Entitlement and Exclusivity

Today our Sunday school class discussed a problem modern people have with the Gospel: the exclusivity of Jesus. That is, the truth that only through expressed faith in Jesus can one be saved. There are a number of factors that contribute to the difficulty people have with this doctrine. For example, many sociologists have pointed out that when the world we inhabit is filled with a variety of religions, ideologies, and -isms, the plausibility of any one of those religions, ideologies, or -isms being true becomes hard to imagine.

Christians have correctly noted that the question of whether there are multiple ways to God is the wrong one to be asking. Instead, we need to ask why there is one way at all!

But this question, while appropriate, does not seem to carry the force that it should. Why? I think a large part of the reason is the sense of entitlement that runs deep within us. Those of us in America (and other modern, western settings) have unprecedented wealth and resources. Some of the poorest among us live with more comforts and conveniences than a medieval king. Lagging closely behind wealth is a sense of entitlement. Add to this the deluge of ads we receive that pander to our whims and wishes and you can see how plausible the idea of entitlement is.

This sense of entitlement is an assumption. I am guessing that it is not shared by those starving in Africa. We are catechized by the structures, systems, and forms that comprise our contemporary context. In our particular moment, the context happens to catechize in a way that makes belief in the exclusivity of Jesus difficult to maintain. We interact with legions of spiritualities and religions and, we think, surely there is not only one religion that is TRUE. The important thing to bear in mind is that every generation is blind to their own assumptions, prejudices, presuppositions, etc.

That God has provided a way for fellowship with him is astonishing. And he did so at such a great cost. Nothing less than the death of his own son. It is troubling that, amidst our spoiledness, we say, "that's not good enough."

There is a video on this narrated by R.C. Sproul worth watching (HT: Justin Taylor).