I remember one time I was talking to my friend, and we were discussing current events. He said something that surprised me. He said he did not believe there was only one way to get to heaven. So, I was thinking, wow, really? I told him that I believe there is only one way because otherwise Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross would have been soaked into the tapestry of history as an insignificant event! He challenged me with people deep in the jungle who never heard about Jesus, and all the good people out there who were nice and kind, who never hurt a fly. “What about them?”, he asked.
I didn’t have to think about it much and the words just came out as I replied. I said that God has designed this universe for our existence. God has rules that we must abide by, or heaven will not be heaven when we get there. A little white lie here, a little theft there, a little bending of the rules and it all falls apart. The rules are not there only because he said so, but also, it’s for our own good! Ok so we obviously cannot live up to these rules, so a Saviour is needed and there is only ONE way to be saved from our rule breaking ways. That would be Jesus.
I continued and asked him that if there were only one door to get to safety from a burning building wouldn’t you do what you could to go out that door? I went on and went to larger scale and submitted that if there were only one door in the United States to escape a nuclear fallout wouldn’t you do what you could to find that door also? Would you not travel from another state or another country to get to that door? If that door is acceptable, then why is Jesus as the only “door” not acceptable? If you would not discriminate between what door you need to go through to safety, then why would you discriminate against Jesus as the only way to safety?
As I was met with perhaps a slight agreement from my friend; well perhaps food for his thoughts; I did also mention that it was up to all believers to help the lost find their way to this only “door”, which is Jesus. Help others get to safety. Show others where the door is that leads out of the burning building so to speak. Then there will be no excuse for the ones who live deep in the jungle that never heard about Jesus to use that excuse when they stand before God one day. Thank God we have people who are willing to go into those deep dark jungles today.
It’s like an agreement or a guarantee, or even work done on your car… wouldn’t you want a valid guarantee? What if the guarantee was full of white lies? Would you want the mechanic to cut corners on fixing your car? Certainly not! So isn’t God doing to the right thing by sticking to the rules, his rules, and not cutting corners? To say it again, “There’s only one way to be saved from our sins”. He can be trusted because he is God. He created the universe. I am glad there isn’t many ways to get to heaven. You really want to shop around for the best way to heaven like we shop around for the best mobile phone plan? No sir, it would be confusing, and it would take away the assurance, the trust, and rock-solid foundation we have in Jesus dying for our sins out of that perfect formula God provided for us. (John 3:14) One way, his way, the best way!
Ok now let’s back this up with some bible verses:
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. – Acts 4:12
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? – Romans 8:31
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. – Romans 3:12
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? – Romans 7:24
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. – Isaiah 1:18
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: – John 3:14
I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. – Isaiah 43:11