Faith Under Fire
Part II
Is Jesus the Only Way to God?
Lee Strobel
Jesus often surprised people with teachings that cut across the grain of human nature. Lose your life to save it. The first will be last. The meek will inherit the earth. Rejoice in persecution. Pray for your enemies. It’s better to give than receive. Turn the other cheek.
But, by far, the most outrageous assertion Jesus ever made — His most politically incorrect claim of all — was when He declared in JOHN 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by Me.”
This claim rankles people like no other. It’s been called arrogant and narrow-minded and bigoted and snobbish. Some of you are seekers, and something inside of you chafes at this claim. For you, it may be a stumbling block to faith.
But I believe that Jesus was telling the truth when He said it. And I believe He said it out of great compassion, not arrogance. And I believe that when we look closer at it, this statement makes ultimate sense. In fact, I believe this single sentence is one of the most critically important bits of information on the planet — and to you personally.
So why is this claim so controversial? One reason is that it strikes at the core of three great myths about religion. And so in examining this statement by Jesus, I thought it would be a good idea to address these three common misconceptions. Maybe these are myths you’ve heard — or maybe they’re myths you believe right now.
So let’s deal with the first myth, which is this: When you get right down to it, all religions are basically the same.
You’ve probably heard people say that although there are surface-level distinctions between the various world religions, if you strip them all down to their essentials, all religions fundamentally teach the same thing — so it doesn’t really matter which one you follow. In other words, all spiritual paths lead up the same mountain because all religions basically teach the brotherhood and sisterhood of men and women and the universal fatherhood of God.
Now, there is some common ground between many of the world’s religions, particularly concerning certain basic values and morality. But there are significant differences, too. In fact, with this one outlandish assertion, Jesus boldly puts Christianity in a separate class by itself. If the path to God is through Jesus, then Christianity cannot be reconciled with any other religion. This uniqueness of Christianity is rooted in the uniqueness of Jesus Himself.
Someone once noted that other religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you how to find truth,” but Jesus says, “I am the truth.”
Other religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you the way to salvation,” but Jesus says, “I am the way to eternal life.”
Other religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you how to become enlightened,” but Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”
Other religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you many doors that lead to God,” but Jesus says, “I am the door.”
Then, Jesus says, “So follow Me.”
Do you see the difference? For a long time people have tried to harmonize the various religions of the world, but there are drastic and irreconcilable differences between Christianity and other belief systems.
Every other religion I’ve ever seen is based on people doing something — through struggling and striving — to somehow earn the favor of God. They say people have to use a Tibetan prayer wheel or go on pilgrimages or give alms to the poor or avoid eating certain foods or pray in a specified way or go through a series of reincarnations or wherever. They are the attempts of people to reach out to God.
But Jesus Christ is God reaching out to us. Jesus taught the opposite of what other religious teach. He said nobody can do anything to merit heaven, so we might as well give up trying.
He said we’re all guilty of wrongdoing — and that’s consistent with our experience, isn’t it? Nobody here would claim to be perfect. And Jesus said that our wrongdoing separates us from our holy and perfect God — and, again, that’s consistent with our experience. Haven’t you ever felt distant or disconnected from God? Of course you have.
Because God is a righteous judge, our wrongdoing has to be paid for. So out of His love, Jesus voluntarily offered Himself as our substitute to pay the penalty that we owed for our sin. And when we receive His sacrifice on our behalf, we become reunited with God for eternity.
As we say around here, other religions are spelled “D-O,” because they teach that people have to do a bunch of religious rituals to try to please God. But Christianty is spelled “D-O-N-E” because Christ has done it all on the cross — and we just need to receive Him.
This distinction is starkly demonstrated by comparing a parable taught by Jesus with a similar story found in Buddhist literature. Both stories involve sons who became rebellious and left home, but who then saw the error of their ways and decided to come back and be reconciled with their families.
In the Buddhist story, the errant son is required to work off the penalty for his past misdeeds by spending years in servitude. But you know how the Christian parable of the Prodigal Son ends — with the repentant son being warmly welcomed home by his loving father and being given undeserved grace and forgiveness.
And there are other fundamental differences between Christianity and other world religions as well. For instance, Christianity says there’s one eternal God who created the universe. Hinduism says everything is God — you’re God, I’m God, this podium is God. Islam denies Jesus was God or that He died for our sins. Buddha may not even have believed in God! Friends, these beliefs cannot all be true at the same time; they contradict each other too thoroughly.
