TOGETHER: ‘Scandalous’ cross really is good news

Posted: 4/13/06

TOGETHER:
‘Scandalous’ cross really is good news

At this Easter season, we look carefully at the meaning of the cross and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

I was asked by a friend, “How do Baptists view people of other religions?” While I can’t speak for all Baptists, I shared this perspective out of this Baptist’s heart and mind:

A Christian always must begin from Scripture. When you do, you notice Jesus embraced and affirmed people who often were the most unloved in their communities—a Good Samaritan, the woman at the well, a blind beggar, Zaccheus the tax collector. He had an aversion to religious arrogance and hypocrisy but had an affinity for outcasts.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

But do all people need to come to faith in Christ Jesus in order to be saved? Is there salvation in some other way?

These questions introduce the “scandal of particularity,” but it’s a scandal that is embedded in Jesus’ words, in his cross and resurrection, and in the preaching of the gospel.

Jesus knew people desire a broad way, but he called us to a narrow way (Matthew 7:13-14). He invited us to follow him, for it is a terrible thing to gain the world and lose one’s soul (Mark 8:34-38). He said he is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). If God knows another way to save people than through his Son, Jesus Christ, then I will not scold him nor try to teach him that it is wrong! But I have no basis upon which to hold out that possibility to people. Rather, I am nailed to the cross in this matter. For Jesus prayed, “Father, if there can be another way … let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).

Even Christians sometimes are offended by the cross. It is too violent, too bloody, too “in your face,” and it really does make us look like we were really bad if God had to do that in order to save us.

The only gospel I know is that God loves the world and sent his Son so that all who would believe in him may have life everlasting and not perish. It may seem narrow to our world, but to the world in which Jesus lived, it was good news, because it was the first time anyone said: “All the world is welcome to come. Jesus will embrace all of you.”

Isn’t it interesting that in the early church the question was not, “Do Jews need to be saved by Jesus?” The question was, “Can anyone except a Jew be saved by Jesus?” The gospel of Christ spread across the world, welcoming men and women, slave and free, rich and poor. The gospel does bring the reality of judgment to the forefront. After all, if we are not really in need of salvation, if everything is really all right without Jesus, then why did he find it necessary to come to the earth and then to offer himself in sacrifice?

So, how do you approach people of other religions? You respect, you listen, you learn and you also share what you know of God in Jesus Christ. It is God’s Holy Spirit who will work to bring faith, as well as conviction of sin and need, to the heart of another. You must not, you cannot, browbeat them into the kingdom. But you must try the best you can to help them get as good a view of Jesus as you can. And you must know that we do that by both word and life. No one lives so holy that the word of God does not need to be spoken. And no one’s word is much believed if there is not integrity and Christ-likeness in the speaker. As I like to say: Jesus is our best argument. He is the reason I am so glad to be a part of his company.

God loves the world.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.