The Promise of God: Inclusive or Exlcusive?

Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

The big argument in Romans is that apart from Jesus Christ, no justification before God is possible.  We cannot through our own good works achieve and maintain our relationship with God. We cannot be born into our salvation or have it transferred from another person.  Each of us stands before God, individually, and in desperate need of redemption.  The good news of the gospel is that through Christ we do not stand alone. As the Lutheran formula on justification I was taught declares: by grace, through faith, apart from works of the law.  On our own we are in trouble, but through the amazing gift of grace and the death and resurrection of Jesus, we share in the promise of eternal life.

This promise is articulated succinctly in Romans 10:9.  If you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in the resurrection you will have salvation.  By grace, through faith, apart from works of the law.  This is the promise Jesus gave his life for, a promise that is good news for us and the world, a promise God will keep and which we can trust.  But what about those who do not confess or do not believe?  Does this positive promise mean that those who do not believe will necessarily receive the opposite?  Are those without faith going to burn in the fiery depths of hell?  Is salvation a take-it-or-leave-it, one-time only, proposition?  Are the promises of God for everyone or just Christians?  Is God obligated to punish unbelievers in hell as he is obligated to grant mercy to those who believe?

These are deep are troubling questions that Paul raises that have an incredible relevancy to our cultural context today.  As a person of faith I deeply believe in the promise of salvation by grace through faith, but I also struggle with the notion that a loving and merciful God would offer grace to some and punishment to others.  I say this knowing that several places in scripture point to exactly this.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

I might wish to say that all people, no matter who they are or what they believe, will be saved, passages like John 14:6 give me a difficult time making the case biblically. Jesus himself tells us that the only way to God is through him.  The good news of salvation then carries with it an urgency for those who like me have trouble thinking of people cut off from the promises of God. We need to share the good news with the world. 

Paul himself in Romans 9-11 struggles with these questions as he considers that fate of Israel, the chosen people of God.  It is Paul's deep hope and belief that somehow God will provide a way to include the Jewish people.  While Paul affirms the exclusivity of Christ as the only way to salvation he also understood that God's heart is for all people and that no one is excluded from God's love.  God desires that all people will be reconciled to God.  Jesus points to this inclusive heart of God as well:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.¹⁷   Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17

The heart of the gospel is expressed in this passage.  Jesus came to save and God's heart is for the whole world, not just for a few.  So what do we do with all of this?  Do we continue to maintain that only through Christ and only to those who believe that salvation can happen?  Or do we somehow believe that God's plan will eventually include all people and the whole creation?

Ultimately we all have to sort this out for ourselves and in relation to how we live in the world.  Do we aggressively evangelize people from other faith traditions?  Do we keep our faith to ourselves and hope for the best?  I believe in the promise that through Christ I am saved.  I believe that because of Christ's death and resurrection, God offers to all people the gift of grace and mercy.  I have accepted the gift and I have received the promise. I trust the promise and strive to live my life in response to it.  But it is not for me to know or decide about the salvation status of anyone else.  Salvation is God's business.  I know the promise is real and true but after that God is God and I am not.  As Jesus tells the disciples immediately before his ascension:

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”⁷He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority." Acts 1:6-7

As much as we might want to know what happens outside of the promise of Christ it is simply not for us to know.  God will handle it.  We must simply trust the promise given as a free gift of grace and share the love of God, first given to us, with the world.  For now, that is enough.