“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”1
Stanley Jones tells of a missionary who got lost in an African jungle, nothing around him but bush and a few cleared places. He found a native hut and asked the native if he could get him out. The native said he could.
“All right,” said the missionary, “show me the way.”
The native said, “Walk,” so they walked and hacked their way through unmarked jungle for more than an hour.
The missionary got worried. “Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?”
The native said, “Bwana, in this place there is no path. I am the path.”2
When it comes to finding the way to God, there are various religions in the world today all claiming to have a corner on the truth and to be “the path” to God.
There are also vast numbers of people who believe that the way to God and the path to Heaven are through good works. Or at least, they reason (as I did in youthful days), “If I do more good things than I do bad things, my good deeds will outweigh my bad deeds, and that will get me into Heaven.” According to God’s Word, the Bible, this belief is also doomed for failure. As the Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”3
It is true that Christianity makes the claim that it is the ONLY path or way to God and to God’s Heaven. Again, the Bible says: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name [other than Jesus Christ] under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”4
The question we need to ask is this: “Is Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Savior of the World?” If he is and his Word is truth, then he is the only way to God and to Heaven. If he is not the Son of God, then he is not a good man nor a great religious leader. He would be a liar, an imposter, and guilty of leading multiplied millions astray.
But how can we know if Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, or not?
We will answer this question in the next three issues of Daily Encounters.
Suggested prayer: “Dear God, in all the many voices claiming to have the way to you and that of eternal salvation, help me to know the truth so I can be absolutely certain that I am on the ‘Truth Way’ and on my way to Heaven when I die. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
1. John 14:6 (NIV).
2. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com
3. Ephesians 2:8-9, (NKJV).
4. Acts 4:12, (NKJV).
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