31 Days toward Spiritual Maturity — Day 5
January 24th, 2008 Posted in 31 Days toward Spiritual Maturity
MEETING CHRIST — Jesus: the Only Way
Some things are just the way they are, even if someone wishes that they were different. Such is the case when it comes to finding a way to God. There’s only one way to God - and Jesus is it! As humor writer Dave Barry is fond of saying, “I am not making this up!”
We live in a pluralistic age (actually, I think that every age has had multiple belief systems; it’s just that with our increased communication we’re now much more aware of diversity). If there’s one common belief, it’s that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere. A sobering truth, however, is that in the real world you can be sincerely wrong! The fact is that not all religions can be equally right. People believe differently about what happens after death, and those beliefs can’t all be right. Atheists believe that we cease to exist; Hindus believe that we’re reincarnated. Some people believe in heaven but don’t believe in hell, and some people believe in both. All of them can’t be right, because those are mutually exclusive views.
Following different religious founders/leaders can’t be equally right. Let’s cut to the chase: Jesus claimed to be the totally unique, pre-existent - living eternally before being born as a baby in a stable in Bethlehem - Son of God: “‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’” (John 8:58) Jesus also said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.” (John 14:6-7) Either Jesus is the unique Son of God or He isn’t, in which case He was either lying or was a legend in His own mind!
The apostle Peter knew Jesus very well, having lived with Him for three years. Peter made a bold statement in a speech he delivered in Jerusalem after Jesus’ ascension to heaven: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) The apostle Paul made much the same statement in a letter he wrote to a young man named Timothy: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men - . . .” (1 Timothy 2:5-6a) If we want to be connected to God, now and forever, Jesus is the way!
While I was watching the movie The Passion of Christ I tried to absorb what it must have been like for Jesus to be nearly beaten to a pulp and then crucified. I realized that if there were many other ways to God, Jesus wouldn’t have put Himself through all of that; He could have just suggested that people take some other way, through another religion or through following religious ritual or a set of rules and regulations. Jesus did what He did because there was no other way for us to get right with God. Are we willing to accept Him as our one and only Savior?
Dave
