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The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ
John 14:6
Video Clip: Who is Jesus?
To watch this video click hereG. K. Chesterton insightfully said, “These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.”
As has been the tradition for several years, Mount Bethel United Methodist Church in Marietta, Georgia, agreed to host their community’s baccalaureate service, but this time, the organizers wanted to include speakers representing the Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, and Wiccan religions. Then, several students expressed a desire not to have the name of Jesus mentioned during the service because it would be offensive. The Pastor explained that it would be a dishonor not to mention the name of Christ in His own house and that the service should be moved to a neutral location if they wanted to include other religious groups. Many major newspapers and media outlets picked up on this story and focused on the narrow mindedness of the pastor.
Let me just read part of this pastor’s response from a sermon he preached in response to the criticism: “My single purpose as an ordained minister is to preach Christ. Political correctness is not a deity here. In the past few weeks, I have been asked to pray in this church and not use the name of Jesus Christ. I’ve been asked to cover the crosses in the church because they might be offensive to non-believers. I’ve said ‘no’ to each one of these requests. It’s absolutely amazing to me how people who push tolerance will push anything except tolerance of Christian faith even when it is expressed within its own church.”
Being accused of being intolerant is not new. Jesus frequently surprised people with His teachings that cut across the grain of human nature: Lose your life to save it. The first will be last. The meek will inherit the earth. Rejoice in persecution. Pray for your enemies. It’s better to give than receive. Turn the other cheek…but, by far, the most outrageous assertion Jesus ever made — His most politically incorrect claim of all — was the one He made in John 14:6 (p. 764). In a PC world this claim rankles people like no other. It’s been called arrogant, narrow-minded, and bigoted. Some of you are seekers and something inside of you may chafe at this claim. For you, it may be a stumbling block to faith.
God’s Word makes several similar startling claims that run counter-cultural to the mantra of religious tolerance. Let me share just a few. Referring to Jesus, the Apostle Peter makes an equally bold statement in Acts 4:12 (p. 773). And then, the Apostle Paul has one in 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (p. 839). One more, the Apostle John writes in 1 John 5:12 (p. 864).
You may not like it. I may not like it but the Bible resounds over and over again with a constant, recurring theme, The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ.
Each of these passages is extremely exclusive and overwhelmingly clear. God’s Word clearly teaches that Jesus is the only way to heaven. His statements of divine authority are incompatible with any homogenizing views of religious pluralists. For a PC world the claims of Christ are outrageous. Without question the strongest verse in the entire Bible is that single sentence uttered by Jesus Himself, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
So why is this claim so controversial? One reason is that it strikes at the core of some of the contemporary great myths about religion. In examining this statement by Jesus, I thought it would be a good idea to address some of these common misconceptions. No doubt you’ve heard some of these myths, maybe you’ve bought into some them yourself.Myth #1: All religions will lead you to God. Following the attacks on September 11th, New York Mayor, Rudy Guilliani, spoke before the United Nations. In his speech he mentioned that on a typical weekend he will visit an Islamic mosque on Friday and a Christian Church on Sunday. Then, he commented that both groups worship the same God, but in different ways.
You've probably heard people say that while there are surface-level distinctions between various world religions, if you strip them all down to their essentials, all religions fundamentally teach the same thing. So it doesn't really matter which one you follow. In other words, all spiritual paths lead up the same mountain because all religions basically teach the brotherhood and sisterhood of men and women, and the universal fatherhood of God.
Apply pluralism to the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy wouldn’t be told to, “Follow the yellow brick road” to find her way to Oz. Instead, Dorothy would be given different options. “Look Dorothy if you don’t like yellow then follow the road of your choice: red, green, blue, pink. You pick the road and it will take you where you want to go.”
While it is true that you will find that there is some common ground between many of the world's religions, particularly concerning basic values and morality, but there are significant differences too. With this one outlandish assertion, “I am the way,” Jesus boldly puts Christianity in a separate class all by itself. If the path to God is through Jesus, then Christianity cannot be reconciled with any other religion. This uniqueness of Christianity is rooted in the uniqueness of Jesus Himself.
While other religious leaders say, "Follow me and I'll show you how to find truth," Jesus says, "I am the truth." While other religious leaders say, "Follow me and I'll show you the way to salvation," Jesus says, "I am the way to eternal life." While other religious leaders say, "Follow me and I'll show you how to become enlightened," Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." Others say, "Follow me and I'll show you many doors that lead to God," Jesus says, "I am the door." Then, Jesus says, "So follow Me."
