Is Christianity the Greatest Religion? (Part 2)

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I was not making the law of gospel distinction or a covenant of works.

Christianity is a great religion. So says Der Spiegel. It also says that Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism and Judaism are also great religions.

And so last time on the show, I asked the question, why is Christianity so great?

And I used the book of Galatians as a backdrop, not really as a backdrop, as the driver for this discussion.

Christianity is great. And we saw in the first five verses of Galatians 1 that it�s great because Christianity alone deals with the greatest need mankind has, sin removal, forgiveness.

Secondly, it warns against the greatest theological error you can make, and that is adding works, adding sacraments, adding baptism, adding penance, adding walking grandmas across the street to the work of Christ.

Jesus did the work as Savior to save sinners, and we don�t want to add or subtract or alter or augment anything because that would impugn the work of Christ.

He didn�t do enough, we have to add, or He did too much, we can take away. Both of those alternatives yield tragic, eternal errors, so much so that Paul says to the

Galatians that is accursed. When you want to add to the gospel, you�re accursed, because when you add to the gospel, you�re subtracting from the work of Christ.

Christianity is also great because Christianity subdued its greatest enemy.

Christianity subdued its greatest enemy. Who was the greatest enemy in the local church, the early church, the church right after the

Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven? And the answer is the writer of the book of Galatians, Paul himself.

Verse 11 of chapter 1, �For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man�s gospel.

For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.�

This gospel that I received, that you receive by faith alone in the finished work of Christ Jesus, you get that not from my own imagination, but I got that from the

Lord Jesus, and I�m giving it to you. Verse 13, �For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how

I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.

So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.�

Paul, before he became a Christian and was subdued by the

Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, used to persecute the church. He was enemy number one of Jesus Christ Church.

He was rebellious. He was unyielding in his determination to persecute the church.

He was, the text says, �extremely zealous ,� and he went after the church.

He was violent, and he, to an extraordinary degree, did everything he could to fight against the

Lord Jesus. And what happens in the book of Acts? Three times in the book of Acts we see

Paul�s conversion, and I�m positive that�s given three times for many reasons, but one of those reasons is so that the local church that was getting persecuted when the book of Acts was being written, that the church might have hope that the

Lord Jesus Christ has subdued the greatest enemy to the church. If there were somebody that had more hatred for the church,

I don�t know who that person would be. Paul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the

Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the

Way, capital W, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying, �Saul,

Saul, why are you persecuting me ?� And he said, �Who are you, Lord ?� And he said, �I am

Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what to do.�

The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

Paul is slain, not physically, but he is subdued, maybe is a better word than slain.

He, Paul, it says in Acts chapter 22, he was persecuting the way to death, binding and delivering both men and women to prison.

That's what Paul was doing. And can you imagine? He meets the

Lord Jesus of Nazareth, and he has to respond submissively by saying, �What shall

I do, Lord ?� And that is amazing to think that the biggest enemy that the

Christians ever had, the Apostle Paul, was subdued, and he wanted

Stephen dead. It says, �And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.�

That's what's happened. Acts chapter 26 also talks about, �I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, �Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goads.� And this great

Jesus slays Paul, regenerates him, and makes him into an apostle for the

Gentiles. Verse 15 of Galatians chapter 1, �But when he who had set me apart before I was born who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his

Son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did

I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.�

Paul, the apostle, turned from Saul, the persecutor, to Paul, the apostle.

Greatest Christianity, greatest religion, well, why is it great?

Because it deals with sin, because it warns you against adding orcs, because it humbles and subdues its greatest enemy.

And it is what? It provides a remedy for the human heart. It provides a remedy, remedy, revelee.

All right, we're going to just have to take a little detour because that's just the way it goes,

Puritan golden treasury, a little detour. I'm opening it up to a page randomly, �Hope.

The saints are oft feeding their hopes on the carcasses of their slain fears.�

William Gernal, �Didn't work. A poor man doth want many things.

A rich miser wants everything.� John Boyce, that's interesting, has nothing to do with anything.

�Grace makes the promise, and providence the payment.� John Flavel.

All right, back to the task at hand. Galatians chapter 2, 15 and following, it deals with works righteousness.

It remedies the default human response, and that is works righteousness.

Everybody wants to contribute. And this is alluded to earlier when we were talking about theological error, but now he comes at it again.

Galatians 2, 16, �Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus. In order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.�

You want to know Paul's doctrine of justification? There it is. Here is sola fide.

Three times I think we see the word justified, justified, justified.

In fact, in just this one verse, 2, 16. Some have called this one of the most important verses in this epistle.

And justification lends itself to great fruit, and that fruit is forgiveness.

Justification has a basis, and that is the atoning work of Christ Jesus. The capstone of His perfect life was

His death and then evidenced to be done properly and according to God the

Father's plan by the Father raising Him from the dead. To be justified, to stand before God's court and declared not guilty, to be declared righteous based on the work of another.

Jew or Gentile, it just takes a reception of that through the non -meritorious faith or belief.

Works of the law. Can you be justified by the works of the law? And whether that is circumcision or food laws or Sabbath or any other moral, ethical duty, you can't.

You can't be justified unless you perfectly obey the law. That's why you have to have faith in Jesus who perfectly obeys.

By the works of the law, no one will be justified. And if you're listening today and you want to get to heaven, I'm glad you do, but there's nothing you can do to get there because it has to be done for you, and you receive that by faith alone.

No one will ever be justified by their own law -keeping. No one will ever be justified by their own

Sabbath -keeping. No one will ever be justified by their circumcision or baptism or anything else for that matter.

Paul knows this. The works of the law to get to heaven have to be completed perfectly.

