Why would Jesus be the only way to God?

  

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

This is a common question that comes up when talking Christianity and how to "get to" heaven. There are many different faiths and many different ideas on what to expect after we shuffle off this mortal coil. Many people believe that all roads lead to "heaven" (whatever that means for each individual). So, why should Christians believe that Jesus is the one and only way to get to heaven?

Obviously, the short answer is because Jesus said so. Unfortunately this may not be a particularly compelling answer for someone who does not see the Bible or Jesus as an authoritative source. Authority is a fairly significant issue and is beyond the scope of what I want to cover here, but will certainly attempt to address that at another time.

For now, assuming that the Bible is actually authoritative, let's take a look at how this remains a very important doctrine from within the Christian faith. For many, the fact that Jesus said so is sufficient. But how and why is that the case?

For that, we would need to go all the way back to Genesis. When Man was first created, we were in union with God. There was no sin to separate us from Him. Whether you view the first three chapters of Genesis as an actual, historical account of events or a metaphorical concept of the creation and the Fall, in either case there was a time during which Man and God were in a relationship that involved no sin and then there was a time at which Man sinned and created a separation from God.

Given that God is an infinitely good being, and the Bible tells us that He cannot look upon sin (Habbakuk 1), it was necessary to remove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, which many view as a metaphor for being in right relationship with God. If you view this as a literal account, nothing more is to be said. If you believe it is metaphorical, the idea is still that there was a point at which mankind disobeyed God and created a separation between Him and them. In Luke 16, we see that "between us and you a great chasm has been set in place." 

God, what with being God and all, exists on one side of the chasm. This side is perfect and without any sort of sin whatsoever. We, on the other hand, are on the opposite side of this chasm. The only way to get across that bridge from our side to His side is to completely remove the stain of sin. Of course, this is not possible for us to do as everything on this side of the chasm is stained with sin. One cannot clean the stain with a stained cloth, as it were.

So, how do we create that bridge across the chasm? A bridge has to exist on both sides in order for it to be useful. Therefore, we needed a bridge that could exist on the human side and also on the divine side of the chasm. This is where Jesus comes in. From the beginning (John 1:1), Jesus was the diving Son of God. He was one of the three individual persons who shared the divine essence with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Because of this, Jesus (as the bridge) obviously meets the criteria to be on the divine side of the chasm.

Then, on one special night about which many songs have been written which we still sing to this day during certain times of the year, Jesus did something that theologians for millenia have not been able to fully understand. He took on a human essence. At that point, not only was He divine, with all the necessary properties and attributes of divinity, but He also took on all of the necessary properties and attributes of being human. Therefore, He was qualified to connect to the human side of the chasm.

"But I thought Jesus was without sin," you say. "How could He take on a human essence and still not sin?" you ask. Well, notice that I said that He took on the necessary  properties and attributes of humanity. Remember, prior to Genesis 3, humans existed and were without sin.  Therefore, we can conclude that sin is not a necessary attribute of being human. Being descended from Adam, it is unavoidable for us, but it is not necessary. I know...the distinction seems a bit complicated, but it is important.

Because Jesus' human existence was an act of divine power, He was not subject to the inevitability of sin as the rest of the descendants of Adam have been. For this reason, Jesus was both human and divine. He had all the required qualifications to connect to both sides of this chasm...just like a bridge. Nobody else has ever been able to honestly make the claim to be both human and divine. Therefore, nobody else could exist on both sides of the chasm, which means they cannot solve the problem for us.

Jesus exists on both sides of the chasm. He is the only connection from one side to the other. So, as Greg Koukl puts it (far more succinctly than this post), "He's the only one would solved the problem." He is the only one through whom we can reconnect with God.

To boil this down, we were in right relationship with God. Then, humanity "fell" by being disobedient to God's command and we became separated from Him. Jesus bridged that gap by becoming a human and living the perfect life that we were expected to live and willingly paying the debt we owed to God for being disobedient. Because He was both God and Man, He was able to re-establish our relationship with God and therefore He is the only way to "get to" heaven (which basically means spending eternity in relationship with Him).

Hopefully, that helps to clear things up about why Jesus really is the only way to salvation. He's the only one who could pay our debt and fix the problem of separation from the Father. It is because of what He has done that we strive to be like Him, exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5). We don't follow Jesus in order to be saved. We follow Him because He save us. It's important to not get the cart before the horse.

Let me know your thoughts or if this helped in some way.