Sons of Galilee​

Jesus is the only way to God

 

"Nor is there salvation in any other,

for there is no other name under heaven

given among men by which we must be saved.”

- Acts 4:12

 

With so many religions in the world, some believe to declare that there is only one way is narrow-minded, and exclusionary to put it mildly. People think that because of the varying cultures in the world that to declare only one way as correct is wrong. But the answer is much simpler than that. There are only 2 ways. Man’s way and God’s way.

 

Offended? Don’t be, in fact I hope to demonstrate through this writing that you and I have instead offended a holy and just God. And one who took our just penalty upon Himself. To stand in and accuse God of things we ourselves are guilty of is a dangerous place to be, please let me explain:

 

I am deadly serious when I say that there are only 2 ways. Man’s way and God’s way. Let me explain why all of man’s ways are the same as each other though they are called by different ways and under different guises. They always perform either 1 of 2 tasks.

 

1. Man-made religion, or non-religion for that matter, disbelieves God

Or,

1. Man-made religion, or non-religion, distrusts God

 

Conversely, God-made religion generates trust and belief, and subsequently obedience.

 

Let’s go into some detail on this. Let’s visit a few things first. Let’s dive in to something about what we can understand.

 

The attributes of God seen in nature and in spiritual realm demonstrate the infinitude of God. What this means is this:

 

God made the Universe out of nothing [for His glory – demonstrating consummate power]

God made the earth to support life [for His glory – demonstrating wisdom and understanding]

God made laws to support intelligent life [for His glory – demonstrating perfection and justness]

God made man in His own image [for His glory – demonstrating holiness and perfection (man is different than all creatures)]

God gave us families, food, intelligence [for His glory – demonstrating goodness, providence, and mercy]

 

We see demonstrated through these qualities the following attributes:

 

God is infinitely holy

God is infinitely just

God is infinitely good

God is infinitely perfect

God is infinitely merciful

God is infinitely powerful

God is infinitely wise

 

So God makes man in His own image, and creates the first human family for a world that is perfect. According to Genesis 3 mankind chooses to separate himself from God by disobedience. Man chose to do the one thing God disallowed so as to separate himself from dependence on God. God cursed the earth because it was made for man to glorify God in and through. We observe the effects of a fallen creation around us that causes us pain, misery, and suffering. We are intelligent enough to know that this is not how things should be. God gives us a conscience that constantly affirms these truths as well as testifies to the fact of a creator.

 

God shows us through creation there is an astonishing beauty behind the suffering world. The entire universe is bound by laws designed for its own benefit. God gave mankind the option to obey or disobey so as to demonstrate His eternal and inherent goodness. Man breaks the laws designed for his own good and safety. Man then blames God for his own shortfalls and does 1 of 2 things. He chooses to ignore the goodness and magnificence of God by denying the existence or involvement of his creator. Or because of his distrust for what God says he chooses ways to satisfy his own conscience’s need for order and correctness.

 

In this we find the 2 ways of man, man-made denial or man-made religion. Both of these are designed by men for men. They move only horizontal on an eternal plane. They are unable to reach vertically into God’s sphere. They are fully incapable of fulfilling what they promise.

 

But this is what the testimony of God is. (To find out more about how we can know the Gospel is true please visit the page *how can I know the Gospel is true?).

 

God made man in His own image and for relationship with Himself. Mankind willfully broke this bond by disregarding the only law God placed in his life. This law was designed to protect mankind and allowed for a better alternative, which was freely allowing mankind to eat from the much better tree of life. God, in His great mercy, chose to offer mankind a solution that would offer salvation from the righteous judgement He had placed on mankind.

 

God is infinitely holy, just, pure. All things He makes reflect Himself either in positive or negative fashion by demonstrating His attributes. So whereas good reflects the goodness of its designer, something destructive stands in contrast and is designed to do just that-reflect who God is by negative comparison.

 

Here is the where it gets more complicated. Because God is good, and infinitely and perfectly so, the best thing for God to do with a creative and willful act of evil is to destroy it. His holiness demands that evil be punished. But God is also infinitely merciful. So in His great grace He solves mankind’s dilemma. He offers salvation from the effect of man’s sin, which is death. But remember God is infinitely just, so payment must be made for the injustice that mankind has brought into the world.

 

So God preaches the original Gospel to the devil, and all of mankind in Genesis 3. Showing that through the coming Hero (Jesus Christ) God would undo the damage done by man and Satan. And that this would cost the Hero to do so.

 

“And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.” -Genesis 3:15

 

But the effect of this willful act of evil affects you and I. This is ultimately about you and I. Almost nobody believes they have done anything to warrant the wrath of a holy and Just God. Regardless of religion people like to believe they are inherently good. But we should examine this from the correct perspective.

 

God’s witness is the only one that matters. Because if God is He is the absolute moral authority, and the ultimate determiner of what is good and evil. He is also the creator and sustainer of the Universe, so His moral judgement is final regardless of any dissenting opinions. But consider also, because of the nature of who God is, any dissenting opinions from His are evil by definition. Because God’s attributes and being is the ultimate Good. So understand that because God is the determiner of good, not human culture, we need His opinion on who we are and what condition we are in.

 

So let’s visit what God says about human beings and this will help us understand why man-made religion falls hopelessly short.

 

God declares us all evil.

 

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” -Genesis 6:5

 

“I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.” -Genesis 8:21

 

God declares our ‘good works’ as vile.

“The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
    to see if there are any who understand,
    who seek after God.

