Word of Salvation – Vol.25 No.31 – May 1979

 

Lord’s Day 11 (WVB)

 

Sermon by Rev. Wm. F. Van Brussel, B.D. on Lord’s Day 11

Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25

Psalter Hymnal: 84. 311. 232. 192. 372.

 

After the part concerning GOD THE FATHER AND OUR CREATION follows the one about GOD THE SON AND OUR DELIVERANCE

The Heidelberg Catechism starts out dealing with the NAMES of our Mediator; JESUS CHRIST, GOD’S ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, OUR LORD.

When the angel told Joseph that he should give his Son the name, JESUS, he pointed out obviously that there was an important message in that name.  YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS, BECAUSE HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.  Jesus means, SAVIOUR

Yet, “Jesus” was also a common name among Israel.  In a town of the size of Nazareth there were likely to be at least twenty boys having that same name.  So, sometimes perhaps, Jesus too, was held to be someone else.  He really became like us in all things, including His name, Jesus.  He became involved in all our down-to-earth human affairs so that He was really in the position of taking our place.  Nothing human was foreign to Him.  Isn’t that great?

The best translation of the name would be: REDEEMER-GOD.  He (God) delivers His people from their sins.  He meets their needs and delivers them.  It should be noted carefully that the angel told Joseph straight away that Jesus would deliver HIS PEOPLE.  He did certainly not come to save an individual here and another one somewhere else.  He came to save His Church.

This means, among other things, that a believer can only be saved by Jesus when he is willing to belong to His people.  In other words, this name, Jesus, binds all Christian believers together.

Our Catechism is very much concerned to get it across to Reformed Christians as well as to other Christians that JESUS is the ONLY name.  Many see this as the great stumbling block of the Christian religion.  “Why be so exclusive?” they wonder.  Or they would say: “You should not be so narrow-minded!  You may be right by stating that Jesus has made a great name for Himself.  But so did many others in the history of this world.  Don’t tell me that Christianity has exclusive rights to salvation!”

Well, it can’t be helped.  This is the teaching of God’s own Word: JESUS IS THE ONLY and COMPLETE SAVIOUR OF HIS PEOPLE.  The Christian religion certainly is exclusive in the sense that there is no more than one way of salvation: God’s way in Jesus Christ.

The apostle Peter made this quite clear in his defence before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4: AND THERE IS SALVATION IN NO ONE ELSE, FOR THERE IS NO OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN BY WHICH WE MUST BE SAVED.

The Christian religion is not simply one out of many world religions all of which actually boil down to one and the same thing.  No, the nature of the Christian faith is that it is ABSOLUTE: Jesus Christ – AND NO ONE ELSE opened the way which leads toward God.  And this precious news is to be found in only one place, the BIBLE, the Word of God.

Apart from this CHRIST of the Scriptures, JESUS, there is no salvation whatsoever.

The trouble is that there are too many people who are unwilling to accept this.  Even church people tend to think and to talk differently at times.  This has always been so.  The early Church had a problem with this already.  There was a certain man by the name of CELSUS who, although being in the Church, turned out to be a great enemy of the Christian faith.  He said it was nonsense all along to believe that a unique and exclusive revelation of God had been given to ONE PARTICULAR NATION in the Old Testament day.  He blamed both Jews and Christians alike for the thought that God would have created this vast world only for them!  He ridiculed the idea that God would have passed by millions of men as He came to this world in the Person of His Son to save sinners.  (Even though Jesus Himself has stated it openly that He had been sent for the benefit of the lost sheep of the house of Israel?)  Such a God could not possibly be a God of love and of justice in Celsus’ book.

And is it not true that many people today would maintain exactly the same point?

Why was it that the Christian Church got into trouble in the days of Emperor Nero and others?  Was it not exactly because of this particular claim of the uniqueness of the Christian faith?  If they had only accepted their place in the line with other people of different beliefs and convictions, they would have been acceptable in Nero’s estimation..  But how could the early Christians ever put the Roman emperor, for instance, on one and the same level with their only Saviour and King?  They would much rather be killed, as many indeed were killed.

It was merely because they believed that there was no more than one way that they were looked upon and treated as enemies of the Roman empire.

And true, one would hear it on numerous occasions today that ALL religions aim at one and the same thing.  Why go and teach Muslims a new faith while they are quite happy with what they have and believe?

This is one reason why our churches have never felt tempted to become a member of the World Council of Churches.  It has happened more than once in those circles that it was left totally unclear that there is no other way of salvation but through Jesus, the Christ of the Scriptures.  The Christian faith has been watered down time and again to the extent that its Biblical claim of uniqueness fell by the board altogether.

We believe that the Christian Church must maintain its stand without wavering.  As long as we want to be a truly Christian church we cannot possibly agree with those who pretend that all religions will work out the same ultimately.  That is a plain lie, a clever trick of the devil.