If you want to get to heaven by the works of the law, make sure you do it perfectly. The two greatest commandments, you shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second,

Jesus said, is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

That's the way to get to heaven. Perfect obedience. Thankfully, there's another way, and that is the perfect obedience of the

Son, and you trust in what He did. Verse 21 of Galatians, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then

Christ died for no purpose. I mean, think about it. This might be a key verse.

The key verse. If 16 isn't, is this one? Well, both of them are super important, obviously.

If you could get to heaven by works, then why send Jesus to live a perfect life and die on the cross?

That would make no sense. Just I don't know, send an angel and have the angel give some good education or some good moral backgrounds or some other function that the angel would have besides, you know, hey, pointing to the

Lord Jesus. Machen said this verse is the key verse of the epistle to the

Galatians. It expresses the central thought of the epistle, the Judaizers' attempt to supplement the saving work of Christ by the merit of their own obedience to the law.

That says, Paul, is impossible. Christ will do everything or nothing. Earn your salvation if your obedience to the law is perfect, or else trust wholly to Christ's completed work.

You cannot do both. You cannot combine merit and grace. If justification, even in the slightest measure, is through human merit, then

Christ died in vain. And of course, we know He didn't die in vain, because He would have died in vain.

My guess is He would have stayed in the ground, but God raised Him from the dead, and He did exactly what

He was sent to do. Christianity is great because it deals with this problem, and that is works righteousness.

Christianity is great in addition because it highlights probably the greatest love in all the world when it comes to humans.

I mean, the greatest love is the Father loving the Son. I understand that. But the human love is that the God would love sinners.

Can you imagine that? 220, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave

Himself for me. Could there be a greater love? And of course, not just for Paul, but for all

Christians, that you could say, God loved me and gave Himself for me. Knowing you like you know you.

Knowing me like I know me. Knowing me, knowing you. Is that an Abba song?

I think it is. There's love for sinners, loving family members, loving good people, loving lovable people.

How about loving ungodly people, loving helpless people, loving sinful people, loving your enemies? That's amazing.

Christ dies for enemies. He's crucified for enemies.

He suffers a criminal's crucifixion for enemies. That's a great love right there.

Then he said, the whole of Christian life is a response to the love exhibited in the death of the Son of God for men.

And Guthrie writes in the commentary in Galatians, nothing but love would have been a sufficient motive for God to send

His Son to the cross, nor for the Son voluntarily to accept it. So, when you think of Christianity and why is it great, that's pretty great.

I wonder if people who are Hindus and Buddhists know that the eternal God of the universe has such love for sinners.

And if they don't know it, then we should tell them. Why is Christianity great? Probably lastly for today, it displays the great exchange.

Out of all exchanges, here is the great exchange, Galatians 3 .10. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.

But the law of faith, excuse me, but the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them.

Galatians 3 .10, 11, and 12 is what I just read.

Three Old Testament passages right there. Cursed be, righteous shall live by faith, and the one who does them shall live by them.

Paul is pulling up those verses from Deuteronomy, from Habakkuk, and from Leviticus.

Leviticus, you shall keep my statutes, chapter 18, verse 5, and my rules, and if a person does them, he shall live by them,

I am the Lord. Deuteronomy 27 .26, cursed be anyone who does not conform, does not confirm the words of his law by doing them, and all the people shall say,

Amen. And Habakkuk 2 .4, behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by faith.

Now here comes the great exchange. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

That's the language of substitution. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

The Bible even says that. So, instead of us, Christ is the one who is cursed, treated as cursed.

He becomes curse for us. He's redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

That's what the English text says, by being crucified on a tree.

Acts 5, you killed him by hanging him on a tree. Acts 10, they put him to death by hanging him on a tree.

Acts 13, they carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

First Peter 2, verse 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed.

This is how sinners are forgiven. This is how they're redeemed. This is how they're bought out of slavery.

This is how they're ransomed with imperishable things, like the blood of Christ, not perishable like silver and gold.

This is how God obtains the church with his own blood. The son becomes cursed as he's hung on a tree in place of sinners, so that the wrath of God is poured out on Jesus.

Even though we earned it, Jesus accepted it because he loves sinners. Of course we know at Calvary he said, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the answer to that could be more than this, or is more than this, but it is because then we would not have to be forsaken as Jesus lays down his life for the sheep.

So not just Jews get blessed from this, verse 14, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the

Gentiles. And it just takes a recognition of your sin and a recognition of the work of Christ to receive those benefits as Jew or Gentile.

And that's why Christianity is great. Is there a greater religion? I don't think so.

Is there a greater Savior? I know that there's not. If you think great means numbers, of course

Christianity has not been about numbers. There have been great numbers rescued, great numbers redeemed.

There are innumerable, can you say innumerable numbers? You can say it, but maybe you shouldn't.

May I say it? Yes, you may. The innumerable, there have been many people redeemed, tribes, tongues, nations, but that's not what makes it great.

How many people saved? Well, certainly, that's a great thing, but the death of Christ would have been great if it would have only been for one, because it was

Jesus, the Son, the infinite, the glorious, the ineffable, the holy, the righteous, eternal

Son adds humanity to live our life as a representative, to die our death as a substitute, and then be raised victorious from the dead.

Yes, transaction complete. It worked. Jesus is alive and will return.

Well, my name is Mike Ebenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. We talked a little bit today about the greatest religion. Why is

Christianity so great? And we think it's great because it is great, and we recognize it as that.

We don't make it great, and even though the world might not think it's great, and even though the world ostracizes

Christians, Jesus came to lay down His life for sinners. He came to save His people from their sins.

And if you know how great your sin is, then you know how great the Savior is. So, if you want to write us, you can, info at nocompromiseradio .com,

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God bless. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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