So all religions are not the same. And while other religious leaders can offer wise sayings and helpful insights, only Jesus Christ — because He is the perfect Son of God — is qualified to offer Himself as payment for our wrongdoing. No other religious leader even pretended to be able to do that.
And that makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s illogical to think that God would go over to one side of the world and tell people, “Here’s the way to become reconciled with me,” and then go over to another place and say, “No, here’s a completely contradictory way to please me,” and so forth. I mean, God isn’t schizophrenic!
It would make sense that He would provide a path for us to follow in finding Him, and that He would tell us about that path in an extraordinary manner, which He did by sending Jesus Christ to enter human history.
So, friends, it does matter which path you follow in your spiritual journey. Jesus’ own words dispel the myth that all paths lead to God.
The second myth that Jesus dispels is related to the first. This myth says that even though Christianity might be different, it’s still just one philosophy among many, and that it’s only as valid as any other religion. In other words, even if there are differences between religions, they all have equal claims on the truth. You know — you have your truth and I have mine.
This myth has a certain amount of appeal because, on the surface, it seems to reflect our pluralistic attitudes in this country. And we do want to be tolerant of other views, don’t we? The Bible tells us we should be loving and accepting and respectful toward all people, regardless of their faith.
But here’s the thing: under our Constitution, all religious viewpoints are equally protected. People can believe whatever they want. But some people jump to the erroneous conclusion that because different philosophies are equally protected, they must be equally valid. And that’s just not the case.
The concept behind what the Supreme Court has called our “marketplace of ideas” is that truth and falsehood will grapple in unhindered debate so that, in the end, truth will prevail. So even though all religious are equally protected under our Constitution, that has nothing to do with whether they’re based on truth.
Let me give you an example in honor of the late Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko. A few years ago Royko wrote a tongue-in-cheek column in which he said he was a member of the Church of Asylumism. He said this church believes that there was an advanced civilization in a distant galaxy millions of years ago, but a few hundred of these aliens ate some tainted veggie dip and a virus scrambled their brains.
When treatment failed, they were taken to an uninhabited planet that would serve as an asylum and where they could roam free and act goofy. That planet, he said, was earth, and we’re all descendants of these aliens.
Royko said to doubters: “You want proof? Read history books. Look at the newspaper and TV news. Then tell me this isn’t one big loony bin!”
Now, Royko was kidding about the Church of Asylumism, but in this country people have the right to believe whatever they want. The Church of Asylumism would be protected under the Constitution as much as any other religious institution. But that doesn’t mean that its teachings are true.
And, of course, that means everybody is free to make the claim, as Jesus did, that they are the way, the truth, and the life, and that nobody can come to God except through them. I could say it or you could say it, but that wouldn’t make it true. The question is, how do we know Jesus was telling the truth?
Well, Jesus backs up His claim with unique credentials that make Him uniquely credible. For instance, Jesus authenticated His claim of being God by fulfilling dozens of centuries-old prophecies against every mathematical odd. These prophecies were like a thumbprint that only the Messiah would be able to fit — and, in all of history, it only fits Jesus.
Unlike other religious leaders, Jesus performed great miracles that further authenticated His claim to being God. And in the most spectacular demonstration of His deity, Jesus fulfilled His own prediction by being resurrected from the dead in an historical event that was witnessed by more than 500 people and which sparked a spiritual revolution unparalleled in history.
Friends, Christianity isn’t just a philosophy; it’s a reality. Jesus didn’t just claim He was the one-and-only Son of God, but He validated His claim like nobody else in history.
So we’ve seen that the first myth — that all religions are basically the same — isn’t true because Christ’s teachings set Christianity apart from all other faiths. And the second myth — that Christianity is just one philosophy among many and only as valid as any other religion — isn’t true because the unique credentials of Christ give Him credibility like no other spiritual leader. In other words, when He claims to be the way to God, His credentials back him up.
The third myth is the one that says Christians are narrow-minded or snobbish when they say Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Now, I’d agree Christians would be acting in a narrow-minded way if there really were lots of paths to God and they were saying that theirs is the best way. But they’re not saying that.
They’re saying that the truth of the matter is that someone has got to pay the penalty for our obvious wrongdoing that keeps us away from God. And Jesus, by virtue of His sinlessness and divinity, is the only one qualified to be our substitute. That’s just the reality of the situation. And it’s not narrow-minded to act upon the evidence and pursue truth.
