“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known.… This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”12 Finally, the good news! Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave, and through him we can be righteous before God and assured of eternal life. God has made a way of salvation for the lost.
Obviously, this truth cannot be taken for granted as being accepted in our world (and even in the church) today. Pluralism dominates the global religious landscape, and the prevailing idea is that if there is a God, he has provided many ways of salvation for the lost.
I remember standing as a student at the front of a classroom on the campus of a state university. It was my day to give a speech, and I spoke on the topic of Christianity. I presented the core truths of the gospel to a class full of fellow college students, most of whom were atheistic or agnostic.
At the conclusion of my speech, the professor opened the floor for questions. Lauren, an honor student and a leader in the student government, was the first to speak. Wise by all the standards that campus had set up, she bluntly asked, “Are you telling me that if I don’t believe in the Jesus you’re talking about, I will go to hell when I die?”
I’d never heard it put quite that way in front of quite that many people. I began to sweat as a hushed classroom waited for my response. I thought through my words, swallowed hard, and spoke with as much compassion as was in me.
“We all have sin in us that separates us from God. No matter what we do, we can’t overcome our own rebellion. That’s why Jesus died on the cross—to save us from our sin and ourselves. So, yes, apart from believing in Jesus, you will not go to heaven.”
Across the room sighs resounded and eyes rolled as the narrow-minded Christian stood before them. Lauren came up to me after class and said, “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Who are you to say that your faith is the only way to God and the rest of us are all going to eternal damnation?” With that, she walked away.
I’d had better days.
That was the first of many conversations with Lauren. In the days to come, she would ask me every question in the book. How do you know God exists? How is Jesus different from other religious leaders? What about people who never hear about Jesus? Each time, I tried the best I could to answer her questions, but often it felt as if my words were bouncing off a brick wall.
After one of these conversations, I was walking across the campus and began to think, Do I even really believe this? I don’t want to be arrogant or narrow-minded. Am I just believing what I was raised to believe? Is this true? Is Jesus really the only way to God?
I wrestled with those questions in the months that followed as I never had before. Humbled by this secular university, I left campus at the end of the school year for the summer. Upon returning in the fall, I walked into class on the first day of the semester. There in the front of the room sat Lauren.
She called across the room, “I need to talk to you today.”
“Okay,” I said. Oh great, I thought. Here we go again.
Lauren and I talked after class. She told me that during the summer she had come to an understanding of her sinfulness before God. She had also come to an understanding of the sufficiency of Christ to cover her sin. “David,” she said, “I have trusted Jesus for my salvation, and now I know that when I die, I’m going to heaven.”
God has made a way of salvation for the lost. Not a way, but the way. And this is the good news—the gospel.
But the question still remains. What about people who never hear what Lauren got to hear? That leads us to our last two truths.