Is Jesus the only way to God?
Through the years, several notable figures, including Oprah Winfrey, British theologian John Hick, and Steve Harvey, have expressed the view that “many paths lead to God.”
More recently, Texas State Representative James Talarico, who is running for the U.S. Senate, caused a significant stir when an interview on the Vote Common Good podcast resurfaced. Discussing various faith traditions, he called God, Yahweh, Allah, Nirvana, and the Great Spirit “different pathways to the same kind of fundamental truth of reality.”
The Bible, however, leaves no doubt for those who accept Jesus’ powerful proclamation: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Regarding Jesus’ claim to deity, C. S. Lewis, formerly an atheist, offers this bold and challenging statement about Jesus in his classic 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 would either be a lunatic—on a 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.”
However, our world today often wants to diminish Jesus. We are urged to avoid praying in His name, speaking about Him, or proclaiming Him as the one and only Savior, lest we offend those who believe differently.
Jesus’ proclamation answered Thomas’s question about how the disciples could know the way to the Father (John 14:5).
Consider these three simple yet profound truths Jesus spoke.
#1 Jesus is the Way to God
In John’s prologue, he affirms, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Later John declares, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father…” (John 1:1,14).
Jesus was and is Deity. He came in the flesh to show us God and to lead us to the Father.
When the apostle Peter preached Jesus, he proclaimed, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Regardless of the theories of religious liberalism, Jesus and the Bible writers affirm He is the Way.
#2 Jesus is the Truth
“I am the Truth” seems pretty easy to understand. Jesus said He embodied truth. The essence of truth. The incarnation of truth.
John wrote, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” and that He was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14,17).
At His trial, Jesus told Pilate that He came into the world to “bear witness to the truth.” Then He boldly stated, “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37).
To the Jews, Jesus announced, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). He continued by affirming that He was the One who could make them free! (John 8:36).
Do you desire to find, learn, and come to know spiritual truth? Come to Christ—Jesus is the Truth.
#3 Jesus is the Life
Speaking of Jesus, the incarnate Word, John wrote, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:4–5).
Using the metaphor of living bread, Jesus affirmed that He was the giver and sustainer of spiritual life.
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
In His prayer before entering Gethsemane, Jesus acknowledged His purpose and mission to give eternal life:
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:1–3).
C. S. Lewis was right about Jesus:
“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.”
Are we following His way, accepting His truth, and finding our life in Him?
Jesus is the Way. The Truth. The Life.
–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman
