I know that this really isn't a question. For some people, it may be questionable, but for the sake of today, I am going to simply assume that it is true rather than address the question. Mainly, this is because of what day it is and what the Church at large comes together to celebrate every year at this time.
Greg Koukl has said, multiple times, that he believes John 1:14 is perhaps the most important verse in the entire Bible. It speaks of a moment in human history when the almighty Creator of the entire universe - the One who made time, space and matter - humbled Himself by taking on a human nature for the express purpose of living a sinless life and dying a violent death in order to restore the broken relationship with His creatures.
People will often ask questions about whether Jesus is the only way to be saved. There are many biblical responses that can be pointed out. Jesus claimed to be the only way. Peter claimed that there was "no other name..." The biblical claims abound as to whether or not Jesus was the only way. There really can be no valid argument about whether or not the Bible claims this to be the case.
While it is quite simple to find many Bible passages which claim exclusivity through Christ, it takes a bit more time and careful study to determine why Jesus is the only way. This question seems to be almost as important as whether or not He is the only way.
Probably the best answer to the question of why this is so is this:
Jesus was the only one who solved the problem!
What problem was that? Look back to Genesis 3. We were separated from God. Adam's sin caused a rift that has resulted in all human beings to have a rebellious attitude toward our Creator. As Romans 3:23 says, " For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." When Paul says "fall short" he is indicating a chasm between us that we are unable to traverse.
Calvanists use the acronym TULIP to summarize the five major points of reformed theology. The first one, 'T,' stands for "Total depravity." Total depravity does not mean that we are all as bad as we can be. A better term for that concept would be "absolute depravity." Total depravity simply means that our total beings have been corrupted in such a way that everything we do has some sort of taint to it. As Paul points out, our very best is like "filthy rags" compared to the goodness of God.
It is this taint, this corruption, this polution of ourselves that maintains the separation from God. But there is no other person who has ever solve the problem of this separation other than Jesus of Nazareth. Elijah was a great prophet, but he didn't solve the problem. Isaiah didn't solve it. Neither did Ezra or Nehemiah. Nor did Mohammed.
After hundreds and thousands of years of making and breaking promises to do God's will, the people were given the most wonderful gift anyone could ever give. God, Himself, took the necessary steps to solve the problem and repair the damage that had been done by Adam so many generations earlier.
This was promised from long ago. It was promised to Eve when God said the savior would be from the seed of a woman (alluding to the virgin birth). Isaiah, Daniel, King David, Micah, etc. all prophesied that an Annointed One ('messiah' or, in Greek, 'Christos') would come to set things right. Read the accounts. If you think the Christian texts were corrupted and those prophesies placed in after the fact, feel free to refer to ancient Jewish texts that pre-date Jesus' birth. It's pretty clear. God had a plan. God never fails to execute His plans.
Jesus was born for one purpose and one purpose only. To repair our relationship with Him by taking on human form, living a sinless life, teaching people the Truth and dying to pay the debt that we could never pay.
This is a good point to bring up when dialoging with Jehovah's Witnesses. How could Jesus' death pay for our sins if He was merely human? Even if He was a perfect human, it wouldn't have been enough. Our sins against an infinite being incur and infinite consequence. Only an infinite payment could settle the debt. We are finite, therefore we could never pay an infinite death. The only way this would work is for the only infinite being in existence to pay the debt that only He could pay.
As the song goes, "Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow." And it all started when He took on a human nature, humbling Himself to live among His creatures who had fallen away from Him so that He could live among them, experience the stresses and strains and sufferings that living in a fallen world results in, and finally showing us the magnitude of His love..."Greater love has no one than this...that one lay down his life for his friends."
He came down to be with us just so He could bring us back to Him.
Amen.
For more resources:
- The Case for Christmas - Lee Strobel
- The Nativity Story
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