way to God

As intolerant as it sounds, God the Father still loves his Son Jesus and has chosen him to be the only way to God.

In the last post, we saw why God requires that we rely completely on Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. We cannot overstate the centrality of Jesus for those who want to know God and his ways, and the need to believe correctly about who he is and what he has done.

If you get this wrong, every other religious thing you do or believe leads nowhere. The Bible says, “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11–12).

The only way to God and the limits of tolerance

Those are jarring words in our culture. In the spirit of Western culture, the non-negotiable values are tolerance, freedom, and independence. People want to do and believe what they want. They want to follow the faith that fits them.

When it comes to treating other people with respect and kindness, and the need for civil freedom to believe whatever religion people want, religious tolerance is very good. People must be free to follow their conscience.

But that is not the same as saying all religions are true. I could start a religion that believes my toothbrush is God, but it’s not true.

Our society should tolerate any religion that does not advocate crime, but not all religions will bring you acceptance with the God who is really there.

In fact, only one faith can do that. Only one faith is based on God’s actions to save us rather than our actions to try to save ourselves, which no one is good enough to pull off. Only one faith is not based in a fallible religious teacher, but rather in a divine Savior who is God’s unique Son.

According to the Bible, God’s eternal Son became a man, lived not just a good life, but rather the perfect life that only God could do, and obeyed all God’s commandments. And then as God had planned, his Son was arrested, tortured, and crucified not for any wrongs of his own, but rather as a substitute for sinful, fallen humans. At the cross, God’s Son Jesus received the just wrath of God that we deserved. Then on the third day God raised his Son from the grave to vindicate him and his words. (See the Gospel of Mark in the Bible.)

And because Jesus took our punishment, God will give eternal life to anyone who will repent of going his or her own way and believe in Jesus.

A singular Savior

Consider how Jesus differs from other religious leaders.

No other religious teacher has taken the punishment we deserved and atoned for our sins.

No other credible religious teacher claimed to be God’s unique, divine, uncreated, eternal Son.

There is no other credible religious teacher or leader who claimed to be the mediator, the go-between, the High Priest who is accepted by God and therefore can make us acceptable to God.

No other credible religious leader was supernaturally and permanently raised from the dead and promises to raise his followers permanently from the dead.

No other credible religious leader has claimed to be God.

There is no other religious leader who has received all authority from God in heaven and on earth and is now seated at God’s right hand. These are the claims of the Bible.

For all these reasons and more, Jesus was completely serious when he said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

A singular way

This means there are not many ways to God. All religions do not lead to God. Not if you believe the Bible.

In fact, any religion that ignores Jesus or downgrades him to just one of many good moral teachers is a religion that leads away—away!—from God. Through non-Christian religions people lose any hope of being accepted by God.

Several other major religions believe Jesus is good—but not necessary. They believe he is a prophet—but not God’s unique Son and not the only Savior of the world. In other words, they deny that he is The Christ, The Messiah, The Lord.

The Bible says, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:22–23).

Make no mistake: according to the Bible it’s Jesus or nothing. The Bible says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Do you want to know God and his ways? There is no other foundation than Jesus. He is the cornerstone. The door. The good shepherd. The Christ. The Messiah. The King of kings. The Lord of lords. The bread of life. The living water. The resurrection. The teacher. The unique Son uniquely loved by the Father.

For all these reasons and more, at Jesus’s baptism, the voice of God the Father came from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). And when Jesus was transfigured in light atop a mountain, “a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him’” (Matthew 17:5).

God means it. Listen to Jesus.