Jesus is the only way because only Jesus can provide the way to a relationship with God...

This week we have been addressing the third of eight common questions skeptics pose as a challenge to Christianity. And that question is this: “Is Jesus the only way?" In other words, do Christians believe that there is only one way to God and that everyone who is not a Christian is condemned by God?”

We have looked at several objections to the claim that Jesus is the only way to God. We then looked at  the reality that there is absolute truth and that everyone believes in absolute truths. Only in the moral or spiritual realm would anyone think to live life in a way that believes that two competing truths can be equally true. And because every religious system believes in its exclusive truth, then only one of two things can be true: either every religious system is wrong or one religious system is right.

And the timeless reality is that the message of Christianity is distinctive and unique from every other religious system because it is a message about a unique person-Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is unique in His activity in history that provides humanity the opportunity to experience a relationship with God. Jesus is unique in who He is as God in a bod. And Jesus is unique in that Jesus Himself is the personification of truth.

We see this reality revealed for us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John. We discovered that, as C.S. Lewis famously pointed out: Jesus does not allow us to think of Him as simply a good moral teacher. For Jesus claimed to be much more than that. Jesus claimed to be God.

And because Jesus claimed to be God  only one of three things can be true of Jesus: Either he knew that he was not God and deceived people, which would make him a liar, which is not something that a good person would do, or He believed He was God, but he really wasn’t, which would make him a coo-coo for cocoa puffs lunatic, which is not something that is good, or He really was “God in a Bod”, the Messiah, the promised one who provides the one way to be right with God and to enable us to have the relationship with God that we were created for.

So, are Christians being arrogant for believing that there is no other way to God but through Jesus? Or are Christians responding and recognizing the incredible lengths that God has gone to provide us an opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with Him that we were created for through Jesus?

And it is here that we discover the timeless answer to the skeptical question ““Is Jesus the only way?” And that timeless answer is this: Jesus is the only way because only Jesus can provide the way to a relationship with God. You see, it is the love of God as demonstrated by sending His son Jesus to earth to live that life that we were created to live but refused to live, and then willingly allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life that makes Christianity both unique and exclusive.

After all, Moses did not give his life for you? Mohammed did not give his life for you? Confucius and Buddha did not endure shame and suffering for you. Jesus is the only way because only Jesus, as God in a bod, died for you. You see, the message of Christianity is that Jesus is the exclusive truth about God, who is God, and who died in humility and weakness on the cross, in our place, for our rebellion.

And the timeless reality is that there are only two kinds of religions in the world: a religion that seeks to do things for God in order to earn God's favor or a religion that sees that the favor of God that has been offered to us by trusting in what God has done for us through His Son Jesus. There are only two kinds of religions in the world: a religion of performance that leads to either pride or despair or a religion of gratitude that humbly takes pride in and trusts in Jesus performance for us.

And it is the message of Christianity that provides the basis for true tolerance. A true tolerance that recognizes that every human being bears the thumbprint of God and is to be treated with dignity as an image bearer of God. And because of that reality, as followers of Jesus, we can seek to persuade people about Jesus, but we are never to tell others about Jesus in an arrogant way that seeks to impose our beliefs about Jesus upon others. In telling others about Jesus we are to reveal and reflect Jesus by humbly displaying a true tolerance toward all people that reflects the love of Jesus to all people.

Now one final objection that I often hear at this point might sound something like this: Well if Jesus is the only way, then what about those who never heard of Jesus? What about the people around the world who never read the Bible? How can God hold the pygmy in Africa accountable for something that he has never been exposed to?

That is a great question. And if we were having a conversation in the Courtyard coffeehouse, here would be my response: All of humanity will be responsible for their actions and their response to God based on the amount of revelation that they have received about God. You see, God is perfectly just and right. He treats everybody the same way. Regardless of the level of our exposure to the claims of Christ or the message and teachings of the Bible, our consciences testify and provide evidence of our guilt or innocence.

For those who never read a Bible or heard the message of the gospel, they will be held accountable for how they respond to God’s general revelation of Himself through the creation and through their conscience. If they lived a life that perfectly followed that internal standard as testified by their conscience, they will be declared not guilty. However, if they selfishly rebelled against God’s law that was written in their hearts, their conscience will testify against them the moment it happened and again when they stand before Jesus.

For those who have received God’s special revelation in the form of the letter that make up the Bible and exposure to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel throughout history, they will be responsible for their response to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. And the standard is the same for all: perfection.

So the question before us is the same question that we faced last week: Who is Jesus? The possibility that God has acted in history through Jesus in a way that provides us the opportunity for forgiveness and rescue so that we can experience a relationship with God places us face to face with the reality that we have to take what Jesus said seriously when it comes to how one experiences a relationship with God.

And it is this reality that leads us to the next skeptical question that we will look at next week...