Part 2: The Exclusivity of Chirst and Methods for Consideration

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Many years ago, I was struck by the thought that the Christian faith offered me something that I did not find in other world religions.  In John 14, Jesus spoke of Himself as not a guide to the truth or an aspect of the truth, but as the Truth.  I was struck by this because I felt, as a young philosopher, that one of my greatest commitments had to be to the truth regardless of where it led me, and I was pleased to see that Christ did not only allow for me to ask questions, but He offered Himself as the ultimate solution to the quest for truth.  I am not offering the nicety of "Jesus is the answer to all the questions" - this is a simplification of our struggles with what it means to be human.  What He does offer, however, is that those who seek out truth will eventually find themselves considering and looking at the person of Christ.

That being said, let's consider two approaches to dealing with this question of the exclusive claims of Christ.  The first approach is probably the most obvious which is to look at the reasons why Christ had to be the only way of redemption, why Christ alone stands out in great contrast to other world religions or world religious leaders.  This method is helpful for some people - it is very much taking the claims of exclusivity head-on. 

The other approach is to leave this question behind for a while and to consider the rest of the Christian faith and the life of Christ.  By this I don't mean to ignore the issue, but to see what other evidence we may find in Christ that He is worthy of our allegiance.  To give a non-religious example: let's say that my wife has known me for 10 years and that she believes I am trustworthy.  One day, I say something to her that seems outlandish, too far from reason to possibly be true.  Yes, she could investigate my outlandish claim, but another method would be for her to consider all that she knows about me, all that she has experienced with me, all that she has seen in my life - and to let that be the basis as we move forward with my radical claim.  You see, when we work from the unknown to the known, I believe the workload is more significant.  When we work from the known toward the unknown, we have a building assurance with each step toward the unknown.  To reconnect us to the topic of Christ - if we find Him worthy, beautiful, true, and trustworthy in many other areas of His life and teaching, then it becomes easier to handle the challenging teachings (also known as "the hard sayings of Christ"). 

Tomorrow, we will begin with an investigation via the fist method - looking at the exclusive claims of Christ head-on.  Once we've done so for a handful of posts, we will consider what other factors in the life of Christ make Him worthy of our faith.

-tC