January 17 | One Way
John 14:6, “Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Have you ever driven the wrong way on a “one way” street? If so, you might have heard someone yell, “Stop! You’re going the wrong way!” If you listened and turned back around, you were probably thankful for their help. The same is true about heaven. There is only one way to go — a narrow road — through Jesus. It is the job of every Christian to help people who are going the wrong way, to stop, turn around and go the right way. The Bible calls this act of turning around, “repentance” (Acts 3:19).
Jesus always acted, and taught, that He was the only way to the Father, because He knew who He was, where He came from and where He was going. He made no mention of Buddha, Krishna, or even Hercules (all supposed ways that came before His incarnation). According to Jesus, He was the only way people could be in a relationship with God, and those who taught other ways (those before Him and those who would come after) were thieves and robbers (John 10:8).
Was Jesus a liar, a lunatic or Lord? Did Jesus really believe there were “many roads” to heaven, and lie about Himself being the only way because of His ego? Was Jesus a lunatic? Was He out of His mind because He didn’t know how crazy His statements really were? Or was Jesus, who He said He was, “Lord?”
Some people, today, like to say Jesus was just a “good man,” but would a good man lie or act like a lunatic? Jesus’ own actions leave no room for Him to just be a good man. A good man doesn’t claim to be the only way to God, the Shepherd of men’s souls and the Judge of all the earth.
If Jesus was telling the truth, He is the Lord of all; and; He then must be taken seriously and His teachings fully obeyed.
C.S. Lewis famously wrote, “A man who was merely a man, and said the sort of things Jesus said, would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would 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. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
If you believe Jesus is Lord, it’s your responsibility to let others know about the “one way” to God. We live in a culture where “buffet religion” is very popular. Many people like to pick and choose from each religion what they like the best; a little Jesus with a side order of Buddha. However, a little poison with your food will kill you. Decide to always follow Jesus and let others know they should too!
Reflection
Action
- Ask God to give you the revelation of Jesus being the only way to the Father.
- Determine to always follow Jesus and spend time with the Father.
- When God brings people into your life who are going the wrong way, have a prayerfully prepared, short message to share with them to help turn them around.