“There is no just and saving God but me”

"Declare and present your case;

    let them take counsel together!

Who told this long ago?

    Who declared it of old?

Was it not I, the Lord?

    And there is no other god besides me,

a righteous God and a Savior;

    there is none besides me."

Isaiah 45:21

Many have asked the question "Why should I believe your religion to be true over any of the others?". Indeed, to truly answer the question, one must first enter into Christianity and especially Catholicism, and empirically encounter not just the beautiful doctrines but also the love. There is a mystical quality to the Christian faith that cannot be understood from the outside. Further, even most Catholics don't understand why anyone should be Catholic. It is for that very reason, not truly being open to what Catholicism/Christianity can offer in an evanescent/lukewarm manner, that so many "leave" the Church. To be specific though, there is a significant difference between our God, the pagan gods (demons disguised as deities), and /or divinizing our own faculties. God is unchanging other gods fickle, our God is love itself other gods demons that might do good if it momentarily aligns with their interest, and further, our God is often paradoxical and always infinite.

First, the way each of these “deities” act is nowhere close to God. Both man and the pagan gods are only interested in themselves. The gods needed man and man depended on pleasing these fickle and limited gods. In such a relationship men and women would try really hard to, at least, not offend these “quasi-powerful beings”. The Christian God, on the contrary, needs nothing from man there is nothing we can give Him that is not already his and nothing we can do that He Himself could not. Further, God goes out of His way to give us the best opportunity to say “yes” to His plan of health and salvation for us. He thirsts for us because He is love. 

Second, the gods are selfish and God is infinitely selfless. The gods made constant demands and only be faithful to man's needs in the measure it was in their (the god's) best interest. Our God is always faithful and often makes covenants with us. Not just any contract, however but an exchange of persons. He desires us to share in His life and such has been the cause of our creation and sustenance. Not only, does He make these covenants, but He is more than faithful to them, preparing man for the next covenant (in Biblical times preparing for the eternal covenant He established in Christ). Still, further, He transcends man's lack of fidelity to these covenants. Even when man falters from so light a task, God comes to help a man return to it and remain faithful. He does these to such an extent that He becomes man and suffers death while yet being God.

Third, there is no “god” who is actually just and trustworthy except our God. Furthermore, there is no God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving except our God. There was no religion like Judaism, and still less another like Christianity. Still, further, there is no entity but God who is anything close to just and saving in the same capacity. This verse speaks immensely to God’s methodology and pedagogy. God honors the order He created with some needed exceptions (miracles). With regard to the law, justice necessarily comes first in such a statement. Without justice, there can be no mercy. Insofar as law is a mechanism of protection He upholds it, when it requires condemnation He interposes His blood and our suffering in atonement and justly bestows mercy when desired. Consider the Lord’s patience is oriented towards salvation(cf. 2 Peter 3:15).

In conclusion, not all religious convictions are similar or even the same frame of thought. Should we not be thankful the One, True God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving? Truly, happiness is nowhere considered more simple and at the same time so opposed to what the world considers it to be. Who is like our God? What more could man ask of God? God made us in His image and through the completion of redemption, we can restore our likeness to Him. He cares for our every need when we subjected ourselves to our sin, He provided the Way. When we lose sight of what is right, He brings us Truth, Himself. When we earn death, He sends us Life. God did not abandon us but loved us in our helplessness. What can man be worth to God if He is not just willing to constantly sustain us and keep us from most harm but also threw Himself before the forces that would have consumed man (in many ways)? Truly no less than Himself. While we come to know God as sinners ready to be condemned by ourselves if not God, it is through justification we lay down our life of sin and take up our life in Christ.

"Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself...The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace."

"In the midst of my foes,

You give me repose"

It is sin that Thee oppose,

why do I complain of my woes?

It is suffering that brings Thee pain,

not my disobedience that makes Thee wince.

Destruction I have caused and thus I have slain,

others likewise have broken my heart since.

Pain surrounds,

where sin abounds.

Grace brings life,

where once was strife.