What Set Christianity Apart From Every Religion? (Brilliant Answer!)

professor John Linux is talking in front of a group of students and he's asked the question why Christianity surely reality isn't really that narrow surely there's not just one right religion surely the different religions in the world are expressions from different cultures and different paths to the top of the same Mountain let's do it I have many Muslim friends and Jewish friends in many parts of the world and when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus there are three different views as you know the Jews believe my Jewish friends believe that Jesus died and did

not rise my Muslim friends believe he didn't die and I believe that he both died and Rose they cannot all be true how do you approach a question like that well first of all I step completely back from it and I realize that there are two levels of difference between religion and the first thing to recognize ladies and gentlemen as you go around the world study all religions or none people of any faith philosophy you care to name you'll find a striking fact and it's that there's a common element of morality that's shared by almost

every living human being I've done a bit of research on this and you will find the Golden Rule do unto others as you would be done by in every single religion in every single philosophy even Roman Pagan philosophy Y and in the fundamental statement of British humanism you will find it everywhere what does that tell me it tells me that we need to respect each other's ethical code sometimes as a Christian I can be put to shame by the moral Integrity of someone of another religion and therefore we approach this with great sensitivity so that's

the first thing but what I notice is this ladies and gentlemen that the real difference comes not at the level of ethics and morality so much as at the level of the basis on which a person can have a relationship with God and there religions and philosophies divide into two systems one of the systems is a bit like Harvard University there is an entrance examination I presume you have an entrance do you or do you just get in without an exam no you don't so there's an entrance exam so we can imagine that as a

door here and then there's the Harvard way and it goes up and down and you try and stay on it and they're all the professors to teach you and then there's a whacking great gate at the end it's called final exams now the whole principle on which the system depends is that of Merit the professors all of them are infinitely kind and uh but I hope they are anyway but they cannot guarantee that you're going to get through the door at the end can it depends on Merit your performance your achievement and many religions are

like that and their adance tell me they're like that there's some initiation right you get on the way you try to follow the way and you hope that then when the Great assessment comes and your good deeds are measured against against your bad Deeds that somehow the good ones will weigh more than the bad ones and you will be accepted into whatever is beyond I know that's a slight caricature but it's what many people believe it's what many Christians actually believe now I do not believe that at all because ladies and gentlemen the unique thing

that seems to me about Christian faith is it's not based on Merit but because it does have a gate and a way but at the beginning there stands Jesus Christ who claims to have come into the world to die for my sin that's a very ugly word to raise in Harvard but you did ask me about religions so I'll have to give you the answer that I believe is the true one in other words let me put it this way suppose I did my first day at Cambridge I saw a beautiful girl I married her

eventually I suppose I went to her and said Sally you know I'd like to marry you but here's a cookbook now it's got a whole lot of rules inside it now if you keep those rules fairly well for the next 30 or 40 years I will think about accepting you of course I couldn't possibly accept you now but if you perform well enough when they finally assessment comes I will accept you well some of you are laughing others of you might be experiencing that I don't know but but you see that would be to insult

her the secret of my marriage ladies in gentlemen is this that we accepted each other at the beginning unconditionally and because she doesn't have to keep the rules in the cookbook so to speak in order to gain my acceptance that sets her free to learn to and is exactly the same with God we wouldn't dream of basing our relationship with a fellow human being on a measured performance and an acceptance at the end of a long history of Performing laws and yet yet millions of people think that that's a way to base a relationship with

God and it seems to me here and let me say it straight Christianity competes with no other religion here because as far as I can say Christ is the only person that offers me the knowledge of forgiveness right here and now so in my life I try to live for him not in order to gain his acceptance but because ladies and gentlemen I already have it it's not based on my performance or my Merit it's based on the Merit of Jesus Christ who died and Rose for me and there ladies and gentlemen I think we'll

have to leave it thank you for your patience okay so let me put it this way this is what I've written down here there's only two ways to face a holy God as innocent because God himself has taken your guilt and dealt with it or as guilty because you rejected God's Gift of innocence for you you said thanks but no thanks to Jesus you said I'd rather pay my own way and you hoped that the good in your life would outweigh the bad but this approach is ultimately rooted in Pride because it overestimates your righteousness

and underestimates God's holiness think about it this way if the pay your own way approach could work then God would never have had to suffer and die in the first place in order to deal with the wages of your sin himself on a cross the stakes must be way higher than you imagined and his love for you must also be beyond what you have ever known so with innocence being offered to you today why remain in guilt the hour is late the time is near the king is coming and the hand of God is still

ex extended with this amazing invitation to every person watch in this video like me who is a participant in the problem of evil who is a contributor to the world being the way that we wish that it wasn't and here is the creator of all things the great I am saying come unto me all ye who are heavy laden and I will give you rest saying that he who has the son has life he who does not have the son does not have life and sadly we're told in Scripture that the road is narrow that

leads to life but broad that leads to destruction there's something so strong in the human heart that resists humility submission and acceptance of this amazing free gift that is given it's it's a mystery I don't really understand what that is inside of Free Will inside of the human heart that would resist the grace of God that would resist the heroic and epic and beautiful love of God poured out for us but yet there is something there so I'm going to end this video just by saying it's not by works of righteousness that we are saved

it is according to his mercy and that hand of God is is literally extended to you today watching this video God loves you God created you for a purpose and you know that's true because Christ died for you he died for your sins and he's made a way that you can actually know him not just in some galaxy far far away not just in the future not as a form of escapism but you can actually know God through Christ today repent and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord get plugged into a local church and let

the games begin see you guys in the next video [Music]