Is Jesus Really the Only Way?

Christians are arrogant! That is what many people think about Christians because we claim that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. This doesn’t go over well in today’s pluralistic world where the most important thing is to be tolerant and accepting of other people’s beliefs. These days, many people consider it mean-spirited even to disagree with someone in a polite way. To be politically correct, you have to accept everyone’s views and embrace them as being just as valid as your own.

Maybe you have been wondering why Christians say that Jesus is the only way. If so, what I hope that you understand is that the main reason we believe this is because Jesus is the one who said it! Jesus Himself taught that He was the only way to heaven. We’re not being arrogant when we say that Jesus is the only way. WE are not the ones saying this… Jesus said it!

Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Erwin Lutzer has said, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but everyone is NOT entitled to their own truth." I agree with this! It is one thing to respect other people even though you disagree with them, but it is another thing to say that all truths are equal. It is impossible for all religions to be correct. If Jesus said that He is the only way to heaven, then other religions CAN'T be true if Jesus was right.

Although I believe that John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 are very clear, some people still suggest that non-Christians can be saved by being sincere followers of other religions. These people suggest that these non-Christians are still saved by grace and by the work of Christ even though they don’t know about Jesus. The problem with this is that it goes against other principles that are clearly taught in Scripture.

First of all, it goes completely against Paul’s logic in Romans 10:13-15. Paul had just written that if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (vs. 9.) Then he writes, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” The obvious implied answer for each of these is THEY CAN’T! If no one is sent, people can’t hear. If people don’t hear, they can’t believe. If people can’t believe, they can’t call on the name of the Lord Jesus (remember, Jesus is Lord.) If people don’t call on the name of Jesus, they can’t be saved. There is no way to believe that people can be saved without knowing about Jesus without completely destroying the logic of these verses!

What should our response to these verses be? Should we complain that God is unjust? No! Instead, we need to apply this passage by getting in gear and start TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS! We need to send missionaries to tell these people about Jesus so that they might be saved from their sins. Some of us should become missionaries; ALL of us should be actively supporting missions. Also, we need to be doing evangelism here as well! We need to be building loving relationships with unbelievers and telling them that Christ loves them and died for them. This should be preached from the pulpit and it should be proclaimed by every Christian.

On the other hand, if people are saved without Jesus… why even bother? If we can assume that God will wave people into heaven because they haven’t had a chance to accept or reject Christ… why bother telling them? They would have a better chance of being saved if we kept our mouths shut!

We don’t receive salvation in any other way. Take a close look at Romans 3:22-26 and notice how many times the role of faith is discussed in just this one passage. “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

From this passage we can see that forgiveness and salvation is given to us freely by God’s grace. (Grace means “free gift.”) We also see that the reason God can save us by grace is because Jesus died on the cross for us. But also notice… the way we RECEIVE this gift is by FAITH. Salvation comes “through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” God justifies “those who have faith in Jesus.” We don’t receive the gift of salvation by being good, by going through a ceremony, by trying hard, by cleaning up our life, or by being really dedicated to God. The Bible teaches that there is one way that we receive this gift… through faith. Romans 3:28 says, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (Also look at Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4:1-5, Romans 5:1, or Galatians 2:15-16.) Constantly, the Bible teaches that we are saved by faith… by believing… by trusting. When you see the word “faith” or the word “believing” in the Bible, it means the same thing… TRUST. They are all translated from the Greek word “pistis” which means trust. So when John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” it means that whoever trusts in Jesus as their Savior will not perish (in hell) but have eternal life (with God.)

But faith doesn’t always save! Let me explain… Imagine that you’re sick and you take a pill thinking it will make you better. No matter how much faith you have, if the pill is cyanide, you’re going to die. Faith is no good if it is in the wrong thing. It doesn’t matter how sincere your faith in Buddha might be, it can’t save you! In order for faith to save, you must have your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone as the one who died for you.

I also want to point out that faith is not a “work.” Faith is not a “good thing” that we do that earns us brownie points with God. Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly says, “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.” Faith is not a work. When we have saving faith, we aren’t depending on our own goodness AT ALL... we are depending 100% on Jesus Christ who died in our place.

So let me ask you a question? What is YOUR faith in? What are you trusting in to get you to heaven? Are you trusting in your own goodness? Your family? Your church attendance? Some ceremony you went through? Some prayer you said? Are you counting on Mary or some dead saint to pull some strings to get you in? Are you trusting partly in Jesus but partly in other things? If you are… you need to stop trusting in those things and transfer all of your trust to Jesus alone as the one who died for YOU! If you trust the Lord Jesus alone as your sin-bearer, you will have the promises of God that your sins are forgiven and you have new life in Christ! If you have never done this, why not do it now? God knows your thoughts and your heart… tell Jesus that you admit that you have sinned against Him and that you need Him as your Savior. Tell Him that as of right now, you are trusting in Him and Him alone as your Savior because He died for you on the cross.

It is tempting to believe that all paths lead to heaven. It sounds nice. It seems like a loving thing to believe. But is it true? Sure, it may make us feel better, but is it really loving? How loving would it be for a doctor to tell his patients that they are fine when actually they will die unless they get treatment?