Why else would God be called A JEALOUS GOD in the Bible?  And in the same sense we could call the Christian religion, A JEALOUS RELIGION.  The honour and glory of the only true God is at stake.  AND. . . true and lasting salvation!  Either Jesus is not a complete Saviour, or we must find in Him all things necessary to our salvation.

Because of this fact the Christian religion will never, can never, become a popular religion.  If you want a religion which is popular you should join a movement such as the Baha’is.  These people pretend that, since there are so many international contacts nowadays, we must create new forms of living together on all the various levels of society, but also in the sphere of religion.  It is a useless exercise, they claim, to ask questions about the truth as presented by this religion or the other.  Every religion has some good qualities of its own, and all of them aim at pleasing God.  Actually, all religions are more or less similar.  Why not blend them all together in one great, world- embracing movement?

It is not hard to see why this religion would be a popular one, is it?  People today hate to hear differences pointed out and stressed.  They are unwilling to admit that the differences between the Christian religion and other religions are ESSENTIAL.  Especially the MAIN one, that the Christian religion is the only one believing that God himself became man in order to solve man’s sin-problem for him, simply because man cannot do that himself, no matter what he tries to do in order to please God.

The message of God in both, the Old and the New Testaments, is UNIQUE.  JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY WAY and THE ONLY TRUTH.  I AM THE WAY and THE TRUTH and THE LIFE; NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME!

HE is the ONLY One Who came from God as the Light of the world, as the DOOR, as the true BREAD and the living WATER for His people.  He cannot possibly be compared with others.  He is on an entirely different level.  He is unique Himself.  His work is unique.  His relationship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit is unique.  There is nothing about this JESUS which is not unique!

One either believes this or disbelieves it.  There is no middle way!

The Jews understood Jesus’ claim full well.  They shouted before Pilate, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die, BECAUSE He has made Himself the Son of God!”  Exactly, this was why He was crucified, why they insisted on it, because He claimed to be the ONLY SAVIOUR-GOD.

There is an absolute difference between Christ and such great men as Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius.  Nobody would ever say that such were not great men They managed to originate tremendous religious mass-movements.  They have influenced myriads of people in many places of the globe.  Yet, none of these great men was God manifested in the flesh, as Jesus alone was, and still is.  The difference between Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and the like and the Christian religion is not merely a relative one.  No!  As we have stated already, it is an essential one.  No one will ever come to the Father by Mohammed, or Confucius, or Buddha.  The only way to come to the Father is by faith in no one but Jesus Christ alone, by following Him both in life and death.

The awful condition we are in apart from Jesus Christ, is not so much that various remedies can be applied to bring us into a right relationship with God.  Our condition is so absolutely desperate that there is only ONE, UNIQUE way of restoration: Jesus.

People may say that Christians are terribly arrogant because of this claim.  Well, that can be understood and appreciated.  But it is not the Christian of course who has made this way of salvation unique and exclusive.  That is God’s business, and we are not in such a position that we can explain it to the extent that an unbeliever will come to the point of saying: Ah, now I get what you mean!  We cannot explain it; we can only maintain it on the basis of God’s own Word.  Nobody can understand it apart from the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in his heart.

We know that man is totally depraved, completely corrupted, because of his fall into sin.  The only One Who can really help us out is the Sovereign God of Grace.  And His way of doing this is called: JESUS!

This means that all admiration for Jesus which does not start with the admission of our desperate condition before God apart from Him, remains far below the mark, and is, in fact, irrelevant.  Those who boast of Christ in words, and claim for instance that He is a beautiful example to follow, do most definitely miss the point altogether; the point of eternal salvation, that is.

But such as know their sins and are sorry for them and confess them before God and men, are glad that Jesus is their ONLY Saviour, for to them it is as clear as the daylight that there could not be any other way.

The name, JESUS, as such condemns us.  God tells us through this name that our condition is so hopeless that an impossible way as it were, a unique way had to be specially opened by Himself to settle the matter.  Nothing less than God’s grace and love will do.

And this is what Jesus came to do to perform the great miracle of Divine love and grace, so that lost sinners could come to God and find in Him their Father Who loves them for the mere reason that they belong to their faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ, in life and death with body and soul.

This means also that salvation is eternal.  God’s work cannot possibly go wrong or get stuck.

It is such a sad fact that thousands and thousands of people claim to be religious without believing in Jesus Christ, the Christ of the Bible.  Also that there are numerous people who pretend to believe in Him, where-as they obviously have no clue of what this means.

Many people perish, not simply because they are sinner, but because they fail to believe in Jesus alone.

Thus, the important question for us all to consider right now is this one:

WILL JESUS DO FOR ME?

God is a jealous God.  Jesus is a jealous Saviour.  He wants to do it all alone.  It is no use to go and see a doctor who is not equal to his task.  God gave us the great Doctor in Jesus.  Call him, Him alone.  Call Him every day again.

And praise God that this Doctor is on call twenty four hours a day from January 1st ’till December 31st, every year again.

AMEN.