Is Jesus the only way to heaven?
This question itself shows a complete misunderstanding of who Jesus is. So, first I will answer
the question of who Jesus is, show why
he is one of a kind in the vast malaise
of spiritual gurus today, and then list the Scriptures to what we must do since
this is the case.
So who is Jesus? Is he a just a poor Jewish teacher – a homeless rabbi?
Is he a pacifist political dissident – a bearded Gandhi?
Let us remember Exodus 3 when Moses is at the burning bush
meeting God himself, Moses asks what if the people of Israel ask your name and
God replies –I am who I am. Well
later in John 8:23-24, Jesus said to them, “You are from below; I am from
above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would
die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am who I am - you will die in your sins.” It is a myth that
Christ never claimed deity, he often invoked the divine name I am who I am for himself, he claimed to
come down from heaven, claimed to pre-exist before the Old Testament Jewish
fathers, that he and the Father are 1, and his own designated title the Son of
Man from Daniel 7 is a claim to be the 1
and only given – by God the Father – an Eternal kingdom and dominion over
all peoples, of all languages and in all nations.
Or how about even earlier, Genesis 1:1 says Yahweh Elohim
created the heavens and the Earth, but
wait both Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1 say Jesus created the heavens and
Earth. So which is it God or Jesus? Well John 1 helps us out with that. John
also says that Jesus created all things and made the world but he goes further
in telling us also that Jesus is both with God and is God. Let me say that
again the Bible makes clear not just that
the Earth was created but that our God,
Savior and Christ Jesus created it. We should also meditate on John 20:26-31 which tells
of an appearance of Christ to the disciples after the crucifixion –Eight days later, and his
disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were
locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he
said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand,
and place it in my side. Do not
disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” (That’s repentance and faith.) Jesus said to
him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have
not seen and yet have believed.” Even from the lips of doubting Thomas,
Jesus is not just another good, moral religious teacher but Lord and God in flesh proved by his self-resurrection
from the dead.
Jude, a former unbeliever, will go even further in 1:5-7 when
he says of his own half-brother, that it was Jesus who, thousands of years
earlier, led the Jews out of slavery in Egypt to go to the wilderness where
they would receive God’s Law, and it was Christ who destroyed the unbelievers
wandering there in the wilderness, and it is Jesus who has reserved the fallen,
reprobate angels for their final judgment to come, and it was Christ who
destroyed the sexually immoral from Sodom and Gomorrah who pursued both
heterosexual and homosexual lusts instead a right standing before him.
But even these are not the limit to how Jesus is one of a
kind. Lets look at just a few Old Testament messianic prophecies. Since the
Fall in Genesis 3, Yahweh has declared that there shall come a special child who is described not born
of both a father and mother but would be specifically the offspring of a woman
alone, a boy, who though wounded by Satan will ultimately triumph over him.
This one, known to the Jewish people as their Messiah would be a prophet like
Moses, descended from Adam, descended from Seth, descended from Noah, descended
from Shem, descended from Abraham, descended from Isaac, descended from Jacob, descended
from Judah, descended from Jesse, descended from David, He would be born in
Bethlehem, he would be from Nazareth of Galilee, born of a virgin, his birth
would cause an infant massacre much like Moses’ day, he would be a priest like
Melchisedek, he will come - while the Temple of Jerusalem still stands, he will
come out of Egypt, he will do miracles, he will speak in parables, he will both
draw Gentiles to himself while his own people (the Jews) reject him, a man of
the wilderness will prepare the way for him (this is John the Baptist), according
to the prophet Daniel who said it would be sometime near the 30’s AD (the time
of Jesus’ ministry) and the Messiah would be revealed and cut off, but not for
himself (this was an image of his substitutionary atonement), he would enter
Jerusalem riding a donkey, he would be hated for no reason, rejected by rulers,
rejected by his own brothers, he would be betrayed by someone close to him – a
friend, he would be betrayed for
30 pieces of silver, the betrayal money would be cast on the floor of the
Temple, that money would be used to by a potter’s field, he would not open his
mouth to defend himself, he would be spit on, he would be numbered with the
transgressors, he would be pierced in both his hands and feet, something like a
crucifixion is foretold, the Passover and his sacrificial death where to
coincide so that he might become our ultimate Passover Lamb, his bones were not
to be broken, people would cast lots and divide his clothes, he would be given
vinegar and gall to drink, he would say My God, my God, why has thou forsaken
me?, his disciples would scatter, he would be buried with the rich, yet his
body would not decay, he would be resurrected from the dead, he would ascend
into heaven, he would sit at God’s right hand, and he would be the Son of God. He would be God and he would be Man. Its
funny really, this all sounds so familiar, like someone I know, it sounds like the life of Jesus.