Can you hear the difference? You cannot harmonize the various religions of the world because there are drastic and irreconcilable differences between Christianity and other religions. Every other religion I've ever seen is based on people doing something - through struggling and striving - to somehow earn the favor of God. It may be things like using a Tibetan prayer wheel or going on pilgrimages or giving alms to the poor or avoiding eating certain foods or praying in a specified way or going through a series of reincarnations. They’re all attempts of people to reach out to God, but Jesus Christ is God reaching out to us. Jesus taught the opposite of what other religious teach. He said nobody can do anything to merit heaven, so we might as well give up trying. He said we're all guilty of wrongdoing. That's consistent with our experience, isn't it? Nobody here would claim to be perfect. Jesus said our wrongdoing separates us from our holy and perfect God. Again, that's consistent with our experience. Haven't you ever felt distant or disconnected from God? Of course you have.
Because God is a righteous judge, our wrongdoing has to be paid for. So out of His love, Jesus voluntarily offered Himself as our substitute to pay the penalty that we owed for our sin. When we receive His sacrifice on our behalf, we become reunited with God for eternity.
To put it another way, other religions are spelled "D-O," because they teach that people have to do a bunch of religious rituals to try to please God. But Christianity is spelled "D-O-N-E" because Jesus Christ has already done it all on the cross and we just need to receive Him.
This distinction is starkly demonstrated by comparing a parable taught by Jesus with a similar story found in Buddhist literature. Both stories involve sons who became rebellious and left home, but who then saw the error of their ways and decided to come back and be reconciled with their families.
In the Buddhist story, the errant son is required to work off the penalty for his past misdeeds by spending years in servitude. But you know how Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 ends. The repentant son is warmly welcomed home by his loving father and is given undeserved grace and forgiveness.
There are other fundamental differences between Christianity and other world religions as well. For instance, Christianity says there's one eternal God who created the universe. Hinduism says everything is God…you're God, I'm God, this podium is God, my cat is god (No, she just thinks she is!). Islam denies Jesus was God or that He died for our sins. Buddha may not even have believed in God! These beliefs can’t all be true at the same time; they contradict each other too thoroughly. Obviously, all religions are not the same. While other religious leaders can offer wise sayings and helpful insights, only Jesus Christ, because He is the perfect Son of God, is qualified to offer Himself as payment for our sin and wrongdoing. No other religious leader can even pretended to be able to do that.
All religions leading you to God just doesn’t make sense. Is it logical to think that God would go over to one side of the world and tell people, "Here's the way to become reconciled with me," and then go over to another place and say, "No, here's a completely contradictory way to please me," and so forth? Do we really believe that God is schizophrenic!?!
It would make sense that He would provide a path for us to follow in finding Him, and that He would tell us about that path in an extraordinary manner, which He did by sending Jesus Christ to enter human history. You see, it does matter which path you follow in your spiritual journey because All religions will NOT lead you to God. Jesus' own words dispel the myth that all paths lead to God. It’s The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ.Myth #2: All religions teach truth. Two elderly women were out driving in a large car and both could barely see over the dashboard. As they were cruising along they came to an intersection. The stoplight was red but they just went on through. The woman in the passenger seat thought to herself "I must be losing it. I could have sworn we just went through a red light." A few minutes later they came to another intersection. The light was red again and again they went right through. This time the woman in the passenger seat was almost sure that the light had been red but was really concerned that she was losing it. She was getting nervous and decided to pay very close attention to the road and the next intersection to see what was going on. At the next intersection, sure enough, the light was definitely red and they went right through. She turned to the other woman and said, "Mildred! Did you know we just ran through three red lights in a row! You could have killed us!" Mildred turned to her and said, "Oh, am I driving?" We live in a world that teaches it doesn’t matter who’s driving, it’s all the same in the end. Anything and everything is basically truth.
Dr. Tim Keller, the Senior Pastor of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, tells of a debate he was in with a Muslim scholar before a university audience. The debate went on as most of those debates do with perfect civility as each expressed their point of view. The Islamic cleric expressed the fact that in his understanding of the universe there is only one God, he doesn't have a son and the idea of God having a son and coming to earth is nothing short of blasphemy. Then, Dr Keller expressed his view that God the Father had a Son Who at one wonderful moment came to earth and walked amongst us. It's very clearly different, said Dr Keller. The idea that Jesus came to earth as a man is central to his faith, but a blasphemy to Islam.
Having said this, he was quite perplexed when the first question from the floor from one of the students began like this: "It seems obvious that both of you men are saying the same thing. Both of you men really believe the same thing." And both Dr Keller and the Muslim cleric said no, we don't believe the same thing. In fact, we believe diametrically opposite things. Both of us can't be right. Jesus coming to earth can't be both blasphemy and this most wonderful event in history.
