Magyar Egyház, 1956 (35. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)

1956-06-01 / 6-7. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

15

THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM ..

(Continued from last issue)

Still another question tnat frequently arises concerning the status of Jesus as our only Savior is related to tne claims of various Christian groups to represent the one true way to salvation. A recent Knights oi Columbus newspaper advertisement, for example, stated that we are confronted with the spectacle of hundreds of religious groups, each claiming to possess the true way to salvation. Surely Christ would not have left His people in such confusion, continued this Roman Catholic article. He must have pointed out the one true church. This sounds like good reasoning, but really it is quite false! The truth is that no CHURCH possesses the true way to salvation, and one clear mark oi a false church is that it claims this prerogative for itself.

We are not saved by a church, or by membership in a church. Christ Himself is the one way to salvation. We remember His own clear statement (John 14:6), “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father except by me.” Personal faith in the Savior saves, no matter what church a person belongs to. Concerning the church we must ask not which church saves, but which church points to the Savior and testifies clearly concerning Him that He is the only Savior of men. In such a church, a Christian can worship and work, and we who are Reformed ought to be thankful that our church, whenever it is truest to itself, is this kind of church!

This, then, is what our text means when it says, “there is salvation in no one else,” and what the catechism means when it declares that salvation is not to be sought, neither can it be found in any one else than JESUS ONLY.

“Not what these hands have done Can save this guilty soul;

Not what this toiling flesh has borne Can make my spirit whole.

Not what I feel or do Can give me peace with God;

Not all my prayers, and sighs, and tears Can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ,

Can ease this weight of sin;

Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,

Can give me peace within.”

— Horatius Bonar, 1857.

Our Catechism now brings us the matter of the cult of Mary and the saints, so dear to Roman Catholicism. It does so not to be meanly antagonistic, but because the service of the saints was obscuring the knowledge of Jesus as the only Savior from the millions who were still dwelling in the unreformed church of that day. Time has not lessened the need for this warning. Hagiolatry (the cult of the saints) and especially Mariolatry have increased rather than decreased in the Church of Rome. A recent issue of the German weekly “Sonntagsblatt” carried an interesting article on “Heiligenpolitik” — the policy of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the saints. Among the interesting things it points out is the fact that each of the persons canonized (made saints) by the Roman Church in recent years has been an outstanding supporter of the devotion to Mary as Mediatrix between God and men and Co-redemptrix of humanity. A recent “Marian Year” and the almost simultaneous appearance

Rev. Charles W. Krahe, Pastor

St. Paul’s Evangelical-Reformed Church

Perth Amboy, New Jersey

of statues of Mary, daily honored with fresh flowers in front of almost every Roman Catholic Church, are but further proofs that the modern Roman Church is doing all in its power to exalt the Mary-cult.

Now we believe in the Virgin Mary. We believe that she is indeed the most blessed among women, just as we believe that blessed is the fruit of her womb, Jesus. But we utterly reject the whole system of religious devotion, prayer, and praise to her as practiced in the Roman Catholic Church, and, to some extent at least, in the Eastern Orthodox communions as well. It is completely contrary to Holy Scripture. It detracts from the honor due to our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is a positive and dangerous menace to the souls of those who practice it, because, although in words they may say that they believe in Jesus the only Savior, “yet,” as the Catechism justly declares, “in deeds they deny Jesus the only Deliverer and Savior.” If Jesus is the ONLY to these people, what need have they of others?

Until now, we have been emphasizinz the UNIQUENESS of our Savior Jesus, declaring, against all objection, that He is the ONLY SAVIOR. Now we must turn our attention to the SALVATION which this, our Savior, offers to us.

Jesus has been given to save men from the sins. Sin is our basic human problem: not communism, or war, or atomic power, but SIN. It clings to all and every one, as David declares in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” From the very dawn of our existence, we human beings are estranged from God and rebellious against Him. Our Calvinistic creeds speak of our TOTAL DEPRAVITY. By this, they mean to show that this estrangement and rebellion embrace the totality of mankind, as the apostle Paul teaches (Romans 3:23), “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Jesus, the Savior, has been given to save men from the sin in which all are so hopelessly involved.

Jesus has also been given to save men from the WAGES OF SIN. In Romans 6:23 we read, “The wages of sin is death.” Death, eternal death, is the just end of all human beings, since all have sinned. But, Paul continues, “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Like John 3:16, this verse sums up the whole gospel, the good news that God has provided a Savior for sinful man, so that he can be acquitted of the death-sentence his sin deserves. This Savior is Jesus Christ, and his benefits are available to all who will believe in Him as their Savior — not as just one Savior among others, however, but as the ONLY SAVIOR, through Whom and by Whom alone forgiveness and eternal life are given to men.

Reader! You have now heard the NAME OF JESUS, you have learned the MEANING of this wonderful name, you have been shown its UNIQUE place and its life-givin POWER. Will you respond, as many before you have, and say:

“My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

— Edward Mote.