John 14:6 reads,
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”"
The "I Am" Statements Of Jesus Christ- "I Am The Way.""Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”"
Oh how our spirit searches yet looks for God in vain,
We cannot know our Maker ’til we call on Jesus’ name!
Every other pathway will leave us at a loss
For no one else has paid for sin by dying on the Cross!
Exalt the name of Jesus for He has made it clear,
His sacrifice redeems us and casts away all fear.
Glory to our Saviour who takes our sins away.
Praises to the great “I Am” for He’s the only Way!
Acts 4:12
“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Matthew 7:13-14
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Points For Reflection
So many people love to think that there are multiple ways to God and to being accepted into His presence. One common line of thought is that all the different “religions” of the world are ultimately the same and lead to the same God, just under a different name or names.
The Bible makes it very clear however that there is only one God and one way to enter Heaven which is through Jesus Christ. As we read in Acts 4:12 a little earlier,
“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
This makes it very clear that the “world religions” are not all the same. The Bible tells us that there is only one name that can save us and there is no salvation in any other name. Only Jesus lived a sinless existence, died to pay for the sins of the world and rose again to Heaven’s Throne in victory. Every single other person who has ever lived and died and stayed in the grave. Only Jesus can save us because only He is God, manifest in the flesh.
Do you believe there are many ways to Heaven and if so, what do you base this belief on? How does it make you feel to know that Jesus said He is the only way to Heaven and any other line of thinking is false? Are you confident enough in your view point to base your eternity on it?
If you’re a Christian, are you ever tempted to go along with this idea that “all religions are the same” in order to appease others? If so, how does it make you feel to consider that while this might be the easier option in the short term, this affirms people in a lie and has damaging consequences for their eternity?
Another common viewpoint is that we can also enter Heaven by doing “good deeds” and being a “good person.” Many hope or believe that their own efforts will tip the scales on Judgement Day and grant them access to Heaven, based on the “good things” that they’ve done.
The trouble is, none of us can escape the fact that we’ve all committed sins throughout our lives and sin must be paid for.
If we think of it in earthly terms, imagine a person was standing in front of a courtroom Judge, having been found guilty of breaking the law. If that person then said to the Judge, “Your Honour, yes I broke the law but I’m also a nice person. I give to charity and try to be kind to others. I think you should let me off on account of the good things I’ve done and ignore the crime that I committed.”
No Just or Righteous courtroom Judge would simply say, “Oh ok, that’s fine then! Sorry I didn’t realise you also did good things! Ok that balances thing out and we can just ignore the crime.”
No, justice still has to met and there are still consequences for committing a crime. So too it is with sin. Sin must be paid for and all of us have sinned. There is no getting around this fact. This is why Jesus went to the Cross for us and it’s why we need to seek Him as our Saviour.
If we refuse to accept God’s gift of redemption through His Son Jesus Christ then our sins are still held to our account and we’ll have to pay for them ourselves. As Ephesians 2:8-9 says,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
God’s Word states very clearly that we cannot earn our way to Heaven through our own efforts, it’s through the efforts of Christ and Christ alone. This goes back to the point that Jesus was making which is that He is the only way.
What we see from all the world religions is mankind trying to climb a ladder of “good deeds” to save himself. What we see in Christianity however is God coming down to save mankind. “Good deeds” might build us a stairway but it will always buckle under the weight of sin. Anything that claim otherwise is a lie.
What are you relying on today to give you access to Heaven when you die? Does it line up with what the Bible says?
I once heard it said that all roads in life do lead to God as no matter what we have believed, we will all stand before our Creator one day and give an account. Let’s make sure we’ve trusted in the beautiful name of Jesus and His sacrifice before then!
