CHAPTER 14
One Way
What is it that you saw on the previous page? Did you see a white dot on a black background, or did you see a black background with a small white dot on it? So often, we focus on the smallest of imperfections and refuse to see the majority of cleanness. This is what I want to talk about in this chapter; the smallest of problems that we focus on. I was listening to Doctor Tony Evens on the radio, and he was talking about the one tree that God put in the garden in which He told man not to eat. Dr. Evens said that people didn’t focus on the thousands of trees that God didn’t forbid; just the one that he said we could not eat from. Now the point behind my telling you this is; in church recently we were talking about Jesus, and whether He had to die to complete God’s plan. Purposely, I brought the conversation around to Jesus being the only way into heaven, and that’s when the conflict arose. The question about people who were in the deepest part of Africa, or Brazil came up. What about these people? Thus the dot on the completely blank piece of paper!
Personally, I believe that there are very few who have not heard the gospel of Christ, but if there were, would those souls go to heaven? My answer to them really made the hairs on the top of their heads standup. I said probably not, because if they have not received Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior they would be judged by the law; and by reading Romans we know that no man can be saved by the law.
In Ezekiel 18 starting at verse 4, let’s look at the type of life someone being judged under the law would have to live: "Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins shall die. But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right; If he has not eaten on the mountains, Nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, Nor defiled his neighbor’s wife, Nor approached a woman during her impurity; If he has not oppressed anyone, but has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has robbed no one by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry and covered the naked with clothing; If he has not exacted usury nor taken any increase, but has withdrawn his hand from iniquity and executed true judgment between man and man; If he has walked in my statutes and kept my judgments faithfully --- he is just; He shall surely live!"
Many of the things mentioned above, I believe, are doable. There are only two which I can see that are nearly impossible: 1. And executed true judgment between man and man, and 2. And keep My judgments faithfully. Here lies the problem. Even David who tried his whole life to follow God’s laws could not do it. Did he do what was fair in regards to Uriah by taking his wife Bathsheba? No, he did not! He allowed his human desires to cause him to sin.
The reason God sent His son to this lost world was so all mankind could be saved by believing in Him. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." "And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." Jesus is the only way.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." " That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved." "Also I say to you, whoever confesses me before men, him the Son of man also will confess before the angels of God." "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, through he may die, he shall live. Finally, whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
Well, do you believe this? These are but a few of the references on the subject of salvation through Christ that are found in scripture. Notice one thing in the previous paragraph. Very few of the words used are my own. I did not say that Jesus is the only way into heaven, God did. I am not being narrow-minded or intolerant of others. God is. We focus either on the dot, or on the background. Either we believe God, or we argue with him about being unfair. I choose to focus on eating from the trees God gave me instead of the one denied me. God’s ways are far above my own, and I’m not high enough in the heavenly chain to worry about those that have never had the word preached to them. My job is to make sure that I preach God’s word to all I see so that no person who stands before God can say "I never heard Jesus say, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.' "
Yes Jesus is the only way, and when our time comes to see him in His glory the end will already be known, for as it say in Hebrew’s 9: 27, "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment."
Yes, Jesus is the only way. The Son of the most high God, and His Father has honored Him above all else. As it is stated in Philipians 2, verse 9: "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and those under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." For as it says in Hebrews Chapter 10, starting with verse 26: "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of Grace?"
By refusing to believe in the solemnest that is Christ Jesus, we are refusing to believe the word of God. We are counting on the favors of man instead of the favors of God. We are holding strange gods before us, and thus sinning. We are refusing to recognize Jesus in front of our brothers and sisters here on earth, thus opening up the possibility that Christ will refuse to hold us up in front of the angels, to His Father that is in heaven. We are providing a disservice to all those we meet by building up a false hope about everlasting life. Finally, we are not acting as Disciples of Christ; or born again believers. For as John says in his first letter, "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also."
God’s holy word is eternal, as it has never changed and never will! It has been ringing out the same truth since Adam’s time in the garden. That being, God loves us and wants to have a deep relation with us, His people. We, however, have not changed either. We are still trying to attain godhood for ourselves. In addition, unfortunately, Satan has not changed as well, as he is still trying to lead God’s people astray. Yes, for all our technological advances we are still the same at heart. We are still denying the oneness of God. We are still refusing to listen to God’s prophets, but instead of hurling rocks, we hurl insults. Both kill! We still are like Jonah, trying to run away from delivering God’s message to the Ninevehite by jumping on a ship to Tarshish. Our ship is the U.S. "Don’t Rock The Boat." Our great fish is the belly of our fat churches, and when we are spewed out, it will be out of the mouth of Christ for being lukewarm. Yes my brothers and sisters, don’t have a false sense of security, for as it says in 2 Peter 2:4, "For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed with the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) - then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment."