Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Jesus the perfect way

Back in my evangelical days I was always uncomfortable with the position that Jesus was the only way to God. Sure their are some get out clauses for people who never hear the Gospel but ultimately a narrow position.
I found this paragraph in 'The Meaning of Jesus' by Marcus Borg extremely helpful: referring to exclusive passages of scripture::

"...whatever these passages may have meant in their first century contexts, they need not be understood to mean that Jesus (or Christianity) is the only way of salvation. Instead , we might understand them (and similar Christian statements about Jesus being "The only way") as reflecting the joy of having found one's salvation through Jesus, and the intensity of Christian devotion to Jesus. They should be understood as exclamations, not doctrines, and as "the poetry of devotion and the hyperbole of the heart" So decisive need not mean "only"
But the claim does mean that for us, as Christians, Jesus is the decisive revelation of God, and of what a life full of God is like. Indeed I see this as the defining characteristic that makes us Christian rather than something else. If we found the decisive revelation of God in the Torah or Koran, then we would be Jews or Muslims..."


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