You asked: Is Jesus the only way to heaven?
February 9, 2010 by Ben Griffin
Filed under Blog, Spirituality Blog
Thanks for all of your responses and questions. Please keep them coming as I would like to answer all of them over time.
Sarah asks about Matthew 7:13-14… “What does he mean by FEW?”
In order to best answer that question I have to answer another one… “Is Jesus the only way to heaven?” (check back tomorrow for part two and the answer to Sarah’s specific question of “What does Matthew 7 mean that few find that road?”)
The Bible clearly teaches that there is one way to heaven/salvation and that is through Jesus alone.
For example:
“There is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.“ Isaiah 45:21
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“ Jesus in John 14:6
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Peter speaking about Jesus. Acts 4:12
Jesus lived a perfect life where we could not. His death on the cross carried the weight of our sin with him. And his resurrection showed his victory over death and validated him as the way, truth and life.
A common reaction to this is that the Bible and therefore Christianity as a whole are intolerant. “How dare we say that everyone else is wrong.” Yet, this rude, intolerant and narrow-minded stance is frequently referred to in the Bible as “Good News”.
Saying that Jesus is the only way to heaven is NOT hate speech but hope speech!
See, some think that we teach that Christians are somehow holier than others and therefore deserving of heaven. That is just not true. Actually what the Bible teaches is that NO ONE deserves to go to heaven.
“No one is righteous- not even one” Acts 3:10
So if you’ve every heard someone jab a Jesus follower as a hypocrite, bigot, self-righteous, messed up… ect. Remember that no one claims that we aren’t. In fact, we should be the people who are the MOST honest about our imperfection and need for a savior. We do NOT deserve a God who would sacrifice Jesus for us. Rather, we have a God who gave his only son as a ransom for us, in spite of us.
Our hope is NOT that if we clean up our act enough he’ll say we’re we’ve earned it. Rather, we know we’re not okay and because we put our hope in him he begins to clean up our act. Or as the Bible puts it, makes us new.
“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son (Jesus) while we were yet his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.” Romans 5:10
Tolerance argues that it’s narrow-minded to claim Jesus as the only way. The Gospel claims that it’s amazing that he has allowed us a way at all because not one of us deserves it.
“23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.” Romans 3:23-26
In my laziness I didn’t shovel out my driveway last night. And in my haste this morning I lodged my mini-van into a 3 foot bank of snow in my own driveway. Desperate to be free, everything I did only made it worse… rocking, pushing, digging only deepened the hole I was stuck in. My neighbor brought his car over to tow me out. Two snapped ropes later I was just as hopeless. Until yet another neighbor came by who just so happened to have a tow rope in the back seat of her car. Ten minutes later the van was free.
I didn’t think that my neighbor was intolerant to offer me a rope that was specifically designed for the job. I was thankful that she had it and offered it.
No analogy is perfect but let’s think about it. It is no secret that the world is broken. Sin is a universal issue. Hang around with a 2 year old and you see it. Watch congress try to make a decision. Spend a few weeks around a church. It doesn’t matter where you are, it’s there and it’s universal. Even the best person has a dark side. Sin is a disease common to all men.
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Not just the “big” sins but any sin. You could say that we are stuck and though other things might make us feel better about our situation… there is ultimately only one way out.
Lots of options have been offered. From self-help to rehab to just plain ignoring that there is a problem at all. But none of them answer the real issue. Sin’s ultimate end is always death. No one wants to hear that they need help or that they are wrong, but ultimately it is NOT logical for everyone to be right. There is one ultimate and absolute truth and I love you enough to tell it to you.
Without God’s gracious intervention we are without hope.
Thank God that help is here and has been given.
And hope is what we have. I know that this isn’t a popular truth, but it is the truth.
I also know that some reading this won’t take the Bible’s word for it and certainly won’t take my word for it. I know that to some this will come off as complete foolishness. However, there will be a day when all else fades away and this one hope will be all we are left with.
