One Way

This article was originally written for the Oakland Independent July 12, 2017.

I like to explore and one of the ways that I do that is by finding different ways to drive from here to there. I often drive back roads when coming home from some meeting in Wayne, Norfolk, Omaha, or Fremont. Eventually with the help of Google maps and my compass, I do make it home, but it often involves lots of twists and turn and sometimes even backtracking. One thing is clear though, I have to keep on roads that lead in the direction Oakland. If I am leaving Norfolk, I cannot start heading west and keep heading west and ever expect to get home. When looking at a map there may be several ways to get from here to there, but anyone who has ridden with a directionally challenged driver knows you cannot just go where ever you want and expect to get to your destination.

Jesus makes the extraordinary claim about spiritual direction, that he is "the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him" (John 14:6). He is claiming that there is only one way to get to God and that is through himself. This exclusive claim sounds harsh in the light of our modern and tolerant society, but I am convinced that Jesus is who he claimed to be and that his work provides the only way to get to God. Like the belief in a Trinitarian God who created everything else, the belief in the uniqueness of Jesus set Christians apart from those who don't believe in him.

Now when I say that Christians believe these things, I don't mean that we simply have a faith that they are true in spite of the facts or even though we don't have evidence. This is not the type of faith that is described in the Bible. We believe these things because we believe the best evidence points us in this direction.

I frequently tell our church that Jesus was a real man, who really lived, really died, and really rose again. The Bible is not just a book of fairy tales like a Disney movie, but rather a record of real historical events. Jesus is the best man who ever lived and in fact the best man who is still living! Furthermore, besides being just a man, the Bible makes it clear that Jesus is also God. So we, Christians believe that Jesus is both fully God and fully man.

He came and lived a perfect life, a life unlike any other before or since, and he came to live as a man for the expressed purpose of reconciling the relationship between God and man. All worldviews recognize the imperfections in the world, and the solution in most of them, religious and secular, is to somehow work yourself toward heaven and perfection. Jesus is unique in that he represents God coming to us and bridging the gap because we can never earn our way to heaven. What he offers is a free gift of salvation and life with him forever. His resurrection is also unique in history and proves that we can trust what he says about salvation.

Who Jesus is and what he has done, makes him the one way to get to God. Maybe though you think I am wrong and you do not believe any of these "wild" claims about Jesus that traditional Christians believe. Well, I cannot make you believe anything, but I would love to have a dialogue about it. Call me, write me, or write the paper. Start a conversation and tell me why you believe what you believe, and I will show you why I believe in Jesus. Let's talk and learn about each other.