Scripture reading: I Peter 2:6–8

The Devil’s Standard Version

Blessed is the one is who is not offended by me. (Matthew 11:6)

Nothing rattles the chains of post-moderns quite like the assertion that Jesus is the only way to God. Moral relativists will become dogmatic, and peace-loving multiculturalists will be ready for a fight if someone dares to assert that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to know God and experience salvation. Though the Devil’s Standard Version (DSV) of the Bible does not actually exist, if it did, it might include verses such as the following:

_ I am a way, a truth, and a life; one of the ways to the Father is through me. (John 14:6, DSV)
_ Salvation is found in many places, for there are many names under heaven given to men by which we may be saved. (Acts 4:12, DSV)
_ Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to life and nearly everybody eventually finds it. (Matthew 7:14, DSV)
_ For there is one God and many mediators between God and man, and Jesus Christ is one of them. (I Timothy 2:5, DSV)
_ He who has the Son has life, and he who has Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, Confucius or a host of other options also has life. (I John 5:12, DSV)

The claims of Jesus cut through the philosophical fog of post-modernism like a hot knife cuts through butter. I am the way . . . No one comes to the Father but through me . . . Salvation is found is no one else . . . There is one name under heaven given to men by which we may be saved . . . There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus . . . Narrow is the gate that leads to life and those who find it are few . . .

A pluralistic, relativistic, multicultural society simply cannot bear claims like these. This is why so many postmoderns either reject the Gospel outright or try to change it to make it say what it clearly doesn’t! They are stumbling over the stumbling stone of Jesus. It happened when Jesus first came, and it still happens today. But when we water down the truth of the Gospel like this we render toothless the Lion of Judah! When he no longer is who he claimed to be, then he no longer has the power to save. Never before has the need for clarity on this issue been more paramount. The great need of the hour is for disciples of Christ who will walk in truth and love, so that their witness to the Gospel will be:

_ Confident yet humble. A Christian understands that knowledge of the truth never comes because we are smart but only through grace, freely bestowed on anyone humble enough to be taught (Matt. 11:25–26). Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

_ Firm yet loving. Tolerance doesn’t mean all viewpoints are equally true but rather it is the gracious ability to show love and respect even toward those with whom we disagree. Jesus knocks. He never forces himself on anyone. He presents the truth and then waits patiently for a response.

_ Narrow yet free. A train is free only when confined to its tracks! When we submit to the truth we don’t lose our freedom, we find it (John 8:32).

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.   —C. S. Lewis

point to ponder • Jesus is either the cornerstone of your life or a stumbling stone.

prayer focus • Ones offended by the claims of Jesus.