A Religion Like No Other

"Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12)

There are in the Christian religion three elements: spiritual life, moral practice and community organization, and these all spring out of and follow New Testament doctrine; or more correctly, the first must and the others should.

Life comes mysteriously to the soul that believes the truth. "He that hearth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). And again, "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive)" (7:38-39).

The message of the Cross offers eternal life and the blessedness of the Holy Spirit indwelling the soul. These distinguish Christianity from every other religion; and it i significant that these distinguishing marks are of such a nature as to be wholly above and beyond the reach of man.

Christianity tells humanity, "You have destroyed yourself, but in Me is your help." It is a supernatural religion ... the indwelling of the living God in human life.

~A. W. Tozer~

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The Instant Obligation

"Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8)

The life of God in the soul of man is wholly independent of the social status of that man. In the early church the Spirit leaped across all artificial lines that separate men from each other and made of all believers a spiritual brotherhood. Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, Greek and barbarian were all baptized into one body, of which Christ was and is the Head.

Along with the gift of eternal life, the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the believer's heart and the indication of the newborn soul into the Body of Christ comes instant obligation to obey the teachings of the New Testament.

These teachings are so plain and so detailed that it is difficult to understand how they could appear different to persons living under different political systems or on different cultural levels. That they have so appeared cannot be denied; but always the reasons lie in the imperfect state of the believers composing the different groups.

Since I am God's temple, I am not to serve my own ends with my body, but the cause of Jesus Christ as His devoted disciple. Do I regard His temple, my body, as more mine than His?

~A. W. Tozer~