Jesus claimed, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) This is a very bold claim. This claim also excludes any other possible ways to God!

There are several reasons why Jesus is the only way:

• JESUS CLAIMED TO BE GOD AND PROVED IT

  Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30-33).

  
  The religious leaders were offended by Jesus’ claims because they understood this to be a claim to be equal with God (John 5:19). Although it is relatively easy for anyone to make such a claim, it is very difficult to prove it. Jesus not only claimed that He is God, He proved it by His resurrection. He not only predicted that He would be crucified and would rise again, He displayed it in the full view of history (See article, Did Jesus really rise from the dead?)


• ONLY JESUS DIED FOR OUR SINS Although leaders and icons of all the world religions are spoken of as punishers of sin or restorers of righteousness, none of them actually dealt with the sin that is in you and me. For example, Krishna is believed to manifest himself when there is decay in righteousness to restore it. He comes to destroy the wicked. But what about the wickedness in you and me? What about your guilt and my guilt? Who can rescue us from our sinful nature?
  Only Jesus Christ dealt with the sin within us. Only He paid the penalty that we should have paid. Only He took the punishment that we deserved. Instead of punishing the whole world for its sins, which includes us, Jesus Christ, in His love and mercy, came to us to die for us.


• ONLY JESUS CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD CONQUERING IT Jesus was falsely accused and executed by crucifixion – he was nailed through His hands and feet to a wooden cross, pronounced dead 6 hours later by the authorities, and was buried (Matthew 27:1-66). On the third day, He came back to life in the same body, and appeared to many witnesses and ate food with His disciples (Luke 24:1-7) proving that He was not a mere spirit. Jesus has permanently overcome death, and is very much alive in the same body he had to this day. No one has ever risen from the dead! Jesus Christ is unique.


• ONLY JESUS LIVED A SINLESS LIFE ULIKE OTHERS There is no one who has ever done the sort of miracles that Jesus performed while He was on earth. He healed many of leprosy, blindness, hemorrhage, paralysis, deafness, disability, demon possession and much more. He displayed His authority on nature when He controlled a violent storm, fed 3000 and 5000 people (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 8:1-9). He performed even greater miracle when He brought dead people back to life (Matthew 9:18-26, John 11). There is no one who has ever performed these sort of miracles.

C. S. Lewis wrote,

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God” (Mere Christianity)

What would your response be?

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