Jesus is the Only Way
Sorry to be Exclusive
One of Christianity’s most enduring and influential hymns, Amazing Grace, was written by John Newton, a man who as a former slave trader had been the cause of untold misery and suffering to tens of thousands of people prior to his conversion. If anybody was an unlikely candidate for, well, ‘amazing grace’, it was him (and that’s kind of the point of the song).
Those of us who are Christians, of all people, cannot and should not ever claim that any person (or type of person for that matter) is beyond the reach of God’s redeeming love.
But on the other hand, Christianity is an exclusive faith, and, might I say, counter culturally-so, in this day and age.
There is only one Way. Only one Truth. Only one Life. This means that every other way is a dead-end, every other truth is superseded and no other life is worth living.
Thomas was hung up on the destination and the directions, but Jesus was talking about destiny and dependence. When Jesus told them that they knew where He was going, He was referring to what He had already told them. He was going to the Father. That is ultimately where He was leading each one of them and is leading each one of us. And that is all that they needed to know. When He told them that they already knew the way, He was not referring to the path of their natural life that they would travel to its end. Little did they know that the way ahead for each man listening to those words involved trials and triumphs, suffering and glory, and in all but John’s case, a horrific death. But those were just the details. He was not telling them about that. He was referring to Himself, the living Way to the ultimate destiny of relationship with the Father.
I don’t know what my life will take me through, but I know who He will take me to. And that is all that matters.
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