In John 14:6, Jesus made an eternally important declaration about salvation: “I am the only way to salvation or heaven.” I was talking to my friend Keith Thrasher about this sermon on John 14:6. He told me that the Lord used John 14:6 to lead him to salvation. Keith was more agnostic before salvation. In 2005, He was working at the Illinois Department of Corrections in a maximum-security facility, the same prison that housed the state’s death row.
A co-worker began to talk with Keith about Jesus. The co-worker suggested Keith read the Gospel of John. Keith shared with me, “I picked the Bible up and read through John in just two days. Something inside me knew this book was different; it wasn’t just words on a page.” Not long after that, Keith opened his Bible again, and his eyes landed directly on John 14:6, where Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Keith responded, “[The Gospel of John] was all pointing to this one truth, that Jesus is not one way among many, but the only Way.” Shortly later, Keith trusted Christ as his Savior. Keith said, “That verse had such an impact on me that I had John 14:6 tattooed on my forearm.”
The Lord used John 14:6 to change Keith’s life and he has the tattoo to prove it!
Is Keith arrogant for claiming that Christ is the only way to salvation and Heaven? That is what I believe. Am I arrogant? That is the doctrinal belief of CU. Is our school arrogant? Carolina University’s Statement of Faith: “Salvation is the free and everlasting gift from God received by personal faith in Jesus Christ alone through God’s grace alone, and that regeneration is entirely apart from religious activities or good works.”
One of the major arguments against the exclusivity of Jesus Christ is being arrogant. Tim Keller wrote a book defending the faith entitled The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Scepticism. Blair, a twenty-four-year-old woman living in Manhattan, protested: “How could there be just one true faith? It’s arrogant to say your religion is superior and try to convert everyone else to it.”[1]
We believers should not be arrogant about exclusivity! However, if a believer is guilty of being arrogant, that does not change the truth about which the believer is arrogant.
Many NBA fans believe Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player ever. Others think LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. I personally do not think Jordan was the greatest. I think 5’3” Muggsy Bogues was the greatest for obvious reasons. I heard Michael Jordan in an interview boast that he was the greatest basketball player in the world. That may have been arrogant, but that did not change the fact that he was one of the greatest basketball players in the world. We should not be arrogant about Jesus Christ being the only way of salvation. But arrogance does not change the fact.
The main point of my message is this: The unsaved must believe there is only one God and only one way of salvation through Jesus Christ
I want to present three reasons from God’s Word why every unsaved person, that is, any person who has not trusted Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, should believe there is only one God and only one way of salvation. Those three reasons are:
1. The entire Bible teaches that there is one God and one way of salvation
2. The Gospel of John was written to teach that there is one God and one way of salvation
3. Jesus also taught that there is only one God and one way of salvation.
Danny Jones, on his podcast, stated that Jesus being the exclusive way to salvation and heaven comes from one line in John 14:6. What Jesus declared is not in isolation.
I. Because the entire Bible (from Genesis to Revelation) teaches that there is only one God and only one way of salvation.
1. The OT declares there is only one God and only one way to salvation.
We can start with Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” One reason Moses wrote Genesis was to combat the false religions of his day. In Genesis 1:1, Moses is refuting the origin-of-the-universe stories and Creation myths that other gods created the universe, such as those of the Babylonian god Marduk and the Egyptian god Atum.
Moses in Genesis three records the fall of man into sin and God’s remedy, which was to take the innocent life of an animal to cover their sins.
W. A. Criswell began his famous sermon series on the scarlet thread of shed blood that runs through the Bible with Adam and Eve. An innocent animal’s blood was shed. In Exodus 12, the Passover lamb’s blood is shed. Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” Genesis teaches that there is only one God and that salvation is found only in Jesus Christ. Moses wrote Deuteronomy for Israel just before they entered pagan Canaan. There were many alleged gods and religions in Canaanite religion, so Moses equipped Israel, about to enter Canaan, with this truth: there is only one true God. Moses wrote Deuteronomy 6:4: “The Lord our God is one Lord.” Not one or the first among the many gods of Canaan, but the one and only God. We face similar challenges in our pluralistic world of belief in many gods, religions, and ways to heaven.
