We saw that the problem of guilt is always manifested in some pathological ways in religious life, if it has not been solved in the only right way, through Jesus Christ.

About the danger of neglecting that most important truth, Martin Luther wrote:

"If the teaching of justification (by believing in the merits of Christ) were once lost, then all good Christian teachings would be lost too... Then the one who went astray from this Christian justice had to get into the justification of the law, and by that I want to say that, if he loses Christ, he has to get into believing in his own deeds." (LUTHER ON GALATIANS, PP.136)

A well-known Baptist preacher Charles Finny says:

"The great skill in treating a sinner who is worried about his soul is to clear away all his difficulties and disperse the darkness; to cut off all his misconceptions, in order to undermine all his self- righteous hopes, and to eliminate all the support of consolation which he could find in himself.

... Sinners often cling to their wrong supports in life, as in a death rattle. The last person the sinner wants to go to is Jesus Christ. The sinners would rather save themselves in any other way...

They would rather make sacrifice of some sort, they would make any expense or endure any accident and they would not simply rely on Christ as their Saviour like guilty and sinful rebels. He is the last way by which they would like to be saved. For it is in total contrast with their self-righteousness and because it destroys their conceited "self" and self-reliance, they are really not willing to accept that." (J.T.C. "The Last Call")

JUSTIFICATION IN NON-CHRISTIANITY

Non-Christian religions openly reject Salvation by Christ's sacrifice of reconciliation. Most of these religions denied Christ in the past, but now the tactic is changed. They accept Him as God's prophet, teacher and healer. But not as the Redeemer of mankind.

Mutual tolerance, respect of different ways of salvation are very often in their speech, while by their teaching, they undermine the basis of biblical salvation by Christ's sacrifice of reconciliation.

Some of them consider that Judas was crucified, not Jesus (by Koran). Others consider that Jesus came from Tibet according to the "newly discovered texts" and that he did not die on the cross, but thanks to a beneficial influence of meditation he bore pains, survived and run away secretly. His grave is in India, some say. Some say that Jesus went to France with his wife and that he had his descendants; some say that Jesus did not really die on the cross but only his spirit left his body. There is an opinion that Jesus died on the cross by common death as many others who died for noble and progressive ideas.

However, Christ's death was not the common one. It took one or a few days to die on the cross while our Saviour died only within six hours. Why?

Because he died not from physical injuries and the loss of blood, but because he literally bore the divine punishment which mankind deserved because of their sins. If Christ's sufferings would consist of only His physical pains then His death would be less worth than the one of His followers who died martyr death in a more cruel way. Would it be worth in that case, that the Old Testament emphasize the importance of the death of a person foretold, Christ, since millions of martyrs died through centuries for the same ideas.

What do the Jewish prophets tell us about the mission of our promised Saviour in the Old Testament?

Prophet Isaiah:

"See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at him so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate. Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)

Perhaps we are astonished that non-Christian religions openly reject Salvation by Christ's sacrifice of reconciliation. But since Christ was rejected by the Jews themselves whose Holy Scriptures clearly point to Him as the Lamb of God who took on Himself the sins of the world, then there's no wonder that He was rejected by the rest of the world.