Exclusively Christian
Christianity is exclusive. When something is exclusive it prevents other things from being included with it. God has revealed to all in His Word that there is only one way for mankind to be at peace with Him. This way is called Christianity. Everything else and every other way are left out. The center of this teaching is Christ Jesus. We learn this in God’s Word. Moreover, multitudes have experienced the power of this way and are witnesses that this is true.
These are a few scriptures that present God’s record of how a person must come to Him to be at peace with Him. (Rom 5:1-2) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: {2} By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (John 14:6) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. (Acts 4:12) Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (1 Tim 2:5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
God has established only one way for man to be at peace with Him. This way is by Jesus Christ. When a person is at peace with God it is because they have been justified by faith in Jesus Christ. This means that a person has placed their trust in Him in order to become justified in the sight of God. When a person places their trust in Jesus Christ, peace actually comes into the heart of that person. If peace doesn’t come into the heart of the person then there is a lack of proof that the person has actually trusted on Jesus Christ. Moreover, Jesus Christ is the only way to come to God. There is no salvation in any other. He is the only mediator between God and men. Everything else is left out of God’s established plan for the justification of mankind. The plan of God is exclusive. Everything else and every other way are left out.
God’s plan for man doesn’t stop with being justified by trusting in Jesus Christ and receiving God given peace down in the soul. For that person to find the good life that God offers them, they must unite with the body of Jesus Christ which is His Church, Col. 1:24. A person unites with the Lord’s body, after receiving peace from God, by being baptized into Jesus Christ by His Church, Gal. 3:27. He authorized His Church to administer this baptism when He gave it the great commission found in Matthew 28:16-20. He didn’t refer to any other assembly as His body. This too is exclusive. There is only one Lord, one faith and one baptism. These are all associated with the one body and that body is the body of Jesus Christ, His Church, Eph. 4:4, 5. Notice that these verses refer to only one body. There can be no other.
Those who have united to the one body of Christ have only One to follow down the path of life. There are no others who can substitute for Him. He is their Shepherd leading them in the blessed path of God. (John 10:4-5) And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. {5} And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. Any others are simply strangers to those united to Christ.
These thoughts aren’t popular to our society but they remain the established plan of God for mankind. If you are trying something else and find that you lack real peace with God, you should stop and consider God’s way. It is exclusive of everything else but it is truly peaceful for all who take part in it. It is the good life God has established for man.
Let’s be careful to rightly divide the Word of truth.