Humanly devised religions are numerous and varied. Based on human will and desire, their attraction is to the flesh. Christianity stands alone as the only religion with its origin in divinity, thus appealing to the spiritual aspect of man’s nature.
Man’s problem is sin. Sin is a universal malady, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Since there is “not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20), the whole world stands “guilty before God” (Romans 3:19). Sin creates a “great gulf” (Luke 16:26) between God and man that cannot be spanned by man’s own efforts. A lifetime of good works could not constitute even one plank on a bridge back to God.
Jesus is God’s only remedy for sin. Thus, Christianity embraces an exclusive Savior. Jesus stepped in the gap to serve as the link between God and His offspring. God “hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:18). Therefore, those “who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).
Gospel obedience is God’s means of reaching us with the blood of His Son. Consequently, the Gospel is “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). Jesus shed His blood in His death (John 19:34). “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3). Thus, baptism is the culminating act of the “obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26) that unites man with Christ’s blood. Therefore, eternal ruin awaits all those that “obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
Whether one was a king on a throne or a peasant in the field; lived in a mansion on a hill or an empty flat on poverty’s row; reclined on a bed of ivory or lay on a bed of clay; was wrapped in purple or clothed in rags was of no consequence when God passed over Egypt (Exodus 12:13). All that mattered was, “Is the blood of the lamb on the door posts of my house?” When time gives way to eternity, the sole matter of human concern will be, “Is the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of my soul?” Jesus Christ is God’s exclusive cure for sin.—Frank Chesser