6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Jesus said here that He is the only way to heaven. This is a exclusive statement, a claim that is hard for our twenty-first century generation to accept. They do not believe that we can know any truth for sure.
The Bible never sponsors universalism, that is, everyone will be saved. There is no other religion or system of salvation other than that found in Christ.
PRINCIPLE:
Jesus is the exclusive way to acceptance with God.
APPLICATION:
People of western culture believe that there are many roads to heaven. This is the only plausible option to them. However, if there is but one authentic God, then we cannot adapt God to what we believe. If God is absolute, then truth is rigid. Man is relative, but God is absolute. If truth is absolute, then truth must be dogmatic and without variation.
Truth by its very nature is exclusive. This is why so many reject Christianity today; it is too dogmatic for them. On a human level, truth is dogmatic as well. Our teacher dogmatically insists that 2+2=4. A bank will insist on that as well when we want to claim that there is more money in the bank than what we have.
The idea that everyone is going to heaven but by different means is a lie. Any other claim to heaven other than Jesus is a fallacy. Jesus is not one of many ways to heaven but the only way. To know the truth that is in Him, is to know what is needed about access to God.
The Bible does not teach pluralism, universalism or syncretism as the way of salvation. Jesus makes an exclusive claim for access into the eternal state. There is no other way to an eternal relationship with God other than through Jesus. The Bible reveals this in other passages as well (Ac 4:12; 1 Ti 2:5).
The time in which we live is hostile to exclusive truth claims. Religious pluralism is preferred. Most today would view the Bible’s exclusive claim to truth as narrow and even bigoted. There is nothing more offensive to our generation than the claim that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
This runs counter to modern ears because they are conditioned by a culture whereby tolerance is the ultimate norm or standard for life. Tolerance is the standard by which our society measures what is true. Tolerance is for them ultimate truth; it is their dogma. Fallacious dogmatism makes assertions based on finite knowledge or on ignorance.
Albeit, they almost never recognize this presupposition about what is true. To assert there is no absolute except that the assertion that there is no absolute is flat out contradiction.
Since people are completely dependent on Christ to obtain eternal life, it follows that no one can come to God apart from Him. Without Him no one can have eternal fellowship with God. There is no wiggle-room in the statement “no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus is the only port of entry into heaven.
