The Gospel's Scandalous Claim - Jesus is the Way

A number of years ago, an elderly friend of ours offered to take us into Glasgow to a Chinese supermarket. We were really grateful for this, so we readily agreed. There is a nice motorway (highway) from our town to Glasgow. It takes 20 minutes or so if the traffic is light and there is a motorway exit close to the supermarket. So it would be the obvious choice. But not for Bill. The motorway might have been there since the 1960s but he hated it. So he decided to use the back roads. Back roads with a maximum speed limit of 50mph instead of 70mph on the motorway. Back roads with lots of traffic lights. Back roads with pedestrians. You can imagine what happened. Twenty minutes turned into an hour. He also brought us into the city far from the supermarket, which meant dealing with the traffic and the one way system. That is how some people see Jesus. They are happy with Him being 'a' way to God. They might even tolerate Him bring a 'better' way - an easier, faster way. But Jesus goes further. Much further. He says He is the ONLY way, that there is no other. That is quite some statement. But how can He back it up? The answer is, quite easily. Let's look at the evidence. The Bible teaches that the salvation plan that brought Jesus to earth was planned from all eternity (Ephesians 3:10-11; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2). It also teaches that God Himself drew up this plan (Romans 1:1-4). The plan was for the Son of Almighty God to come to earth as the son of a virgin woman (Isaiah 7:14), to die a brutal death on the cross to pay for our misdeeds and rise from the dead (Isaiah 52:13-53:13). So we have a divine initiative, millenia in preparation, involving a sequence of miracles, thirty years of obscurity, three years of ministry and three days of agony, followed by one day of ecstasy as He is raised. Then we come and say, "Hmm, nice plan, God. But we have a better idea?" Really? This is why the very idea that there is another way to God and heaven, that we can make to heaven on our own through good works or through purgatory by others praying for us, whatever our idea may be, is not just wrong, it is blasphemous. Nothing we could ever come up with - nothing at all in all creation - could ever match the awesome splendour of God's plan. To say that it could do with a few tweaks or could be more politically correct or lacks that little extra something is the height of stupidity. Not to mention profoundly insulting. It is perfect. Absolutely perfect. In every way. And Jesus is the way. He is the means through which this plan is carried out. That is why He can absolutely guarantee His followers a place in Heaven that no-one else can (John 14:1-4). He is our way there. He is our motorway to the Father's side. He is our way through all the trouble and stress and strain from this life to a better next life. Jesus is the way. Not a way. Not a possible way. Not even a better way. He is THE way. And there is no other. So the question is: if I want to know God and get to Heaven, will I go Jesus' way or no way? I would hope the answer is obvious. In my next post, we will see that JESUS IS THE TRUTH.