Greetings,

I am okay, you’re okay… you do you… I can respect that… that’s cool for you… these are popular responses that people give when facing a challenge to their worldview. At first glance, they are kind of a courteous way to end the conversation. However, these comments are more than a quick brush off from what may be a difficult discussion. They are a part of a larger thesis statement to a worldview that is old but has morphed and resurfaced in western culture and is quickly becoming global. This thesis statement claims that there are many options, several ways to live that are right and good. The argument from many is that what you believe is only one of many philosophies and your way may be right for you but I don’t find it helpful for me.

So, Jesus saying that He is the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to God except through Him is “problematic” to people because of the exclusivity of that statement. I am convinced that this is the largest intellectual hurdle for most people to get over in order to understand why Jesus is such a big deal.

Convincing a “many roads” minded person to trust in an almighty God alone is tough especially because they often don’t believe in one almighty creator. This issue of a creator has been debated since the beginning of time and the “sophisticated” mind has trouble dealing with a creator God. Not in intellectual terms, but emotionally. The bottom line is, if there is a God, and if that God is holy, that will mean that I must change; I don’t want to change, so I will argue for no God and work hard to convince myself and others that I am right.

The next important intellectual hurdle is coming to terms with whether the Bible is the inspired word of God. If the Bible is the inspired word of God, then God is absolutely holy and therefore cannot be approached by any created being, no matter how righteous that person claims to be. Holiness in its very essence is set apart, dangerous, powerful, pure and perfect. A holy God can only be approached by perfection and no one is perfect. The only way that a holy God would allow an imperfect human to stand in His presence, is if that holy God chooses to either overlook the imperfection or impute His perfection onto the imperfect one.

The Bible is clear that God has given imperfect humanity His perfect righteousness as a gift through Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus is not only a perfect human, but bears the very names of God--He is self-existent, all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal, sinless, sovereign, and is in His very nature, God. He possesses the authority of God, performs the work of God and is worshiped as God. The Old Testament prophesied about Jesus and through His life, death, burial and resurrection He fulfilled, very conservatively, over 100 messianic prophecies.  

Since God through Jesus replaces our imperfection with Jesus’s perfection and it is only through Jesus’ perfection that we are allowed into the presence of the almighty, holy, creator God, it appears to be the only possible way to God. This is the exclusive, free and holy gift that Jesus offers to all who believe.

Unfortunately, humanity wants to earn God’s favor for some reason. We want to be considered good enough, capable enough and smart enough to craft a new and simple way to enter into the presence of the holy creator God by our own merit.  Unfortunately, any other way but perfection will fall dreadfully short.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 -- "And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers."

Love ya,