Let me draw you an analogy. I have some friends whose baby girl developed jaundice shortly after birth. Jaundice is a liver disorder that caused her skin and the whites of her eyes to turn yellow. The pediatrician told them that this is a potentially devastating disease but it’s easily treated. All they had to do was put the baby under a special light for a while and this would stimulate her liver properly and she’d be all right.
Now, the parents could have said, “That sounds too easy. How about instead if we scrubbed her with soap and dipped her in bleach? If we worked hard enough, I’m sure we could get her normal coloring back.”
But the doctor would have said, “No, there’s only one way to handle this.”
They could have replied, “Well, how about if we just sort of ignore this and pretend everything’s OK? You know — the jaundice is your truth, Doc, not our truth. And if we sincerely believe that, things will work out for the best.”
The doctor would have said, “You’d jeopardize your baby if you did that. Look, there’s only one way to cure her. You’re hesitant because it sounds too easy, but look at the credentials hanging on my wall. I’ve studied at medical school and I’ve used what I’ve learned to cure countless babies like yours. Trust me!”
Now, would anybody accuse those parents of being narrow-minded if they trusted that doctor and pursued the only course of treatment that was going to cure their little girl? That’s not narrow-minded; that’s acting rationally in accordance with the evidence.
Well, we all have a terminal illness called sin, and the reason we cling to Christ is because He’s the Great Physician who has the only cure. We can try to scrub away our sin with good deeds, but it won’t work. We can ignore it and hope it goes away, but it won’t. We can sincerely think there’s another way of dealing with it, but we’d be sincerely wrong. The truth is that only the Great Physician offers a treatment that will erase our stain of sin. When we turn to Him, we’re not being narrow-minded; we’re acting rationally in accordance with the evidence.
And it’s not snobbish to believe what Jesus taught about being the way to God. Because, frankly, Christianity is anything but snobbish.
Let’s pretend there are two country clubs. The first one only admits people who have earned membership. To get in, you’ve got to obtain superior wisdom or fulfill a list of demands and fulfill certain spiritual requirements. Despite their best efforts, lots of people just won’t make the grade and will be excluded. Friends, that’s what other religions are saying by teaching that people have to work their way to God.
But the second country club says, “Anybody who wants in can come in because Jesus has already paid for your membership. Rich or poor, black or white, regardless of your ethnic heritage or where you live, we would love to include you. Entry isn’t based on your qualifications but only on accepting Christ’s invitation. So we’ll leave the matter to you. You decide. But remember, we will never turn you away if you seek admittance.” That’s what Christianity is like.
Now, which country club is being snobbish? Christians aren’t putting on airs; we aren’t saying we’re better than anyone else. As one Christian said, “We’re just beggars telling other beggars where to find food.”
Friends, Christianity is unique. It can’t be reconciled with any other religion. And it backs up its truth claims with the credentials and credibility of Christ. That’s why when He said He is the way, the truth, and the life, history hasn’t laughed. Instead, history has been revolutionized.
But you might be asking, “What about those who live in an isolated place and who haven’t had a chance to hear about Jesus? What’s going to happen to them?” This is one of the most commonly asked questions about Christianity — and, frankly, we don’t have the complete answer. God hasn’t explicitly told us all we’d like to know about this.
But we do know a few things. First, we know from the Bible that everybody has a moral standard written on their hearts by God and that everybody is guilty of violating that standard. That’s why our conscience bothers us when we do something wrong.
Second, we know that everybody has enough information from observing the world to know that God exists, but people have suppressed that and rejected God anyway — for which we rightfully deserve eternal separation from Him.
But we also know from the Bible that those who sincerely seek God will find Him. In fact, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is seeking us first, making it possible for us to seek God. And this suggests to me that people around the world who respond to the understanding that they have and who earnestly seek after the one true God will find an opportunity, in some way, to receive the eternal life that God has graciously provided through Jesus Christ.
I’ve seen this happen in seemingly impossible circumstances. I remember meeting a man who had been raised by gurus in an area of India where there were no Christians. As a teenager, he concluded there were too many contradictions in Hinduism for it to be true. So he called out to God for answers — and in a remarkable series of events, God brought people into his life who shared Christ’s message with Him. And today he’s a follower of Jesus.
There’s something else that’s reassuring, too, which is that God is scrupulously fair. GENESIS 18:25 asks, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” It’s comforting for me to know that each person will be judged uniquely and justly, according to what they knew and what they did. After being judged by a loving and righteous God, not one person will be able to walk away claiming that he or she had been treated unfairly.