It would be nice to think that this type of thinking hasn’t affected the church, but it has. According to the January 2003 issue of The Church Herald, one-half of the members of the Reformed Church in America don’t believe that people necessarily need to become Christians in order to go to heaven. I think this should tell us that we need to take a stand for the truth of the gospel and make sure that we are proclaiming this message clearly and consistently! We can’t just assume that everyone in our churches knows the gospel.

“Nearly one-half of RCA members believe that non-Christians will not necessarily be excluded from heaven”

-The Church Herald, January 2003, page 13

How is this going to affect our church if we accept this type of thinking? If we believe this, we’re probably not going to break our necks to bring people to faith in Christ. We’re probably not going to be too concerned about missions. And we will be more likely to see our church as a country club rather than a group of people with a MISSION!

So… let’s get back to the Bible and see what God has to say about this issue. We need to get our beliefs from Scripture, not from whatever sounds nice or is politically correct. We all have our opinions, but God’s opinion is the only one that counts!

Question: What about people in other counties that have never heard about Jesus? Shouldn’t God let them go to heaven? They never even had a chance to be saved.

Answer: We have to remember three things. First, we all have sinned willingly against an infinitely holy God. That is why all of us would be lost forever without Jesus. Second, God didn’t have to give ANY of us a second chance. Third, we need to be very careful that we don’t impose OUR version of “fair” on God. Real justice is even more important to God than it is to us! And remember, He alone has what it takes to know what the fair thing to do in every situation really is. God will always give to everyone either exactly what they deserve, or he gives them far better. He never gives anyone LESS than they deserve. Of course, the problem is that we are all sinners and what we DESERVE is condemnation. 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 wages of sin is what we all deserve. The gift of eternal life is what we get if we have our faith in Christ.

Sometimes people suggest that the only reason people go to hell is if they specifically reject Jesus. Now, it is true that if we die having rejected Jesus, we have blown our chance to go to heaven. However, that is not the only reason we will go to hell. We go to hell because of our sin and rebellion against God. People are in a state of condemnation before they reject Christ. Rejecting Christ means that they are blowing their chance of being saved from the penalty of sin that they already owe. If it wasn't like this, why do evangelism? Why do missions? If people automatically go to heaven if they haven’t heard, why tell them! They would be better off if we let them alone and never told them about Jesus! At least that way they couldn’t reject Him!

The reason we need to tell people about Christ is because all people are already in a state of condemnation even before they hear about Jesus or reject Him. John 3:17-18 says, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only son.” We come into this world with the “default setting” of being condemned. Only be faith in Jesus can this wrath be removed from us. John 3:36 states, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains in him.”

Now, with that in mind, we need to look at Romans 1:18-20 because it is the key passage teaching us about those who have never heard:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men 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 men are without excuse.

This passage clearly teaches that all people everywhere have some knowledge of God. God has made it plain to them through what He has made. When we look at the world that God has made, trees, mountains, our own bodies... we simply know that there must have been a God who made this. We try to explain God away with evolution and other theories, but according to this verse, deep down we know that the world is not just the result of a random cosmic accident. Further, I believe that God has planted a knowledge of Himself in the hearts of everyone. He has wired the hearts of all people to know that He exists. This is ironic... Atheists don’t believe in God, but according to this verse God doesn't believe in atheists! Deep down, there are no true atheists. Deep down, everyone knows there is a God. However, people suppress the truth because they don’t like it. We are all anti-God by nature and reject Him. (Remember, Romans 3:10-12 said that.)

People that have never heard about Jesus still “know” that God is there, but they have rejected Him and substituted Him with their own false Gods. Romans 1:21-25 tells us about this, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised, amen.”

All people have some light about the reality of God. However we do at least one of two things (if not both.) Either people suppress the truth, and deny that God exists altogether, or they suppress the truth and replace the real God with an idol… and man-made “god.” In the past, people made statues to worship. Today, people create man-made images of God in their minds. They create God the way they want him to be, no the way He really is.

It is important to realize that Romans 1:18-25 is NOT teaching that people can be saved without knowing about Jesus. People can’t be saved because of the knowledge of God in their hearts and from nature. This passage isn’t about these types of people being saved. Instead, it is telling us why it is fair that they are condemned. Verse 20 ends by saying, “…so that men are without excuse.” General revelation is enough to condemn people, but not enough to save them. To be saved, they need to know about Jesus and what He did. (Remember Romans 10:13-15?)

Here is an illustration that might help: Imagine that you are a poor college student with a huge school bill to pay. Also imagine that I, contrary to reality, am a billionaire. Now imagine that I tell you that I want to help pay your way through school. When you hear this, you get really excited. So I reach for my checkbook and write you a check. However, when you grab the check and look at it, you see that it’s only for $50. How is fifty bucks supposed to help you pay for college? So you rip up the check, throw it at me, call me some swear words, spit at me and walk away. Now, in this situation, should I be expected to pay for your education? No. You rejected the first help that I gave you and therefore there is no way that it would be unfair for me not to give you more help. In the same way, if people reject the little bit of light they do have, God is not obligated to give them more. As John 3:19-20 states, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”

So, in a sense, everyone has rejected Jesus, even if they haven't heard about Him yet. God has planted a knowledge of us in our hearts, and we have rejected the light that we have. However, as Christians, we are to tell people about Jesus in the hopes that their hearts will be changed and they will trust in Christ for their salvation.