READ: John 14
THINK: In the marketplace of ideas, all vendors have an equal right to sell what they believe. But that doesn’t mean all their ideas are equally right. There are many people today who claim that all roads lead to God. They say that getting to God is like climbing a mountain – there may be many different paths but they all lead to the same summit.
Christians, though, proclaim that Jesus is the only way to God not because they are intolerant but because they believe it is true. We take at face value His claim that He alone is the true and living way to God.
Many people shrug off the claims of Jesus as the only Savior of the world by saying, “Well, that’s all fine and good, but you have your way to God and I have mine.” Jesus stood such thinking on its head when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6).
If Jesus’ claims are true, they are true for everyone. If they are false, the sooner we are proved wrong and put on the right road the better. As C. S. Lewis put it, “Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, is of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
We live in a world where inclusivism is very popular. But it runs counter to Jesus’ words. The New Testament tells us “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Jude’s expression “the faith” refers to the body of teaching believed by first-century Christians and lived out in the power of the Spirit. Why such an admonition? Because false teachers were subverting the truth. They were “ungodly,” they turned “the grace of our God into lewdness,” and they denied “the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (v.4).
We must not compromise the exclusiveness of Jesus’ words. And we must not fail to proclaim the all-inclusiveness of the gospel. God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son to die for our sins. Therefore anyone who believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Yes, the truth is both exclusive and inclusive.
Adapted from Haddon Robinson and Dennis DeHaan in Our Daily Bread
PRAY: Thank Jesus for being the way, the truth, and the life. Ask him for the courage to boldly proclaim truth in a world where – though it may be unpopular – it is desperately needed.
throughin2.com 