Written by Derek J. Brown |
Thursday, April 28, 2022
There are no restrictions based on a person’s economic status, religious background, relative morality, geographical location, or family circumstances, for all are called to come to Christ (Matt. 11:27-30; John 3:16; Rom. 3:22). There is only one place to find salvation (narrow in location) but all people are invited to come to Christ for salvation (broad in invitation).

As you share the gospel with your friends, family members, classmates, and business colleagues, you may find that they tolerate much of your worldview until you press the point that Jesus is the one true Savior and the only one who can deliver them from eternal judgment and bring them into right relationship with God. In other words, your spiritual conversations may coast rather smoothly until you land on the exclusivity of Christ.
To speak of the exclusivity of Christ is just a way of saying, along with the apostles, that “There is no other name given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). It is simply an affirmation of Jesus’ own words when he spoke to his disciples in the upper room just before his execution: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Here are two things you need to know about the exclusivity of Christ.
1. The exclusivity of Christ is narrow, but not in the way you may think it is.
People usually don’t take well to these claims because they believe they are far too narrow. And we would be dishonest if we didn’t agree that these claims are, in fact, narrow. Yet, the exclusivity of Christ is not narrow in the sense that it is offered only to those who meet certain conditions, like an elite members club.
In her article for CNN travel, “10 of the world’s most exclusive members clubs” Michelle Koh Morollo quotes Vincent Lai, a managing director of an elite concierge service: “Those who are invited fulfill certain requirements, they usually have economic capital but most importantly they carry a lot of social clout.” These certainly are exclusive clubs, and they are narrow in the sense that only a few select people in the world qualify for entrance.
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In the war of the mind, students need to master the tools of grammar, logic, and rhetoric that have been painstakingly developed since antiquity. They need the intellectual courage developed through real engagement with minds better than their own. 

In a time when crime and inflation are rising together, when independent nations are threatened by massive powers eager to consume them, and when dispassionate public discourse seems impossible, it’s bracing to remember the fairness and generosity that make justice and good judgment possible.
In the last few months, two friends have highly recommended a book by Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. Amazon lies in wait for readers like me, of course, so I now have it in hand. Trueman begins by asking how this sentence—“I am a woman trapped in a man’s body”—could make sense in the contemporary world and even elicit sympathy from ordinary people, whereas a generation or two ago it would have been met with pure incredulity. Trueman’s account takes him back into the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and then through Marx, Darwin, Freud, Nietzsche, and others of contemporary importance, such as Judith Butler. I am still in the early chapters, but I can already add my recommendation.
His arguments aside, what strikes me with unusual force is Trueman’s articulation of his approach, because it goes to the heart of an institution like Wyoming Catholic College. In his introduction to the book, Trueman explains what he does as a historian of ideas: “it seems to me that giving an accurate account of one’s opponents’ views, however obnoxious one may consider them to be, is vital, and never more so than our in our age of cheap Twitter insults and casual slanders. There’s nothing to be gained from refuting a straw man.” Perhaps it’s the almost universal absence of this attitude in the public sphere that makes Trueman’s fairness seem startling. After listing thinkers and movements inimical to his own position, he says that he has tried to be “as careful and dispassionate as possible. Some readers might find this odd, given my personal dissent from much of what they each represent. But truthfulness is not optional. My hope is that I have represented the views of these groups and individuals in such a manner that, were they to read this book, they might demur to my conclusions but at least recognize themselves in my account of their thought.” [my emphasis]
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True biblical renewal and reformation is always based on the word of God. When young Josiah rediscovers the book of the law, it brings about immediate changes: he repents of his sins and leads the people in repenting of their sin, thus beginning his work of renewal and reform. 

We can use a few Josiahs today:
Many of you know about the bright light that was King Josiah of Judah who reigned in a very dark period. His story is worth recounting, since our own days are so very dark, and we can use a bit of encouragement along the way. And given the amazing renewal that occurred through him, we can also pray, ‘Do it again Lord.’
The historical background to his reform work is this. The northern kingdom Israel had already been judged by God for its sins, idolatry and disobedience. The Assyrians captured its capital Samaria in 722 B. C. The rule of Josiah was late in the southern kingdom Judah. It would fall fairly soon in 587/6 B. C. Josiah died around 25 years before that time.
Things had been going downhill real fast in Judah and divine judgement was already promised. The 50 or so year reign of Manasseh and his son Amon was the worst of a bad bunch. So when renewal and reformation occurred under Josiah, it was a case of too little too late for ungodly Judah.
But still, it was an incredible renewal indeed. His story is told in 2 Kings 22-23:30. We read this about him in 2 Kings 22:2: “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.”
He had begun his reign as king when he was eight years old. But the main activity found in these chapters happened in the eighteenth year of his reign. You recall the story: he was having the temple repaired when “the Book of the Law” was found (v. 8). This probably refers to the book of Deuteronomy. We read about what happened next in verses 10-13:

Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”

In chapter 23 we read about how Josiah renewed the covenant. In verse 3 it says this: “And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.”
We then read about how he got rid of idolatrous priests, pulled down idols and statues, smashed pagan altars, and celebrated the Passover. Verse 25 says this about Josiah: “Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.”
Yes, this was an amazing king during some amazing times. But as mentioned, it was not enough, because Judah was too far gone, and God’s judgment still would be coming, as verses 26-27 declare. Yet this period of renewal was remarkable indeed.
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