No Other Way

I am the way… No one comes to the Father except through me.

No-one comes to God except through Jesus. He alone is the way. He is not A way. He is NOT one of many ways, one of the many spokes of the wheel that includes all the other religions and all the different “spiritual paths to enlightenment”… No, there is only one way to the one true God, to Yahweh, to the Almighty Creator of the universe, and that is through faith in Jesus, his son, a faith that includes following him. 

Only one way. You may feel uncomfortable saying this to some people. They may demand “Who are you to say there is only one way, that Jesus is the only way?” Well, we say so because Jesus himself says so. He ought to know, he is the only one who came down from God and he alone knows the way back to him. Because he is the way, we are wise if we choose it, but we need to be honest with people from the start, it’s not the easiest way. Sometimes it’s as though we try to entice people to faith by only telling them the ‘good’ stuff. Yes, we will have love, joy and peace, but we will also have persecution if we are truly following him. Then we are asked to die to ourselves, to daily take up our cross…

This reminds me of another key statement of Jesus, and it clarifies an important aspect of what it means to choose to follow Jesus. In Matthew 7:13-14 he says this:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

The narrow road Jesus talks of here is also THE WAY. It is narrow, often uncomfortably so, like a rough and stony uphill track. It requires a conscious effort to follow this road and relatively few people do so, because it doesn’t seem nearly as attractive as the broad road that everyone else is following. Sometimes, it can seem that EVERYONE apart from you is going the other way, on the broad road. That road requires little effort, because it descends the hill rather than climbing it. What is more, all the people on the wide road appear to be having a great old time, partying hard as they go. In fact, these two roads are heading in opposite directions. One road leads to hell, and the other to heaven. 

Jesus reinforces this teaching in Luke 13:22-25: 

Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

This is definitely one of the scarier parables. But returning to the narrow gate and the narrow way we find ourselves facing once we pass through the gate (or door), there is an important point we must bear in mind. The path is going somewhere. We are following a way which has a destination. We will only arrive at that destination if we follow it to the end. This is a theme we find over and over again: if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end; if we remain steadfast; if we endure to the end. We will need to endure, and to remain steadfast because, as Jesus said, the road is narrow, and by implication, at times it is hard.

But as James, the Lord’s own brother wrote in James 1:12 “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

With love in Jesus,

Sarah