Lausanne World Pulse – Biblical Reasons for the Divine Uniqueness and Finality of Jesus Christ: Basic Requirements for Evangelistic Outreach
By Rolf Hille
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The most basic requirement of evangelistic preaching is to understand and explain the person and work of Jesus Christ. |
The central content of the preaching of the gospel is the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith differs fundamentally in this respect from all other historical religions. While these also have important founding figures, such as Buddha or Muhammed, whom they base their authority upon, none of these founders is comparable in importance to the place given to Jesus Christ in Christianity. The most basic requirement of evangelistic preaching is therefore to clearly understand and explain the person and work of Jesus Christ. The New Testament gives clear answers why Jesus is God’s Son and the savior of the world. The result of this is the complete and ultimate claim to truth with regard to his person. In an age of globalization, ideological relativism and religious pluralism, evangelism must struggle to boldly and clearly proclaim these biblical/theological basics.
Let me give the most important reasons from scripture to prove that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God. These arguments should be shared and proclaimed in the process of dialogue with people of other religious beliefs to give them the chance to understand the biblical message concerning Jesus Christ.
1. Jesus Teaches with Divine Authority
Just as Moses received the law on Mount Sinai, so Jesus ascended the mountain where he spoke the beatitudes in order to proclaim the new law of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5). The authority of Jesus to proclaim the will of God is also evident in his position on the Sabbath, which was provocative to Judaism: “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8).
2. Jesus Has the Right to Bind People to His Person
Because Jesus, the Son of God, is so unique, the eternal destiny of every human being depends on his or her relationship to Jesus Christ (Luke 12:8). Each person to whom the death of the Lord is proclaimed in a way that he or she can understand in his or her context and can accept a personal relationship with Jesus, is responsible before Christ in a final eschatological sense. For all who have had no personal confrontation with Christ through the preaching of the gospel, the criteria in the final judgment is demonstrated in Matthew 25:40: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’“
By reason of the uniqueness and finality of Christ, it is therefore valid and binding on us here and now that Jesus had the divine authority to bind people to himself and to call them to follow him. This power to bind other people to his own person exclusively belongs to the Son of God. Whenever a person tries to usurp this divine right and take it away for him or herself, it will always result in a catastrophe. In Germany, we experienced this in the 1930s when Hitler required every soldier to swear an oath of allegiance to his person instead of any constitution or other objective authority; he thereby bound them absolutely to himself. Binding a person entirely to oneself and making a covenant of an absolute loyalty of faith and obedience are rights reserved only for God the Father and for the one he sent, Jesus Christ.
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Dr. Rolf Hille is executive chair of the World Evangelical Alliance Theological Commission and was the convener of the Lausanne 2004 Forum for World Evangelization Issue Group on the Uniqueness of Christ. Read the paper produced by the group, “The Uniqueness of Christ in a Postmodern World and the Challenge of World Religions” here. |