This is a question that everyone asks, whether from a desire to escape the idea that God won’t accept them any other way, or from a desire to obey God without knowing how. It was the question that gave me the most difficulty when I was a new Christian. It didn’t seem right to me that salvation and heaven would be so exclusive, but most of the Christians I knew said that it was that way, without really telling me why. I finally found the answer in Johns’ Gospel, and guess what?! The answer came in Jesus’ own words:
He said: ”I am the way, the truth, and the life…nobody comes to the Father, except through Me.” Since I already knew how many “nobody” was, I was stuck. ”Nobody comes to the Father, except through [Jesus Christ].” The overriding question is, “Why is that true?” I wanted to know, and here is what I found:
It is true because Jesus Christ is completely unique–there is nobody like Him in the entire universe, and God made Him the Savior of the world. The same New Testament book says it like this in another place: ”For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Jesus Christ is the subject of this passage, and He is the “one and only Son;” since He’s the only One of his kind, it follows that what He offers is also unique, and cannot be obtained any other way. It might be stated like this:
“Believe in Jesus Christ [as the unique Son of God],” and have eternal life;
“Reject Jesus Christ [as the unique Son of God],” and perish. There are thus only two ways, or paths, in the New Testament–the one that leads upward to heaven, and the other one, that leads to “perishing.” The difference between people is not so much all the good they do (though that’s important as well), but who they personally believe in.
That’s the way the verse above states it, and it’s stated the same way throughout the New Testament.
So the answer is, YES! the only way to come to God is through Jesus Christ, because He is the “one and only,” the unique Person in all the universe. Of course, there are many other passages just like this. If you have questions, please feel free to email me or fill out the form on the contact page. I will answer.
