R.C. Sproul once said that if you believe Jesus Christ is one way to God, then you must believe that he is the only way to God.
That’s because if you believe Jesus Christ is one of many pathways to God, then you must also believe that this particular way was dead wrong when he claimed to be the only way to God.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
If Jesus was wrong when he claimed that “no one comes to the Father except through me” then how foolish would it be to think that he was, at the very least, one legitimate way to God.
Either Jesus is the only way or he is no way at all. And if he’s not who he claimed to be then we should ask what sort of man would make the kind of claims that he did.
What sort of man would claim to be the only way to God? What sort of man would claim to be God Himself, if that claim were not true? Certainly not a “good man.”
C.S. Lewis once perfectly highlighted how foolish it is to accept Jesus as anything less than God if we’re not willing to accept his claim to be divine and the only way to the Father.
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher,” Lewis said. “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.
Lewis continued: “Either [Jesus] 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 up with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He as not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
You must make your choice, Lewis said. So, who is Jesus?
He’s not merely one of many pathways to God. He’s not merely a man, a good man, or a great moral teacher. He is either a lunatic, a liar, or exactly who he claimed to be. The answer is obvious, but for many, the implications of accepting that answer are just too great.
The problem for many is once we acknowledge Jesus as Lord and King, we owe him our allegiance and servitude. But sadly, more often than not, we’d rather say “our will be done” and die, than “Your will be done” and live.
