, who owns the whole world and everything in it? Our righteousness comes by faith! For in faith we received Christ. In faith we are clothed in Christ.
Conclusion
Picture the great chasm that exists between God and man once more. It is a very real chasm. There are neighbors and friends and family members and perhaps some in this very room who are still subject to this great chasm.
In Ephesians 1, Paul speaks to Christ’s redemption, our forgiveness, and God’s grace, all of it purchased by Jesus’ own blood. And he says of this, that it was “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10).
And on that note he writes to the Colossians, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20)
Every disparity is brought to unity in Jesus Christ. No other worldview allows for man to accept his own depravity and to see God in his holiness rightly, and to be restored to God despite that disparity.