Week of Prayer - ONWARD WITH the GREAT COMMISSION - Celebrating 50 Years of LausanneSample

DAY 3: JESUS CHRIST, THE ONE AND ONLY (art. 3)

Whatever one may think, we live in a world marked by religion. The Lausanne Covenant states that everyone has "some kind of knowledge of God," and the Apostle Peter speaks of "salvation." It is, therefore, false to imagine that man is alien to God. Rather, he has a certain knowledge of God, which, rather than being translated into worship, is suffocated. We delude ourselves that we can handle it on our own. But the question remains in all its weight: how can one be saved?

TRAGICALLY LOST

Whatever rescue we have in mind, we are lost people. Perdition means being under the righteous wrath of the revealed God and being powerless to find a solution out of it. Between those who have broken the covenant and God, there is an unbridgeable abyss for man. Whatever fix you can imagine appears insufficient. A chasm remains between human adjustments and salvation. We need a real solution. A totally different relationship is needed between God and man with respect to the illusion of being able to leverage presumed human capabilities. The lost need a Saviour. Human fixes get us nowhere. Jesus Christ is unique. Even if the widespread tendency is to kneel before everyone and remain standing before the One, the drama of human perdition remains.

A UNIQUE SOLUTION

In the church's first century, the gospel's exclusivism was contradicted by various forms of syncretism. But the church continued to proclaim that "there is salvation in no one else" even in culturally relevant contexts steeped in other categories. Some ways of proclaiming the gospel might have changed, but this diversity converged into a single content and a single Saviour ("one Saviour and one Gospel"). Even today, it seems necessary to be inclusive. The more inclusive you are, the more modern you are. Indeed, it is not even thought that it is necessary to be saved. But however different you may be, the question of sin remains (“All men and all women perish by sin”). We have all rejected the knowledge of God by stifling the truth. Praise God for providing a single and sufficient Saviour. So I want to bow before him right now, before the day everyone will have to do it. Today is a day of joy; then, it will be a day of bitterness.

THANKSGIVING

We are grateful to God because the biblical revelation does not hide the deepest predicaments of human existence and does not deceive us with self-importance.

We are grateful to God because the biblical revelation points to the need for real salvation and is not satisfied with partial rescues.

We are thankful to God that biblical revelation announces a fully sufficient Saviour and does not squander salvation in pseudo-salvations.

CONFESSION

We humble ourselves because we don't always realize the drama of man's perdition before you.

We repent because we don’t always see the tragedy of those who live outside the covenant with you.

We ask your forgiveness because we do not always dare to take a clear stand for the only Saviour Jesus Christ.

REQUESTS

In your church, raise a greater awareness over the lostness of those outside the covenant and an authentic passion for proclaiming the gospel.

Train people to be able to proclaim the gospel in a culturally relevant way through available channels.

Let other people recognise that between God and man, the only mediator is the Lord Jesus.

Pietro Bolognesi

Istituto di Formazione Evangelica e Documentazione