Just One

On my way home from work yesterday, my preacher and I were talking about how important it is that we use whatever avenues we can to teach the non-negotiable truth that Jesus is the one and only way. This morning my Bible reading took me to two places that express that same truth.

First in John 3:16-18, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

And then, Matthew 26:39,42,44-45, "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'  He went away a second time and prayed, 'My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.'  So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.  Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.'"

The message is clear: Jesus was sent into the world to suffer death because there was simply no other way for man to be saved. Apart from him, we stand on our own and that foundation will not support us. There is no other way: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

If there was another way, God the Son would not have went to the cross. If there were another way Gd the Father would not have sent him. If there were another way, God the Spirit would have revealed that instead of the singular truth: "Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (Jn 14:6). Jus' Say'n.