I’m going to begin this morning with a familiar text:
"What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."
Sound good? That, of course is . . . a well-known saying of Confucius, a Chinese wise man who lived in the 5th and 6th century B.C.
"What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."
-- Analects 15:24
OK, I can tell that some of you missed that. Let’s try another one.
"Do not do to others that which angers you when they do it to you."
Which is a saying by . . . the ancient Greek philosopher Isocrates:
"Do not do to others that which angers you when they do it to you."
-- Isoc. 3:61
All right. Some of you did not study for the quiz. One more.
“Those acts that you consider good when done to you, do those to others, none else.”
And this comes from a Hindu text, the Taittiriya Upanishad.
Now, the Biblical passage that these remind us of is, of course, the golden rule:
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 7:12
That’s what Jesus taught us. That is Holy Scripture. That is God’s revealed word. But as the other quotes demonstrate, the idea it expresses is not entirely unique. Many religions in many human societies down through the ages have taught something similar, that our conduct toward others should be guided by what we would want done, or not done, to ourselves. That may be a bit unsettling. And if so, then what I have to say next will be even more unsettling, even more shocking. But it’s key to understanding what Jesus is telling us in the passage from John’s gospel that we will be studying this morning. Here it is: Christianity is not all that different, in many ways, from other world religions and philosophies. In other words, the people who say that all religions are basically the same are not entirely wrong.
Here’s an example of what I mean. Christianity has a moral code, a set of precepts to guide our conduct. Things that we are commanded to do, and things that we are commanded not to do. We are to give to the poor. We are not to lie, or steal, or murder. We are to care for widows and orphans, and to visit those who are in prison. We are not to commit adultery. We are to show mercy. We are persuaded that these precepts were given to us by God. That’s what we believe.
But don’t other religions, and even non-religious people, have a set of do’s and don’ts?
Of course they do. There is nothing uniquely Christian about having a moral code. Other religious forbid murder. Other religions forbid adultery. Other religions commend giving to the poor. This isn’t a unique feature of Christianity. And in fact, there is a great deal of similarity even in the content of the various moral codes. For example, one who followed the “five precepts” of Buddhism would avoid killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and drunkenness. Similarly, the five “Yamas”, or negative precepts of Hinduism, include prohibitions against violence, falsehood, theft, marital infidelity, and greed.
Are you uncomfortable yet? I hope so. Because I want to strip away any misconceptions you may have about what it is that makes Christianity unique. And it’s not the fact that we have a moral code. Stay with me. I’m going somewhere with this. It’ll be OK. I promise.
Now, to be sure, there are aspects of New Testament morality that are unique. You can point to specific commands in the New Testament, such as the command to love one’s enemies, that are not found in other religious traditions. Jesus himself contrasted his own teachings with the traditional teachings of his own culture,
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” – Matthew 5:21-22
“You have heard” on the one hand / “But I tell you” on the other. However, the point still stands, that having a moral code is something that the Christian religion shares in common with many other religions.
Let’s take another example of something which does not make Christianity unique. How about the hope of an afterlife, of life after death? Are Christians the only ones who have this hope? Not at all.
For example, the ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife. This is why they had their bodies mummified; they believed that mummification was necessary for their rebirth. They also believed in a final judgment. In the afterlife, the heart of the deceased was weighed in a balance. If it was free of sin, and therefore lighter than a feather which represented truth and justice, they would go on to their reward. If not, their soul would be consumed by a demon.
The ancient Greeks, likewise, had a view of life after death in which the god Hermes would take the soul of the deceased to the banks of the river Styx, where it was ferried over to Hades and then judged. After judgment, the soul went either to the Elysian fields, the good place, for those who had lived pure lives, or for those who had not, to the fields of punishment, or even worse, to Tartarus. Elysian fields, by the way, in French is “Champs Elysee”, which is the name of the famous shopping avenue in Paris. I suppose that for some people, spending an eternity in the various luxury boutiques on the Champs Elysee would be their idea of heaven. For me, it would be more like the other place. But I digress.
