Saturday, June 4, 2005
Acts 4:11-12 "This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
JESUS, JESUS, ONLY JESUS
Human pride is affronted by these words. No other Savior? Only Jesus? No other saving faith? Only the Christian faith? How exclusive.
Not really. The Gospel includes all. Jesus is the Savior of every human being under the vault of heaven. He has paid the price for every sin of every sinner -- no exceptions -- even those who mocked Him and abused Him and crucified Him -- even those who have long rejected Him.
If there were a universal cure for cancer, we could complain and say "only one?" And if it were discovered by some foreigner in some "backward" country, we could turn up our noses and refuse to use it. Or we could rejoice that God has provided an answer for all forms of a terrible disease. And did it in an unexpected way, from an unlikely source.
In Jesus we have God's provision, His cure, for the terrible consequences of a far worse disease than cancer, one that horribly disfigures the spirit as well as the body -- and results in eternal death.
In His substitutionary life and sacrificial death Jesus is God's answer to sin and its terrible consequences -- a cure for every form this terminal sickness takes, no matter where you live, no matter your station in life.
Let us never complain or apologize for the way God has come to the rescue of sinners. Let us rather say . . . "thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 15:58).
