Is Jesus the Only Way?
Jesus claimed He was “THE way, THE truth, and THE life.” He contined with, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This is an extraordinary claim.
The heart of the matter is our understanding of Jesus’ identity, and the nature of salvation. Jesus claimed to be God in human form. He never claimed to be just another religious leader. His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His promise to return again, are all unique. Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, Joseph Smith, David Koresh, or L. Ron Hubbard never made the claims Jesus made. While most all religions have good things about them, none of them can match what Jesus said about His identity. That is unique. Either we believe Him or we do not. These are not our claims about Him; this is what He said about Himself. We simply take Him at His word.
Sometimes people protest and say that they think that “As long as a person is really sincere, it does not matter what they believe.” They apply this logic to religious faith but to hardly anything else in life. The airplane pilots were sincere when they tried to take off from the wrong runway in Lexington, Kentucky a few months ago, but all on their plane lost their lives because of their mistake. In filling our gas tanks (or filling out a pharmacy prescription or an income tax form) sincerity is nice, but is not the essential component. Accuracy, precision, and truth carry the day.
As far as the question about those who have never heard the Gospel, I always answer the question by saying, “I do not know….I am not God.” But I am very confident that we can trust God to do the just thing in the way He goes about judgment.
The answer to me is more of a practical one. I reply by saying, “We need to do all we can to help others hear the Gospel.” Maybe we cannot go to the Aborigine ourselves, but we can help make that happen through our support of mission agencies. Bruce Olsson is a great example of this, as he went to the jungles of Columbia to reach the Motilones.
Furthermore, I sometimes wonder if people are not asking this question to duck a more personal question. When we stand before God at the time of judgment I do not think God will ask us what we thought about someone else, or our sense of fairness at His justice. Instead, we need to give a positive account of our lives and how we have lived. This question is sometimes used as an attempt to divert the attention elsewhere.
In dealing with these questions, I think it is essential to be humble, not smug and self-righteous. We are saved by God’s gracious gift. We want everyone to know Him, too. That is our job: “Glorify God--Make Disciples.”
- Dr. Tom Harrison
