Many Roads to Heaven?
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Aren't There Many Roads That Lead To Heaven? |
No man created Heaven, and no man gets to decide how many roads there are to that Place. God created it, and what He says is, “there is ... One who brings God and man together, the man Christ Jesus” (I Tim 2:5). And, “Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven ...by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
The claim that there are many roads to heaven is the claim that all religions are the same. Every religion is the same... except one. As John MacArthur says, "There are only two kinds of religion: ...one is the religion of human achievement and the other is the religion of faith,and that's the true gospel.
"Human achievement will never cut it. Heaven is not our mythical man-made town, and it is not on this earth. No matter how far we walk (even on our knees) we will never reach it. No matter how heroic our deeds they will not earn us the right to get there. The strongest, smartest, most stick-to-it among us ... none is able to travel that road.
A simple illustration: Say we are all on the Hawaiian Islands, way out in the Pacific Ocean. Our task: to swim to California. We all set off. Some of us barely get our knees wet before turning back, afraid. Some struggle to get past the breaking waves. Some are strong swimmers and make it out of sight of land... but then go down. A very few –those amazing types who swim across Lake Michigan --make it a hundred miles out there. But then they, too, drown. No one makes it to California. No, not one.
Why? The task is beyond us. Many think they can, or try. The attempt to do this is we call “works salvation.” The reason trusting in our own works fails is because no one’s works are perfect. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). None of us has “works” that can get us to Heaven, just like even the best swimmer’s ability will never get them from Hawaii to California. We need another Way to get there.
Fortunately for us, the One who is perfect ... the One who made Heaven... the One who sets the rules for getting there... the One who declares there is only one road to it... He has already prepared this “way.” He is perfect. “God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). And so the way needed to be perfect.
Since there was no perfect man, God sent Jesus, His perfect Son, to be born of a woman and therefore to be both God and Man. Jesus said, “I am the Way... no one comes to the Father except by Me” (John 14:6). He not only lived on this earth, He died, was buried, and rose to life again to prove He is the Way. His sinless life, the substitutionary payment of His death, and the power of His resurrection, all prove He is unique.
The One who made Heaven also made a Way for us to get there... but just one Way.
Helpful Additional Resources:
What makes Christianity unique? An article by Got Questions
Why is Jesus the only way to God? Jesus believed that he was the only way to God. His claim was unique, controversial and dangerous. Is there, indeed, only one way to salvation?
The Uniqueness of Jesus: Jesus’ claim to be God, and his resurrection from the dead, set him apart from any other religious leader in history.
Is Jesus the Only Way? A video by the One Minute Apologist