So now that we have seen that Jesus is God, the God of the Old
Testament, that Jesus created the heavens and the earth, that Jesus lead the
Jews out of their bondage in Egypt, that Jesus judges Eternally the immoral and
ungodly unbelievers and that Jesus has already fulfilled so much of the
Messianic prophecies, now what does
this Jesus say to us sinners today. Luke 24:44-47 says not only the New
Testament but all of the Old Testament is about Him and that repentance and the
forgiveness of sins won for us in Christ must be proclaimed to all nations. I
like the simplicity of Jesus in Mark 1:15 which says Repent and believe in the Gospel or again in Mark 5:36 do not fear, only believe.
Acts
19:4 Dr Luke quoting Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one
who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.”
Also
the Jews once asked Jesus what must we do, to be doing the works of God?
And
Christ said in John 6:29 this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom God has sent.
John
10:25-30 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works
that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe
because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,
and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to
me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's
hand. I and the Father are one.”
Acts
16:30-34 Luke again, Then the jailer brought them out and said, “Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?” And Paul and Silas said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and all your
household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him (the Gospel) and to all
who were in his house. And he took them that same hour of the night and washed
their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he
brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in
God. (Believing in Jesus is Believing
in God – there is no distinction.)
Even
back in the Old Testament, Jonah 3:1-5 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah
the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out
against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh,
according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,
three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's
journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God.
They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the
least of them. (And the people of Nineveh
repented).
Romans
10:8-13 Paul again, but
what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that
is, the word of faith that we proclaim – the Gospel); because, if you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is
justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture
says, “Everyone who believes in him will
not be put to shame.”
Titus 3:5-8 For
we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various
passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others
and hating one another. But when the goodness
and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, he
saved us, not because of good works done by us in righteousness, but according
to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy
Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that
being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. This saying is trustworthy, and
I want you to insist on these things, so
that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to
good works.
Acts
15:7-9 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them,
“Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by
my mouth the Gentiles should hear the
word of the Gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness
to them, by giving them the same Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made
no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
Romans
4:4-8 Paul says, now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift
but as his due. But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as
righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom
God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless
deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom
the Lord will not count his sin.”
Acts
10:38-43 Peter said, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the
devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in
the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him
on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to
all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and
drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to
the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of
the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives
forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Romans
1:16-18 Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it (the Gospel) the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The
righteous shall live by faith.”
John
11:25-27 Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet
shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Messiah,
the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Isaiah
45:18-25 for thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!),
Who
formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty,
He
formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I did not
speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of
Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right. “Assemble
yourselves and come; Draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They
have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to
gods that cannot save. Declare and present your case; let them take counsel
together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the
LORD? And there is no other god besides
me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of
the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from
my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘to me
every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ “Only in the LORD,
it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and
be ashamed all who were once incensed against him.
John
14:1-7 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe
in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were
not so, why would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to
myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am
going.” But Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How
can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, I
am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me,
you would have known my Father also. From
now on you do know him and have seen him (Christ can say this “you have
seen God”, since He and the Father are in fact 1 in being).
Acts
4:8-12 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the
people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done
to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to
all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is
standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the
builders, which has become the cornerstone. And
there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved.”
The
obvious answer here is that this consideration about Jesus is not something
optional like choosing a favorite Saint from Church history – Augustine,
Luther, Calvin, Whitefield, Spurgeon. But to reject Jesus is not to reject a religious authority but the Authority,
it is nothing less that an outright rejection of God himself. The only way to
be saved - is in trusting Him and without Him you are without Hope. I’ll close
with the classic- John 3:13-18 No one has ascended into heaven except he who
descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order
that the world might be saved through him. Whoever
believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned
already, because he has not believed in
the name of the only Son of God. You are an idolater! I know because we all
are, you love you, you love your sin, you love your idols. Sinner please, I
implore you, turn from your sinful idolatry (this is repentance), and trust no
longer in yourself, in your good works, in your obedience but trust instead on
Him (this is faith or belief in him), is he not God, is he not able to save,
was he not sinless in your place, did he not die for your sins, did he not
rise, He is the God-Man Jesus Christ. Repent and Believe the Gospel.
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Bibliography:
1- http://www.godonthe.net/evidence/messiah.htm - Messianic prophecies
fulfilled by Jesus
2 - http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/messianicprophecies.html - Messianic prophecies
fulfilled by Christ
All
scriptural texts provided by ESVbible.org – the
Elect Standard Version.
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