We know that apart from the payment that Jesus made on the cross, nobody has a chance of getting off Death Row. But exactly how much detailed knowledge a person has to know about Jesus or precisely where the lines are drawn, only God knows. The Bible says in FIRST CORINTHIANS 4:5 that only God can expose the motives of a person’s heart.
And, finally friends, nobody will be excluded from heaven solely because he or she has lacked some information. The reason people will be denied admittance is because they have told God their entire life that they can live just fine without Him. On Judgment Day, God will say, “Based on your own decision to live separately from Me, you will now spend eternity apart from Me.” God won’t violate our will — and that’s only fair.
But for you and me, the issue isn’t ignorance. It’s obedience. We’ve heard what Christ has to say — even today— we have access to the evidence, and it’s clear we’re responsible for our decision on how we respond.
Some of you need to respond today by becoming serious seekers who are sincere and systematic in your search for truth so you can eventually make a knowledgeable decision to follow Christ.
But if you’re among the 84 percent of Americans who already believe Jesus is God, then maybe it’s time you finally acted on that belief. What does that involve? Let me paint a picture through a story.
When I was 14 years old, I was home alone and painting with oil paints in the finished basement of our house in Arlington Heights. Now, if you’ve ever painted with oils then you know they take forever to dry. I was impatient, so I did something stupid — I plugged in some heat lamps to try to dry the paintings faster.
Before long, a fire broke out among the rags soaked with turpentine and the table and entire corner of the basement were immediately engulfed in flames.
I ran to the phone and called the fire department. When I returned I saw that the fire was out of control, with orange and yellow flames climbing the paneled walls and lapping the ceiling, which was directly beneath the living room. I knew that if the fire burned through, the whole house would be destroyed — and then I’d really be in trouble!
So I grabbed a bucket of water from the laundry room and dashed over to throw it on the fire, but that didn’t help very much. The basement was rapidly filling with black, sooty smoke. I started choking on the fumes and was becoming disoriented. And I couldn’t see the stairs anymore -- the lights went out and the smoke was too thick.
That’s when a horrible realization hit — I couldn’t save myself. I wouldn’t be able to find the route out of the basement before I would be overcome.
Fortunately, not long after that, a police officer arrived and opened the door to the basement. He stepped onto the stairs and began shining around a big flashlight. “Police officer!” he called out. “Anyone down there?”
Now, intellectually, I could have analyzed the situation. Things were serious in the basement; if I stayed down there much longer, I’d die from the smoke and fire. But the police officer knew the one and only escape route. He was a trained professional and fully capable of leading me to safety. What’s more, he held a big flashlight to illuminate the way for me.
But it wasn’t enough just to analyze the situation. I had to take a step of action. I had to put my faith in that police officer — a faith based on facts — by letting him reach out and rescue me. So I followed the light, and he put his arm around me and led me to safety, away from the inferno.
Many years later I faced a spiritually equivalent situation. After nearly two years of investigating the claims of Jesus, I knew He had unique credentials and credibility. And based on what He had said, I realized for the first time that I couldn’t save myself. Unless I took up Jesus on His offer to pay the penalty for my wrongdoing, I was going to remain separated from God forever.
I was hopelessly lost, but Jesus was calling to me and reaching out to rescue me. He was fully capable of leading me to safety. He knew the way to eternal life; in fact, He was the way. And He didn’t need a flashlight because, as He said, “I am the light of the world . . . he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
But it wasn’t enough just to know that. I had to act on it. I had to take a step of faith — not an irrational step, but as this entire series has demonstrated, a rational step that was firm and secure because it was based on the track record of Jesus’ trustworthiness.
And so on November 8, 1981, I allowed Jesus to drape His arm around my shoulder and lead me out of the darkness, away from danger and into a place of safety, forever.
If you’re part of the 84 percent of Americans who are convinced Jesus is the Son of God, that’s a good first step. But if you’ve never acted on that belief, then the truth is that you’re still in danger. Let Jesus put His arm around you and rescue you and lead you to safety, once and for all. Before your head hits the pillow tonight, tell Him in a prayer that that’s the desire of your heart.
When you do, and as you grow in your relationship with Him, you’ll find out what I have —
• That Jesus is the way — He’s the path to a lifetime of adventure, fulfillment, challenge, and purpose.
• That He is the truth — and He will provide you with wisdom that works for everyday life and for the turbulent times as well.
• And He is the life. He — and He alone — can give you confidence for your future, for all of eternity.
Let’s pray.
