Jesus the only way?

Big Questions Section

This section includes answers to some big questions. We don’t claim to have the answers (only God has all the answers!) But we hope and pray this helps you and the young people you work with. These are not definitive and you may way disagree or be able to add more, but they hopefully act as an inspiration or starting point.

There are 18 questions answered here. We must credit “When Skeptics Ask” by Norman Geisler and “Cosmic Codes” by Chuck Missler, “It makes sense” by Stephen Gaukroger and the website http://carm.org/ (Christian Research and Apologetics Ministry). We’ve tried our very best to give easy answers to the questions and then more advanced / detailed answers and even further study.

Is Jesus the only way to God? 

Easy Answer

Yes! As we said in another Big Questions answer, Jesus came to this world voluntarily to pay the price for all the wrong things we’ve done. He lived a perfect life, he was crucified, rose from the dead 3 days later and then went back to heaven. Imagine you are going to visit your gran in an old people’s home in a nearby city. You probably have a number of options. You could take the car, the bus, the train, maybe even a flight. If you go in a car there are probably different ways you can get there. If you go by train there are different times of trains. But the destination is the same. Some people say that this kind of example shows there are many ways to God which is only sort of true… Ah! But there’s more to our story… When you arrive at where your gran lives, you have to go in through the door as there’s only one way in for security purposes. They don’t want people breaking in. So to get in you have to call and get them to open the door. The destination is your gran. But there is only one way in, only one access point and that is the door. You need someone to open that door to let you in. So when people say there are many roads to God, they’re right. But there is only one way in to God and that is Jesus. The Bible is really clear on this. Only Jesus can be the way because only Jesus had paid the legal price. You can’t buy something legally unless you pay the right amount. The price for you being made right with God was paid by Jesus alone so he alone is the way to get to God. In the Bible we find a verse that confirms all this saying, “God is on one side and all the people on the other side, and Christ Jesus himself man, is between them to bring them together.” (1 Timothy 2.5).

Advanced Answer

In John 14.5-6, Jesus was speaking to one of his disciples called Thomas. Thomas asked Jesus where he was going. Jesus replied that he was going to his Father. Jesus then told the disciples that, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

If we go to Romans 3 we find the Bible confirming this in verse 22 where we find that the way to God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. So we find out that knowing Jesus isn’t enough; we actually have to believe in him and have faith in him. In verse 25 we find that this happens through faith in the blood of Jesus. As Leviticus 17.11 pointed to, “the life is in the blood.” We find life in Christ through the sacrifice he made through his blood (see John 6.53). Romans 5 points to the fact that death came through one man – Adam; life comes through another – Jesus.

1 Peter 1.18-19 says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Romans 3.21-26 makes this clear:  “But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”

In John 11.25 Jesus said, “Jesus said to Martha, I am [Myself] the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live.” So Jesus (alone) is both the resurrection (coming back from the dead) and the life (forever). But you have to believe in and trust in Jesus for this to happen.

Romans 10.9 further adds to this, “if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Being ‘saved’ is what Jesus was talking about in the Bible verse in John 11.25 to his friend Martha. It means life now and forever more.

Further Thinking

There are arguments about that people of other religions (for example) are seeking God. Surely if they are seeking the true God it doesn’t matter how they get there? But does this stand up to what the Word of God says? Often God breaks into people’s lives who aren’t seeking God at all – far from it! So ‘seeking God’ doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I can ‘seek’ to find a museum, but unless I go inside the museum through the door, I can’t ‘enter’ the museum. The same is true with being made right with God. There is only one entry point – Jesus. There is only one destination – the father God.

Christians often say that Romans 1 (which talks about all mankind having a conscience and seeing God revealed in creation) shows that God will judge people fairly. Whatever happens and however Jesus judges at the end of time (we’re really not sure of everything!!) there is no denying that Jesus himself said that he is the way. He did not say he is a way. When Jesus died on the cross, he alone paid the price to pay for mankind’s sins. Any other way of being right with God is therefore impossible. The ‘legal contract’ (if we look at it that way) can only be ‘signed’ by the blood of Jesus. So while people may look for the true God, ultimately (however it works!) only Jesus can be the way. Otherwise there is no purpose to Jesus having come to earth.