What is the right religion for me?

Satan is very busy in India as elsewhere. He is doing His best to get it believed that all religions are practically one and the same, as long as their followers are sincere seekers after God. We are assured that sincere seekers after God will find Him, but it can only be through Christ. He is the Way. There are not several ways—the Hindu way, the Sikh way, the Mohammedan way, the Buddhist way, the Christian way—there is only ONE way. Christ says, “I am THE Way” there is no other.

He that has the Son has life (1 John 5:12) and he “that confesses the Son has the Father also” (2:23). It is never stated the other way, as though it were reciprocal. “No man comes to the Father but by Me,” said the Son of God. “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.” This excludes all the efforts of man apart from the Son: it shuts out the natural man even at his very best. The Son is the Way, not simply a way! The Son is the Truth, not simply a portion of it! The Son is the Life, not simply a partial manifestation of it. Yea, “He is the true God and eternal life.”

Some people seem to think that God ought to have opened a dozen ways into His blessing, so that they could have chosen the one that suited them the best; they turn from the blessing because they do not like the way to it, but there is none other. This is said both clearly and conclusively in Peter's words, when, filled with the Holy Ghost, he addressed the Christ-rejecting leaders of the Jewish nation. "Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given amongst men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4. God has bound up the blessing of sinners with the glory of His Son and never will one of them be saved apart from Him. The great Servant who has come from heaven to compel the needy into God's feast of blessing will compel them only through this new and living way — Christ. There is no room for argument, no other way of blessing is possible either in time or eternity. God has spoken, and His word is final.

Before leaving this chapter notice how in the latter part of it the exclusive claim of Jehovah is emphasised again and again. Beside Him there is "none else." The faith of Christ, and the Gospel which proclaims it, have today just this exclusive claim, as witnessed in such scriptures as John 6:68; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Galatians 1:8-9. There are today men who would go to the Buddhist or Confucian acknowledging their religions as ways to God and only claiming that "Christianity" offers them a rather superior way. In so doing they bring themselves near to, if not actually under, the apostolic curse of Galatians 1:8, while they avoid the reproach that the Gospel brings. It is this exclusive claim, inherent in the Gospel, which provokes the opposition.

Another common difficulty in the mind of a person beginning to see the truth of God, amongst you, is — this Protestant faith is a new faith; or, as they are accustomed to say, it came fifteen hundred years too late. I mention these arguments as things which might hinder a sincere soul from receiving the truth. They will tell you, the first religion must be the right one. Undoubtedly, brethren, it must. The first religion must be the right one, and the only one, not because it is the first, but as coming from the Lord. And that is exactly the ground we go upon. And it must be so for this reason, that that is the true religion which came from God Himself. In a word, the only true religion is that which was "once delivered to the saints," which came from the lips of Christ and His apostles — so much so indeed that Paul is bold to say, that he wished they were cut off that troubled the Galatians, perverting the gospel of Christ. "But," says he, "though we, or an angel from God, should preach to you any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel than that ye have received, let him be accursed."*

We are told it does not matter what we believe, as long as one's belief is sincere. Let me say at once that this is not true. Sincerity is not enough. Do I believe in a living, triune God, or in a mere myth? The truth is, everything depends on what I believe. If I were to take poison, sincerely believing it to be a dose of healing medicine, would my sincerity neutralise the effects of the poison?

sincerity cannot save the soul.

People commonly say—“You’ve got your religion, and I’ve got mine, and so long as we are both sincere, we will both get to heaven at last.” That language is of the devil, it simply deceives people. Suppose two friends want to walk to Washington. One determines to go south, and the other north, and they say on parting, “Well, it doesn’t matter whether we go south or north, as long as we are sincere; we both want to go to Washington, and we shall both land there.” Wouldn’t you think the men, who talked in such a manner, lunatics? and yet people talk like that when it is a question of heaven, with its eternal song and light, or hell with its everlasting anguish and darkness. What profound folly!

Every comparative religion is based on the doctrine of man being his own saviour, and therefore contains an appeal to the natural heart of man; Christianity bears witness to the utter ruin of the sinner. In this it stands alone. It cannot be compared. It directs attention to the blessed risen Christ of God as the only Saviour, and that in virtue of His atoning death on the cross, to which the Passover pointed forward, whilst the Lord’s Supper points back to it.

More than this, He has made of one blood all nations of mankind, though He has distributed the nations in different quarters of the earth according to the times and boundaries He has before appointed. Jews and Gentiles are fundamentally the same, all nations on the same level; but human blood is totally different than that of other creatures, as their flesh is different (1 Cor.15:39). But God has dealt as He has with men that they might seek the Lord, if it may happen that they will feel after Him and find Him. Paul adds that He is not far from every one of us, indicating that if one honestly seeks God, God will reveal Himself.

119 True religion is shewn by love in the heart, and by purity - keeping himself unspotted from the world. It thinks of others, for those who are in distress, in need of protection, and the help and support of love, as widows and orphans. The truly religious heart, full of the love of God, and moved by Him, thinks, as God does, upon sorrow, weakness, and need. It is the true Christian character.