A Truth Claim in a Tolerant Culture

by Brian Bill
Published October 1, 2007

Though Christianity still dominates by sheer numbers, the U.S. now has a greater diversity of religious assemblies than any country in recorded history. The Encyclopedia of American Religions lists more than 2,300 different groupings, with 44% of them non-Christian. Half of these have blossomed just since 1960.

In the midst of all this doctrinal diversity, the Bible makes some rather startling claims that run counter-cultural to the mantra of religious pluralism. Acts 4:12 says: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” 1 Timothy 2:5-6 says: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men…” 1 John 5:12 is concise and very pointed: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

These passages are extremely exclusive and overwhelmingly clear: Jesus is the only way to heaven. His statements of divine authority are incompatible with the homogenizing views of religious pluralists. The claims of Christ are outrageous but they happen to be what G.K. Chesterton called “the wild truth.”

Perhaps the strongest verse in the entire Bible is a sentence uttered by Jesus Himself in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Here are a few observations: First, notice that this verse begins with the pronoun “I.” We are not saved by a principle or a force but by a person. Jesus did not say that He knew the way, the truth and the life, or even that he taught these great principles. He declared Himself to be the embodiment of the way, the truth and the life. Jesus doesn’t offer a recipe to follow, but rather a relationship.

Second, in the original, the words way, truth and life have the definite article in front of them so that the verse would read, “I am the way (that is, the only way), I am the truth (that is, the only truth), and the life (that is, the only life).”

Third, all three concepts are active and dynamic. The way brings to God; the truth makes us free; and the life produces relationship. Without the way there is no going, without the truth there is no knowing, without the life there is no living.

Fourth, the context indicates that the idea of “the way” predominates. In essence, Jesus is saying: “I am the way because I am the truth and the life.”

Finally, there is only one avenue to salvation. With Christ removed there is no redemptive truth, no everlasting life and no way to the Father. While other religions offer systems of thought that try to get over the gap between us and God, Jesus is the only one who has succeeded in bridging that great divide.

All the other major world religions teach that you must get yourself together. You must pray five times a day, give money, fast, take a pilgrimage, use a prayer wheel, avoid certain foods, attend religious services, live a decent life and other innumerable requirements.

Christianity is different. God tells us that we will never earn Heaven or deserve a right relationship with Him. Simply put, we can’t live up to His standards. Instead, God has taken the initiative. Because of His great love for us, He sent Jesus to rescue us from the penalty of death that our wrongdoing deserves.

In the middle of all this diversity, there is such a thing as doctrine. Amidst the plethora of religious options, Jesus declares that He is only way to God.

Religion is our attempt at finding God. Christianity is God’s plan to find us. Here’s your choice: you can be religious or you can have a relationship with the one who made you and loves you.

When the missionary John Paton arrived in the New Hebrides in the mid-1800s, he began translating the New Testament and didn’t know how to illustrate the word believe. One day, when he was leaning on a chair, the concept of trust emerged. This is how John 3:16 now reads in their Bible, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever throws his whole weight on Him, will not perish but have eternal life.”

Are you ready to do that today? Because Jesus is the only way, throw your entire weight on Him – then you’ll know what is true, and in the process, you’ll discover what life is all about.

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