I was involved in a deep discussion with someone close to me recently and they asked me some valid questions. Their questions were twofold:
- Is Jesus really the only way to God? Why would He be the only way? Isn’t that presumptuous? What about all those religions in the world that are not Christian? Do they not ultimately lead people to God also except by a different path?
- So if Jesus is the only way… what about all those people who have never heard about Jesus? How could God justify sending people to hell who had never had a chance to believe in Jesus?
To my embarrassment I had no answer at the time. My only pat answer to question 1 was Jesus is the only way to God because He “said” He was. My answer is small consolation to a person who does not believe that Jesus is who He said He was. So I decided to give this very important question some prayerful thought. Indeed, it is a question all Christians should be prepared to answer.
I decided to tackle this by first providing some background that is essential to helping my readers understand my answers. To do this we have to go all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
In Genesis 2: 15-17 we read: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
So did Adam die when they ate of the fruit? No, he did not die physically, but he did die spiritually. In my post titled “Why Would a Loving God Allow Death and Suffering“ I talk about how this one act of disobedience toward God led to the downfall of all mankind. Because of this we are spiritually dead in our sins and our relationship with God is cut off. Mankind is guilty as charged when it comes to sin. Each and every one of us have violated the laws of God our day of reckoning is approaching.
Isaiah confirms this in 64:6-7 when he says: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.”
Romans 3: 10-12 speaks of the natural state of man: “……there is no one who does good, not even one.”
The first part of the sentence in Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death….”. It is, in effect saying that mankind has, and will, receive the wages for our sin and those wages are death. This will come on judgement day. So to sum up:
- We have all broken the laws of God.
- We are all spiritually dead in our sins.
- All our good works are like filthy rags to God.
- No one is justified before God for the good things they have done.
- There will come a day of judgement when God will find us guilty of having broken His commandments.
- The punishment for having broken the commandments of God is death
You might say well that is a poor description of me, I am a pretty good person. What if I could take your secret most thoughts and put them up on a video screen for the entire world to see? What would we all see? I am sure that you would run away in disgrace. But you are not alone my friend; we are all alike. So, we know that we are all guilty as charged.
But remember back a couple of paragraphs ago we talked about Romans 6:23? The latter part of that sentence says: “….but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
Yes! Romans 6:23 says ”For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”!! The God came to earth, took on the form of man and lived and walked among us. John wrote “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” In verse 14 he writes: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”. Later on in 1 John 1:1-2 he writes ”That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us”. Jesus came and lived a sinless life on this earth. He died on a cross as a sacrifice to satisfy the eternal justice that was our debt to pay. He did this so that our debt may be blotted out and in our standing before God we may be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
Romans 3:24-26 says ”and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus”.
That, my friends is why Jesus is the only way to God. No one else, not Mohammed of Islam, not Buddha of Buddhism, not Krishna of Hinduism, no one, no one, has or can provide the atonement for our sins and open the door to God. He is the only way to God. He alone paid the price for the sins of all mankind. All other religions follow a creed of salvation by good works, enlightenment, or some other means. But the bible says in Ephesians 2:8-10 ”For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast”. It is only in Christ Jesus that our good works mean anything.
He, God Himself, was the only one who could provide the solution to humanity’s problem. The problem of humanity is not that there are not people in the world who do good, or love others, or fail to care for their families, the problem with all of humanity, is that we have all failed to keep God’s laws.
On to question 2: So if Jesus is the only way… what about all those people who have never heard about Jesus? How could God justify sending people to hell who had never had a chance to believe in Jesus?
Although, from what I see, the bible does not give a clear answer as to what will happen to the multitudes of people who have never heard the name of Jesus, it does give a clear and definite statement on the condition of the state of humanity in general. Remember back when we read that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? What was the outcome of this? Again Romans 6:23 says: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Romans 1:18-20 says “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse”. They cannot use the excuse that they never heard of Jesus or what He had done for them. They did not need to hear about Him, all they had to do was repent and surrender to the God who did it all for them on the cross. But the sad thing is they did not. You see, the problem is not that God will send people to hell. The problem is that we, of our own free will, that was was a gift to us by our loving heavenly Father, choose to sin to our own destruction. He did all He could do by coming to earth and dying on a cross to save us from ourselves. Now he calls us to Himself.
So my friends, what are we going to do? Jesus said in Luke 4:18-20: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Central to His message is: who He said He is and what He came to do. We must either dismiss Him as a liar or fall at His feet and worship Him.
Today is the day of the Lord’s favour, tomorrow may not be. There is no middle ground, nor did He intend for there to be.
It is true that Jesus is the only way. Those who ask about others should be reminded of Jesus’ words to Peter…”what is that to you….you follow me”. I have faith that God is just and will judge right, so the fate of others is in HIS hands not mine.
Still, it makes it more imperative that the Gospel goes out.
Thanks Steven. As Abraham said to God when they were discussing the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18:25: “Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”. Indeed He will.