But this student insisted. “No, you don't understand. You're both saying the same thing!” Now what's going on for the student at this point? He's no fool. Why is it he can hear one man say something is red, another say it is green, and then conclude that they're both saying it's brown? It's because he's an unconscious victim of a religious ideology that's dominant in Western Culture. It’s a dogma normally not thought out, nor is it supported by logic or arguments, yet it's passionately held all the same. It's the belief that truth is truth even it conflicts with another view of “truth.” It’s an absurd view that All religions teach truth and all religions are equally valid, that there are many different ways to God.
Those holding this worldview might refer to the fact that there are many roads up a mountain, but the view from the top is the same, and that differences among religions are only superficial. That anyone who has bothered to study them deeply will recognize that at heart they're all the same, they all lead to the same goal, that there are many ways of believing which all lead to the same God. There isn't just one ultimate reality, there are many. So whatever you believe to be real, is real. No one will be surprised, no one will be disappointed. If you believe God is love as the Bible teaches, or if you choose to believe that God is cruel and indifferent, or if there are many gods - that's all true. All religions teach truth.
This myth says that even though Christianity might be different, it's still just one philosophy among many, and that it's only as valid as any other religion. In other words, even if there are differences between religions, they all have equal claims on the truth. You know…you have your truth and I have mine.
And this myth has a certain appeal to it because, on the surface, it seems to reflect our pluralistic attitudes in this country. After all don’t we want to be tolerant of other views? The Bible also tells us we should be loving and accepting and respectful toward all people, regardless of their faith.
Here’s the key, under our Constitution, all religious viewpoints are equally protected. People can believe whatever they want. Because of that some then jump to the erroneous conclusion that because different philosophies are equally protected, they must also be equally valid. That's just not the case.
The concept behind what the Supreme Court calls our "marketplace of ideas" is that truth and falsehood will grapple in unhindered debate so that, in the end, truth will prevail. Even though all religious are equally protected under our Constitution, that has nothing to do with whether they're actually based on truth.
That means everybody is free to make the claim, as Jesus did, that they are the way, the truth, and the life, and that nobody can come to God except through them. I could say it or you could say it, but that wouldn't make it true. The question is: How do we know Jesus was telling the truth?
Well, Jesus backs up His claim with unique credentials that make Him uniquely credible. For instance, Jesus authenticated His claim of being God by fulfilling dozens of centuries old prophecies against every mathematical odds. These prophecies were like a thumbprint that only the Messiah would be able to fit – and, in all of history, it only fits Jesus. Unlike other religious leaders, Jesus performed great miracles that further authenticated His claim to being God. In the most spectacular demonstration of His deity, Jesus fulfilled His own prediction by being resurrected from the dead in an historical event that was witnessed by more than 500 people and which sparked a spiritual revolution unparalleled in human history.
Christianity isn't just a philosophy; it's a reality. Jesus didn't just claim He was the one-and-only Son of God, He also validated His claim like nobody else in history. This second myth, All religions teach truth, isn't true because the unique credentials of Christ give Him credibility like no other spiritual leader. In other words, when He claims to be the way to God, His credentials back Him up. It’s The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ.Myth #3: All that matters is that you are sincere. The issue is usually stated this way: “I think God will let anyone into heaven if that person is really sincere.” On the surface, that sounds really good. Please think though of where that thinking can lead and does lead. Isn’t that the thinking behind terrorist attacks? A sincere belief in the Koran drives some adherents to murder innocent civilians. Do we applaud that type of sincerity? I don’t think so.
A sincere belief in the Great Pumpkin didn’t do Linus any good, did it? A sincere belief that God is calling someone to murder his family doesn’t justify what they do. A sincere belief in the evil of abortion does not justify violence against abortion doctors. A sincere belief that the world is flat does not make it true. Did you know that there’s a group that actually believes that the world is flat? Though they are very sincere, that doesn’t make it true. A sincere belief that the holocaust did not happen, does not make it go away.
The facts surrounding the reliability of the Bible show that what Jesus said is true, and it needs to be responded to. Sincerity is not a good enough standard for determining the truthfulness of the claims of anything, and especially about something that will determine your eternal destiny.
Is sincerity something to be avoided, then? No. God wants a sincere faith, empty of hypocrisy. But that sincerity is based on a love of God and His Word, rather than on putting on a spiritual show, hoping that others will think you have it all together spiritually.