Brandon Robertson is known as the TikTok pastor. He has 350k followers and has garnered 10 million views. He declared, “Is Jesus the only way to salvation? If so, how can other religions be right?” The TikTok pastor is saying that Jesus is not the only way, and other religions and alleged gods are right. That belief flies in the face of the OT and the Gospels.
2. Not only does the OT teach that there is only one God and one way of salvation, which is exclusively through Jesus Christ, but so does the New Testament.
The Gospels declare that there is only one God and one way to salvation. Jesus instructed His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that the works righteousness of the false religion of the Pharisees, one of Jesus’ greatest antagonists, was not sufficient in Matthew 5:20: “Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Let me jump back to the OT Genesis 15:6: “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Every unsaved person has a choice of two ways of salvation, according to Jesus in Matthew 7:13. The right way and the wrong way, or as Jesus stated, “The broad way or the wrong way of religion, specifically, the religion of works righteousness or works to earn salvation, or the narrow way or the right way of Christ alone. Jesus said, “Many” travel the wrong way of religions that end up in destruction and there are, by contrast, “few” who travel the exclusive road of salvation through Jesus Christ. The OT and the Gospels teach that Jesus is the only way of salvation. May I ask, “Which road are you traveling this morning?”
3. Moving further into the New Testament, Peter in the book of Acts preached that there is only one God and one way to salvation to false religious leaders in Acts 4. Peter is witnessing to the Sanhedrin, or the false religionist leaders of his day, who helped crucify Jesus. Who crucified Jesus? Religionists who rejected Jesus! The Sanhedrin had asked Peter, “By what name are you conducting your ministry?” in Acts 4:7. Peter responded in 4:10: “By the name of Jesus.” Then Peter elaborated in 4:12: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Different religious leaders sometimes claim that there is only one god but this god goes by different names.
For example, theologian and philosopher Frank Beckwith asked, “Do all religions worship the same God?” Then Beckwith gave the example of the famous three-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world, “Take, for example, the names ‘Muhammad Ali’ and ‘Cassius Clay.’ Although they are different names, they refer to the same thing [person], for each has identical properties [or characteristics] ...”[2] I ask, what is wrong with this line of reasoning? The names Muhammad Ali and Cassius Clay [Muhammad Ali’s original name was Cassius Clay] do refer to the same person. Of course, he has the same properties or characteristics.
BUT the gods of other religions, which go by other names, do not have the same properties or attributes as the one true God. For example, among the three monotheistic religions, which believe in only one god, only Christianity and the Bible teach the Trinity, i.e., God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Not three Gods, just one God who is three Persons with the same attributes.
Listen to Paul in his Epistles was in total agreement with Peter, in Philippians 2:8-9: “Wherefore, God has given him [Jesus] a name which is above all other names. That at the name of Jesus [only], every knee ....” The OT, the Gospels, the book of Acts and Epistles teach that there is only one God and one way of salvation through Jesus Christ.
4. My last stop is the last book in the New Testament. What is the title of the last book in the NT? “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1), which also advocates that there is only one God and one way to salvation. In Revelation 5:9 is a prophecy of heaven at the end of this age. If you are a believer, you are in this picture. What will you and I, who know Jesus as our Savior, be doing in the future? We will be singing praises to Jesus according to Revelation 5:9 as the only way of salvation: “and they sang a new song, saying, ‘You [Jesus] are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe, and language, and people and nation.’” Heaven is international!
Do you know how many international students are currently enrolled at CU? Sixty-one international students are enrolled at CU. Hold up the list from our registrar! That is how many languages, peoples, and nations are in our school. Our school has graduated students from 101 countries. Our chapel today could be a microcosm, a miniature picture of heaven. My prayer is that, in heaven one day, there will be students from CU from every tribe, language, people, and nation who have trusted Christ as their Savior.
In Part Two, we will see that not only is the message of Jesus being the only way to salvation, the message of the entire Bible, but the entire Gospel of John focuses on faith in Christ alone.
[1] Keller, Timothy, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (p. 3). (Function). Kindle Edition.
[2] Francis J. Beckwith, “Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?” in The Catholic Thing, December 17, 2015.