The
monsoon season has come to the State of Orissa, India. The farmers are busy
planting rice. The rice fields where we worked during our growing years are
being planted for another season. The farms and vineyards in the State of New
York look luxuriant. The tomato plants in our little garden are tall and
bearing much fruit. Some of the hot peppers are red and redder and ready to be
picked. Alice is planning to pick some beans today. The Lord is good and His
mercy never fails. He blessed us with a wonderful Wednesday gathering of
fellowship and study, along with much laughter.
We
moved to Union Center, the great suburbs of Endicott, in beautiful Broome
County, New York in June, 1990. The Wednesday gathering which meets every
Wednesday was meeting in 1990 also. When we first came there was a man here by
the name of Oscar Iobost. He was one of the teachers in the church. He was
zealous for the Lord. He went to be with Jesus recently at the age of 92. He
used to use the expression, "the non-negotiable truths of the Gospel", or the
non- negotiable foundations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
During
the Protestant Reformation, these core foundations were described as the five
solas. Sola is the Latin word for alone. We are saved by grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ alone. The Bible alone has the unique authority
to speak about these things. All of this is done to the glory of God alone.
These core foundations extend back to the Gospels and to the early church.
In the
Gospel of John, Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me." The early church took this to heart.
In our Wednesday gatherings we have been looking at the Book of Acts. In our
study yesterday we looked how Peter was testifying before the Sanhedrin, the
high Jewish court in Jerusalem. They interrogated Peter about a man who was
healed. They wanted to know how this miracle happened, how this man was saved.
Peter answered: "It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you
crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you
healed." He then went on to say, "Salvation is found in no one else; for there
is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be
saved."
That is
solus Christus—salvation in Christ alone, healing through Christ alone,
redemption through Christ alone, the kingdom of heaven coming to earth through
Christ alone. This has been a core, must-have confession for the church's
entire history. This concept is offensive in our culture today. The claim that
Jesus is the only way of salvation sounds arrogant or narrow-minded, but the
church has not confessed salvation in Christ alone for 2,000 years in order to
be smug, arrogant, or narrow-minded. We confess this belief because we know who
Jesus is. Jesus is unique. Jesus once said, "Behold I stand at the door and
knock."
If you
will let Him in, He will love you forever. Come to Jesus and
live.
In Christ,
Brown
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