Allow me to make a distinction that might be helpful. Sincerity is necessary for salvation, but it’s not sufficient for salvation. Our Lord was put to death by sincere religious people. If you rely on sincerity for acceptance before God, you set aside God’s saving grace – that undeserved favor. Sincerity as a basis for acceptance by God is a form of trying to earn your salvation, which the Bible says is impossible to do. It’s The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ.Myth #4: Christians are narrow minded bigots when they say that Jesus is the only way. Reader’s Digest told of a factory worker who refused to sign up for group insurance. The problem was no policy could be issued until all employees signed up. Yet he held out stubbornly. The foreman begged him to sign; the shop foreman pleaded with him; the plant superintendent and general manager begged him to sign. Still, he said no. Finally, the owner of the factory took him aside and said, "Listen, if you don’t sign up, I’ll fire you." The worker grabbed the paper and signed immediately. "Now," asked the owner, "why didn’t you sign this thing before?" The man replied, "Because no one explained it as clearly as you did." Frankly, no one explained it any clearer than Christ did in John 14:6 on how to get to heaven. We’d all agree that Christians would be acting in a narrow-minded way if there really were lots of paths to God and they were saying that theirs is the best way. But they're not saying that.
They're saying that the truth of the matter is that someone has got to pay the penalty for our obvious wrongdoing that keeps us away from God. And Jesus, by virtue of His sinlessness and divinity, is the only one qualified to be our substitute. That's just the reality of the situation. It's not narrow-minded then to act upon the evidence and pursue truth.
Let me draw you an analogy. Say you have some friends whose baby girl develops jaundice shortly after birth. Jaundice is a liver disorder that caused her skin and the whites of her eyes to turn yellow. The pediatrician tells them that this is a potentially devastating disease but it's easily treated. All they have to do was put the baby under a special light for a while and this would stimulate her liver properly and she'd be all right. Now, the parents could say, “That sounds too easy. How about instead if we scrubbed her with soap and dipped her in bleach? If we worked hard enough, I'm sure we could get her normal coloring back.” But the doctor would say, "No, there's only one way to handle this." They could reply, “Well, how about if we just sort of ignore this and pretend everything's OK? You know, the jaundice is your truth, Doc, not our truth. And if we sincerely believe that, things will work out for the best." And the doctor would say, “You’re going to jeopardize the health of your baby if you do that. Look, there's only one way to cure her. You're hesitant because it sounds too easy, but look at the credentials hanging on my wall. I've studied at medical school and I've used what I've learned to cure countless babies like yours. Trust me!"
Would anybody accuse those parents of being narrow-minded if they trusted that doctor and pursued the only course of treatment that was going to cure their little girl? That's not narrow-minded; that's acting rationally in accordance with the evidence.
The fact is that we all have a terminal illness called sin, and the reason we cling to Christ is because He's the Great Physician who has the only cure. We can try to scrub away our sin with good deeds, but it won't work. We can ignore it and hope it goes away, but it won't. We can sincerely think there's another way of dealing with it, but we'd be sincerely wrong. The truth is that only the Great Physician offers a treatment that will erase our stain of sin. When we turn to Him, we're not being narrow-minded; we're acting rationally in accordance with the evidence. It's not snobbish to believe what Jesus taught about being the way to God because, frankly, Christianity is anything but snobbish.
Let's pretend there are two country clubs. The first one only admits people who have earned membership. To get in, you've got to obtain superior wisdom or fulfill a list of demands and fulfill certain spiritual requirements. Despite their best efforts, lots of people just won't make the grade and will be excluded. Friends, that's what other religions are saying by teaching that people have to work their way to God.
But the second country club says, "Anybody who wants in can come in because Jesus has already paid for your membership. Rich or poor, black or white, regardless of your ethnic heritage or where you live, we would love to include you. Entry isn't based on your qualifications but only on accepting Christ's invitation. So we'll leave the matter to you. You decide. But remember, we will never turn you away if you seek admittance." That's what Christianity is like.
So which country club is really being snobbish? Christians aren't putting on airs; we aren't saying we're better than anyone else. As one Christian said, "We're just beggars telling other beggars where to find food."
Christianity is unique. It can't be reconciled with any other religion. It backs up its truth claims with the credentials and credibility of Christ. That's why when He said He is the way, the truth, and the life, history hasn't laughed it off. Instead, history has been revolutionized. It’s The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ.Conclusion: All other major world religions teach that you must get yourself together, you must do something to earn God’s grace. Christianity is radically different. God tells us that we’ll never earn Heaven or deserve a right relationship with Him. We can’t live up to His standards. Instead, God has taken the initiative. Because of His great love for us, He sent Jesus to rescue us from the penalty of death that our wrongdoing deserves.
My friend, Jesus is the only way to God. Religion is our attempt to find God. Christianity is God’s plan to find us. Here’s your choice: you can be religious or you can have a relationship with the One who made you and loves you.
When the missionary John Paton arrived in the New Hebrides in the mid-1800s, he began translating the New Testament and didn’t know how to illustrate the word believe. One day, when he was leaning on a chair, the concept of trust emerged. This is how John 3:16 now reads in their Bible, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever throws his whole weight on Him, will not perish but have eternal life.”
Friend, are you ready to do that right now? Because Jesus is the only way, throw your entire weight on Him before it’s too late.
