THE WAY TO SALVATION

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” – John 3:16

Before we can justifiably delve into God’s Ways, we must stand firm in the Faith that JESUS is THE WAY to SALVATION: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jh.3:16). Jesus Christ is the Way to Eternal Life, the Way into the Love of God, the only Way to Salvation!

Some people criticize Christianity and believers in Christ as being intolerant as to preach that Jesus Christ is the only Way to Salvation. They claim that there are many roads to heaven. They point to the world’s numerous religions and say, “How can your way be the only way?” Jesus Himself declared: “I and My Father are one” (Jh.10:30); “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” (Jh.14:9b). He didn’t give Christians any other option but to preach that it is only through faith in His sacrificial death on Calvary that humankind can be saved from sins: “I AM THE WAY, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (Jh.14:6). Jesus claimed to be God. His statements about Himself are either true or false.

The great British writer, C. S. Lewis, explained in his celebrated book, Mere Christianity, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher; he'd either be a lunatic…or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.” So Jesus was either a madman, a liar, a myth, or He really was -- and is -- the Son of God. To claim there are many ways to salvation is to call Jesus Christ a Liar!

Christianity is different from all other religions of the world in the ideas that God is Personal, and that He reached out to man to save him because man was helpless to save himself. Every other religion is based on man's efforts to reach God. They teach that man must somehow do righteous deeds or perform religious service – pray a certain number of times, in a certain manner, facing a certain direction; or wear a type of religious garment; or visit a certain religious shrine or temple; or worship in a particular way; or offer a sacrifice; or be inflicted with pain – in order to become holy or good enough for salvation.

In all of this, the striving after righteousness is based on man’s religious activity. A spiritual scale hangs over the individual’s head, with all of the committed sins on one side and all of their righteous deeds on the other. They never know whether they have been good enough, prayed enough, or worked hard enough to earn the righteous points needed to counter their earned sins. But the Bible teaches that man is a sinner and could never earn salvation by self-effort: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10); “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Salvation is available only through the sinless sacrifice of Christ as He bore the sins of the world on the cross (2Cor.5:21).

This salvation comes only through the Grace of God toward humankind, and is received by faith – not by any human deed: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). All we have to do is believe and receive what Jesus did to bring salvation to us. God has given us the grace to receive salvation; all we have to do is open the door by faith. Jesus Christ declared Himself to be the Son of God, the Saviour of the World. Do you believe? How have you responded His call to “follow Me” (Mt.4:19)?

Beloved, Life is short. Death is sure. Hell is real. Jesus saves!