When God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, there were two things in particular that needed to be done: the Passover and the Red Sea crossing. The Passover required specific instructions, namely the spreading of lamb’s blood on the doorposts. The Red Sea crossing required arriving at a particular spot so the crossing would be the simplest while also burying Egypt. Both show something that is constantly demonstrated in many ways throughout Scripture: there is one means of salvation. There is only one means of Salvation, and every other means does not work. Here are a few snapshots of this principle in Scripture.
Adam and Eve could not cover themselves with fig leaves just to give a covering. It took a specific covering, one that required the shedding of the blood of an innocent animal. Abel knew this standard and thus offered the best of his flock. Cain didn’t care for God’s standards and threw in just some of his efforts, the product of his work. God accepted Abel but not Cain. In both cases, we see that the only way to please God is to do it God’s way.
God warned Noah of a coming Flood that would wipe out everyone on earth and instructed him to build an ark that would save his family and the animals. This was the only surviving vessel; no one else made it. The Flood didn’t just take out a local group of evil people. Sodom and Gomorrah sufficed for that. The Flood took out everything on earth that was not on the ark. As this is a critical picture of the Gospel, we can’t mess around with these teachings. Our hope and our salvation are to be done God’s way and God’s way only.
When it comes to Christ, it is pretty straightforward that He is the only option. He explicitly stated that no man comes to the Father except through Him. There is no other way. Jesus Himself even prayed three times to go any other route than what He was going to go through. Most Christians will readily agree with this and state this, but very few actually believe it. For most professing Christians this is not reality in their lives. What do I mean by this?
When you listen to most professing Christians today, you don’t hear “Thus says the Lord.” You hear, “This is what I think.” You don’t hear, “The Bible says this, this, and that.” You hear, “That’s not how I see it.” You hear, “That’s just your interpretation.” You hear, “So-and-so preacher says this.” And we wonder why the Church is laughed at, mocked, and not respected in society. It’s not because Young Earth Creationists actually believe what the Bible says, and it goes against modern science. Yes, we get mocked for that, but Christianity as a whole is ridiculed because those who profess the name do not even believe their own book. They have so many interpretations, ideas, models, and programs, all of which God has nothing to do with. It’s all religious practice, religious rhetoric, and false piety. One Scottish minister said, “You Americans’ theology is 3000 miles wide and six inches deep.” He’s right. A Chinese missionary said, “I am amazed at what you Americans can do without God.” He is right. And why is this?
Because man wants to have a say in how his own salvation is to be accomplished. Man wants some input into what God’s message is and how it should be delivered, and all of it is about making themselves look good. They know the Gospel is the true message, but they don’t want to look foolish before their pagan peers. They want freedom from the chains and the whips but not to actually leave Egypt. They want to get out of Hell but not abandon their sin. Oh, they’ll leave some sins, but on their terms and under their control. This is outright tomfoolery, it’s hogwash, and it’s absolute insanity.
We know the cliché that beggars can’t be choosers, and yet that is exactly what we are seeing here. We have people who will only come to Christianity on their terms. I have seen professing Christians not only say this is okay but evangelize this way. I have watched people evangelize saying, “If such and such teaching is holding you back from accepting Jesus, then understand you can have a Christianity that has a different teaching.” The teachings they are talking about are those that come straight from Scripture, while they boast a particular model that has no relationship to Scripture whatsoever, and they profess their models are Biblical. Frankly, I have no interest in being near them when the earth opens up and swallows them alive on Judgment Day. That is what Korah, Dathan, and Abiram said in Numbers 16: “Who made you the boss? Who made you the standard? We are Christians too. We can hear from God as well. We are going to do things our way.” They gathered 250 leaders to join them and rebelled against Moses. God killed them all by opening the earth under them, swallowing them alive.
You are a slave to sin. You have nothing to offer God except your surrender. You have no right to give God conditions for you to accept Him. Remember the God Complex? Here is it again. Those who take this approach are saying that THEY get to determine if God’s salvation is worth taking or not. They believe in a God that will be a “gentleman” and kindly step aside and let man do what he wants. Well, God will let man do what he wants for a season, and then there will be consequences for those choices, some quick and immediate, some that won’t show up for a generation or two. You can’t tell God what to do. You are the clay; He is the potter. You are the creation; He is the creator. Who do you think you are? One thing is for sure, such a person is not humble, is not repentant, and still wants his sin without its consequences.
Israel kept complaining, whining, and rebelling against the very God who saved them. They wanted salvation on their own terms and with instant gratification. They wanted to be in the Promised Land immediately and not go through the wilderness. They were freed from the whips and from the chains, but they were not freed from Egypt. Egypt still controlled them, and they constantly longed to go back to Egypt. But Egypt would not take them even if they wanted to go back. Since they refused to believe God there was only one place they could go: the wilderness to rot and perish.
When we rebel against God and demand that the process goes our way, we have to wonder if we are saved at all. Why? Because the one who is truly born again has one thing on his mind: to serve, love, and worship God. There will be a lot of sanctification and purification going on through the wilderness, but the believer welcomes it because it makes them closer to God and closer to the final destination. But if we want to do things on our own terms and our own way, God will let us go, and He will curse us as we do so with a reprobate mind and death following everything we do and touch. There is one means of salvation, and that salvation is not to let us do as we want. That salvation is to change us from a slave to sin, by putting sin to death, and making us a slave to Christ, making us alive in Christ. The born-again believer has one thing in mind: to serve, follow, and love Christ. And it will be on His terms, not our terms. It will cost us everything of ourselves and yet it will all be replaced with Christ. We won’t be perfect at it, but we are to be making headway in that direction.
Are you saved? How do you know? Did you go through Christ’s way? Think about The Pilgrim’s Progress. At the City, Christian and Hopeful arrive at the city of paradise, but they are accompanied by another traveler who seeks to get in via the walls instead of the door. He is bound and kicked out, cast into the depths of darkness. You are only saved in Christ, through Christ, on Christ’s terms, and doing it God’s way. The ONLY thing we bring to the table that has any value is our total and complete surrender, not seeking to make a deal with God, not seeking to negotiate terms, but yielding to Christ and letting Him rule. That is what we’ll cover next week: slavery to Christ.
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