“There is good news for you! God declares to you that, even though you have sinned against Him and are under His wrath, you may be counted righteous and forgiven all your sins and be reconciled to your Creator and have everlasting life.
The way to be justified before God is by grace alone through faith alone in His Son Jesus Christ, who already acted in history once for all to pay for sin and provide righteousness. If you believe in Christ, you will be ‘justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 3:24).
He will take away your guilt. He will give you eternal life. If you do not turn to Him by faith alone for grace alone on the basis of Christ alone, you remain under His wrath (John 3:36).
Some will say that this universal demand for repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is arrogance and presumption. But a better name for it is love.
Yes, it undermines religious pluralism and ethnic pride. Christianity does not come to other religious systems and try to replace one way to work for God with another way to work for God. It comes with a declaration of amnesty.
The one true God has made a truce at the cost of His Son’s life. He offers pardon to every person freely and offers everlasting joy to those who will trust His Son.”
–John Piper, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 151.