The Norse religions had Valhalla, for noble warriors who died in battle. They also had a place of punishment for the less deserving. Islam also has a doctrine of paradise and hell. Again, the details vary tremendously, but the basic concept of a life after death, and of a judgment for sin, is found in many, many faith traditions. It is not unique to Christianity.
One more example. Prayer. Do the adherents of other religions pray? Do they address themselves to their deity, do they express feelings of worship and thanksgiving; do they seek blessings through prayer? Of course they do.
There are many other beliefs or practices in Christianity which have parallels in other religions. Many religions have a creation story, for example; the Biblical account in Genesis is not the only one. Many religions have a vision of a final, decisive battle between the forces of good and evil. I could go on and on. In fact, there’s really only one thing about Christianity which is absolutely unique, one thing which distinguishes our faith from every other form of religion which exists or has existed. And it is the answer to this question:
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
-- Matthew 16:13-15
That’s it. That’s the question which separates Christianity from every other religion, every other philosophy, every other source of meaning and significance. Who do you say that he is? Who do you say that Jesus is?
What was Simon Peter’s answer?
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
And that was true. It is true. But in today’s passage, Jesus goes even further. In John 8:51-58, we read this:
51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” 52 At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
There can be no mistaking what Jesus is doing here. By using the formulation, “I am”, he is explicitly claiming to be God. The God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who brought Israel out of Egypt; the God who created the heavens and the earth; the God who will one day sit in judgment of all the peoples of the earth. How do we know? How did they know? Because this phrase, “I am” is how God refers to himself in the Old Testament.
In Exodus chapter three, God appears to Moses in the burning bush, and commissions Moses to lead the people of Israel out of bondage, to free them from their Egyptian slave masters. When Moses hears this, he asks for a sign:
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.
And so Jesus, by referring to himself in the same way, is explicitly claiming to be God, the self-existent, uncreated, unchanging, eternal God of heaven and earth. That is who Jesus claims to be.
Make no mistake about it, those who heard Jesus make this claim understood exactly what he was saying. What was their response? “They picked up stones to stone him”. Why? Because to their way of thinking, Jesus had just uttered a gross blasphemy. And according to their law, the punishment for blasphemy was death by stoning. Here is the relevant Old Testament law:
13 Then the Lord said to Moses: 14 “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15 Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; 16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death. -- Leviticus 24:13-16
They sought to stone Jesus to death because they clearly understood him to have committed blasphemy by identifying himself with the God of the Old Testament, by making this statement: “Before Abraham was born, I AM”.
This is the same reaction Jesus received back in John chapter eight:
17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. – John 8:17-18
John makes the deity of Christ explicit from the very beginning of his gospel:
18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. – John 1:18
And finally, listen to these two passages:
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
– John 14:8-10
“I and the Father are one.” -- John 10:10
It is crystal clear. The Bible teaches that Jesus is God, and that he claimed to be God. All right. But how important is this doctrine, really? Yes, it makes Christianity unique, among all the non-Christian religions, and also among all of the pseudo-Christian cults. Only Christianity regards Jesus as God. But other than being an interesting topic for theologians to puzzle over, does it really matter whether I personally embrace this doctrine? Isn’t it enough if I honor Jesus as a great spiritual teacher and seek to follow his example? Is it really necessary that I worship him as God? Is it?
What is Jesus’ answer to that question?
24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.” -- John 8:24
If you do not believe that Jesus is who he claims to be, he says that you will die in your sins. In other words, if you do not accept that Christ is God, you will die not having been forgiven, and never to be forgiven. Yes, it’s critically important.
And how do you know if you have done this? What is the evidence of having embraced Jesus for who he truly is?
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
-- John 8:31-32
If we hold to his teaching; that is, if our lives demonstrate that we have embraced Christ for who he truly is, not just as a great teacher or a moral example, not only as a prophet or a deliverer, not merely a miracle worker or healer, not solely a source of blessing, but as God. Then we are really his disciples.
