The Uniqueness of Christianity - Is Christianity Intolerant?

The question comes up very often as to what makes Christianity unique. There's many religions in the world and many would say that all religions are the same. They teach the same basic principles, the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And people like to try to argue that all religions are basically the same, teaching people to be a good person. But there are some things that make Christianity unique and they all revolve around the person of Jesus Christ.

You see, you can remove Buddha from Buddhism and still have the teachings of Buddhism. You don't essentially need Buddha. There was nothing special about him that gave the teachings their unique value.

You can take the same with Joseph Smith from the teachings of the Latter-day Saints and still have those teachings. You can even do the same thing with Islam. You can remove Muhammad from Islam and still have the teachings of Islam.

Now, many Muslims would be up in arms at that statement. However, unless they're going to admit that they worship Muhammad and that he's something more than just a man, they essentially have to admit that he's, as just a man, someone that could be any man.

God could have used any man to teach those teachings. So there's nothing essential that says that you must have Muhammad for the teachings of Islam. Any man, God could have used any man. But Christianity is not the same.

Christianity is very unique because of the person of Jesus Christ. Now, every world religion, and I have studied in-depthly many of them. I've studied Judaism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah Witness, Hinduism, Buddhism, and many others.

And one thing that they all do teach uniquely the same is that you can work your way to heaven. You can do good works and earn heaven. And in doing so, you will merit the right to go to heaven in some way.

And each of these religions have their own rules of what gets you there. But Christianity is different. Christianity says that there's nothing you can do to earn heaven. It was earned for you. It was earned by the person of Jesus Christ.

What makes Jesus Christ unique, and specifically why you cannot remove him from Christianity and still have Christianity, is because of what's known as the dual nature of Jesus Christ. He is 100 God, and he's 100 man.

Fully God, fully man. We can't, in our human minds, fully comprehend that. But that's what scripture clearly teaches. Why is that essential? Well, it's very simple. If Jesus Christ was not God, then he could not have paid an eternal fine.

Revelation 21 .8 says that all liars will have their place in a lake of fire, which burns fire and brimstone, which is called the second death. That means that if we tell one lie, which all of us have, we are destined to the lake of fire for eternity, because that is the punishment.

And the only way to pay that is either you pay it for all of eternity, or an eternal being pays it once in time. Therefore, Jesus Christ had to be 100 God in order to pay the eternal fine. He had to be eternal.

But being eternal isn't enough. I can't go to a court and say, Your Honor, I know that I have prison time and my poodle is going to do it for me. The judge is not going to let that happen. But another human who is in the right state of mind, innocent of the crime, can do that.

That's essentially at the core of what Jesus had to do. He had to become a man, live perfectly by the law, not violate a single commandment, keep the entire law so that he's innocent of any crime, so that he can pay the fine for you and I.

He had to be a human. Essentially, if Jesus Christ was not God, then the fine he paid was not for all people, sufficient for all people, and was not for eternity. Therefore, you are dead in your sins and destined to hell.

And if Jesus Christ was not 100 fully man, then he could not pay the fine for you and I. He came from heaven to earth, lived as a man, and paid the fine. If you remove Jesus Christ from Christianity, what you have done is removed the essence of Christianity in its means of obtaining eternal life.

Where those other religions have eternal life earned by your own works, Christianity is the only religion that teaches you have eternal life based on the work of Jesus Christ, God Almighty, on that cross many years ago as the payment for you and I.

That means that if you remove Jesus Christ from Christianity, you've removed the redemption that earns eternal life, and therefore you have no eternal life, and you have no Christianity. You cannot remove Jesus Christ from Christianity.

It is because of what he did on that cross, what's known as the doctrine of imputation, that Jesus Christ on that cross took upon himself the sin of you and I. The consequences of our sin was laid upon him, imputed upon him on that cross, and in exchange he gives us his righteousness.

Not a fair deal to him, but an awesome deal for us, one that should cause the Christian to be in awe of how great God is. That he, as Romans 5 would say, demonstrated his love by taking upon himself our sin and giving upon us his righteousness, so that on that day of judgment when we stand before God, God the Father will see the righteousness of God the Son laid upon us.

That is something unique to Christianity, because it's not by our work that we will stand before God and be judged righteous. It is because we'll have the righteousness of another, an alien righteousness, that of Jesus Christ.

That's why Jesus Christ could say in John 14 .6 that he is the way, the truth, the life. There is no other way to heaven but through him, because Christ is the unique Savior, making Christianity the unique religion in all the world.

Have you received that uniqueness, that redemption that comes only through Jesus Christ? It's the most important question, because Christianity is the only religion that offers you redemption through the work of God Almighty.

A challenge for us today. If we haven't received that to do that today, and if we have, Christian, it should cause us to be in worship before God, in awe before God, that he would leave heaven where all the angels sing his praises.

There's no sin, sickness, suffering, starvation, or thirst. He left that to come to earth for the explicit purposes Philippians 2 .5 would say, to be a slave for the purpose of dying for us. Jesus Christ came to give us his righteousness, and it's not just enough that he took our sin upon himself, which would totally blow us away, but he gives us his righteousness in exchange.

What a great deal for us, and we have him to thank for it. Now go out and strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.