Now, why does Jesus use the word “really” here? “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples”. Why “really”? Because there is such a thing as a true disciple and a false disciple. The people he was speaking to were apparently false disciples. They had “believed” him in some sense. They agreed with his moral teachings. They agreed with his criticisms of the Pharisees. They liked his emphasis on heart religion, as opposed to merely outward religious observance. They found his sermons to be inspiring and uplifting; they marveled at the clarity and fresh insights he brought to familiar Biblical texts. And perhaps all of those attitudes describe you as well. Perhaps you find a lot of things in the Bible to agree with. But it all went sideways when Jesus began to make claims about himself.
And that is where many people today part ways with Jesus. They appreciate his teachings, his moral example, his wisdom, his courage, his self-sacrifice, his love for people, his gentleness with children, his compassion for the poor and the sick. They may regard the miracles of Christ as genuine or not. But when it comes to worshiping Jesus as God, that’s where they stop. Because that would mean submitting to his lordship. That would mean submitting to his sovereignty over their lives. That would mean acknowledging that they are accountable to him for how they live their lives. And this they are unwilling to do.
That’s why Jesus calls them sons of the devil, in verse 44. Because the devil also knows that the things Jesus says are true. But he is unwilling to submit to his lordship. And so Satan is the spiritual “father” of all who are unwilling to acknowledge the deity of Christ; all who are unwilling to submit to the lordship of Christ. Because that’s what it means to say that Christ is God: to acknowledge that he is our Lord; that he is our Sovereign; that he made us, and that he therefore has the right to command our obedience and direct our lives.
There are only two options here. One is to acknowledge Jesus as God, to accept and embrace all which that implies. To worship him, to obey him, to love him, to place our trust in him, and ultimately to turn over our lives to him, to use as he sees fit. That is what we must do if he is who he says he is. The other option, no matter how much one may agree with his teachings or admire his character, is to deny his deity and his lordship. Which have you chosen? Which will you choose today? Again, I ask you, “who do you say that he is?” The answer is the difference between being a false disciple or a true disciple. The difference is heaven or hell.
Now, perhaps the examples I gave in the beginning of the sermon are still bothering you a little. It bothers you that there are so many ways in which Christianity lacks uniqueness. If that’s the case, then I have a confession to make. I may have overstated the case. Because in fact, in every single one of those areas, Christianity is absolutely unique. Because of Christ and because of who he is. And only because of Christ and who he is.
Let me explain. Earlier, I made the point that many religions have a moral code. Christianity is fundamentally different from all of those. Not because of the differences in the details of the do’s and don’ts. But because their purpose. The purpose of a set of laws, or a moral code, in other religions is to make oneself acceptable to God. To be a good person. To earn salvation. To merit forgiveness. To atone for one’s misdeeds. To deserve a happy outcome in the hereafter. But the purpose of commandments in Christianity is to show us how far we fall short, to demonstrate to us that our only hope of forgiveness and eternal life is to receive those things as a gift; not earned by us, but merited by the sinless life and sacrificial death of Christ, who offers them to us as an act of grace and mercy.
Listen to the testimony of the apostle Paul:
19 “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” – Romans 3:19-21
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Yes, other religions have a moral code. But no moral code can make us acceptable to God. Only Christ can do that. He makes all the difference.
What about the hope of an afterlife? Do other religions have this? Yes. And what is their hope based on? The idea that when God weighs their good and bad deeds in the balance, the good will outweigh the bad. But no one meets God’s standard. “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law”. And so that hope is a false hope. But our hope of eternal life is different. It’s not based on our own righteousness. It’s based on the righteousness of Christ, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Listen:
“4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” -- Titus 3:4-7
Why do we have the hope of eternal life? “Not because of righteous things we had done”. But because we are “justified by his grace”, “through Jesus Christ our Savior”. Again, Jesus makes all the difference. It is because he died and rose again that we have the hope of resurrection and eternal life.
Finally, consider prayer. What is the source of our confidence that God will hear and answer our prayer? The fervency of our prayers? The length of our prayers? The holiness of our lives? No. God hears and answers our prayers because of Christ.
“24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. 25 “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” -- John 16:24-27
Christianity is absolutely unique because Christ, our God and our Savior, is absolutely unique, yesterday, today, and forever. I’ll close with this:
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” -- Acts 4:12
The Bible says that Jesus is God, that he is the Savior of the world. Who do you say that he is?