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
    there is none who does good,
    not even one.” -Psalm 14:3

Let’s review the futility of man-made religion in this light. Religion says that either merit, religious ceremony, or birthright (baptism or circumcision) makes us right with God. But God says exactly the opposite. God says that everything we do is essentially evil. Why is this? Because motive is tied to action, therefore if the motive is evil the action is also defiled. This means that even ‘good works’ are evil because they come from wrong motive. If a good work is not for the Glory of God, and out of gratitude and appreciation for who He is, it is not a good work in a vertical sense but only in a horizontal sense.  

 

Consider this: if God is so holy our good works are unacceptable, where are our evil works?

 

Now consider the folly of man’s religion from an eternal perspective. Many think they are ‘good’, but what they usually mean is they are good compared to some other people they know. They immediately can think of 4-5 people who are worse. Or they jump right to the end and condemn Hitler and Stalin, but leave everyone else in the category of ‘good’. They are comparing themselves with other people and basing their justification on a false premise.

 

That false premise is that God will grade on a curve

 

God demands perfect holiness. Yes, you heard me right, God demands perfection. Unfair? That’s because you are relying on a paper thin floor to keep you out of the effect of sin, death, and the final punishment of sin, which is damnation.  

 

Let’s consider next the need for perfection in some detail. In order to do this, we will consider false religion and how and why it falls short:

 

First is merit-based acceptance with God:

 

Let’s consider entrance into heaven like having a Billion in heavenly currency. That’s the entrance cost. 1 Billion heaven ‘dollars, pesos, yen, rubles’-whatever you like. So you get to the gate and your entrance fee is demanded. Now the only way for this debt to be satisfied is for you to have worked your entire life, every single second, to achieve this amount. This not only was the minimum entrance fee but also the maximum amount you could have achieved.  What this means is any second you were not gaining profitably you were losing your opportunity to get the minimum amount required for the entrance fee of heaven. So not only does each second you did something that was bad reduce your amount pushing you into the negative column. But also each opportunity you missed to do the right thing from the right motives you also not only don’t gain, but rather is also chalked into the negative or loss column. If you understand the basic principles of business and math and what I am trying to illustrate you will quickly understand how impossible this is. This is the design of false religion. You’re always busy doing something but not really doing anything.

 

Or maybe a better illustration is that it’s like trying to build a tower (of good works) to heaven on a bottomless pit (already evil works you’ve already thought and done) with a pail of wet sand (works that have no value because they are from improper motives).

 

Let’s use another illustration to consider the assumption of basic human ‘goodness’ and the assumption God will grade on a curve

 

Think about a perfect Judge. You murder a person who you don’t like. It was with a car and you were angry. So now you stand before a perfect judge. Here is your defense: ‘look it was one time, think about all the people I didn’t murder, I wanted to but I didn’t’. Good argument? If that Judge has a shred of dignity, you will put you away for life, maybe executed. And ‘good’ you did by not doing evil is irrelevant to the evil you have done. But the admission you refrained from doing evil, something you thought would help, rather highlighted the fact your heart was always full of murder. Just because you didn’t murder all the people you wanted to doesn’t mean you get away the time you did it. This is just based on the idea you have only one bad deed to account for. This is the false security in the basic goodness of man. It also assumes God will grade on a sliding scale – taking the top 30% or so of humanity. Its fully baseless, ignores revelation from God, assumes God is unjust, and assumes man is basically ‘good’.

 

One more illustration. This one to highlight the danger of ‘Churchianity’ type of works-based salvation.

 

You are rock climbing. You are using a high grade rope but with a defect. Almost all of this rope is suited to hold your weight. But when you place your weight onto it, it snaps easily and you fall stories to a painful and gruesome death. Did the rope do its job? Well most of it did except the part that was defective. But the rope is only as strong as its weakest part, and the entire thing is useless because of this defect. In fact, it is worse than worthless because it had the appearance of providing what was needed except it could not hold the weight. This is a mixture of Christ-faith and human works.

 

Or think about a 100 link chain over a burning chasm, 99 links are good. Only 1 bad link, sound safe?

 

So when people believe they are going to be weighed with their ‘good works’ weighed against their bad works they don’t understand that this is very bad news for them. Weighing from an eternal perspective the bad works are evil, the good works are at best unacceptable, and according to God evil. So you have a lot of bad stacked up against no good. Even if God graded worthiness for heaven on such a scale it would be very bad news for them based on the Scripture. Because according to God even your spiritual profit column is actually a loss column.

 

Man’s profit/loss statement:

 

Profit:

Good person

Good deeds

Attend religious ceremony

Try to be a ‘good’ person

Religious merit

 

Loss:

Bad deeds

Commit uncharitable acts

 

God’s profit/loss statement:

 

Profit:

empty

 

Loss:

Evil heart

Evil attitudes (greed, lust, hate, envy, filthiness, pride, arrogance)

Evil motives for ‘good’ acts

Evil trust in ‘good’ acts for justification with God

Evil acts of evil

Evil disregard for the glory of God

Evil disregard for those made in the image of God

Evil disregard for God’s revelation

Evil disbelief God will execute justice

“every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen 6:5)

 

Before you say, ‘well everyone is in the same boat’ consider that is exactly the point the Scripture is making. You are agreeing with the Biblical account. We will use Scripture to make this point.

 

Since the Scripture says that inside man “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen 6:5) Mankind is fully unable to produce righteousness apart from God.

 

Now consider again the Scriptural requirement for acceptance with God.

 

“The Rock, His work is perfect,
    for all His ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
    just and upright is He.” -Deuteronomy 32:4

 

“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.” -Ezekiel 18:4

 

“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Leviticus 19:2

 

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” -Matthew 5:48

 

But what the Scripture says about our works is this:

“We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” -Isaiah 64:6

“Nor will they cover themselves with their works;
Their works are works of iniquity” -Isaiah 59:6

​

So now let’s let the Scripture make the case for a full substitute- all payment for sin and all righteousness coming from a source outside oneself, from God through Christ:

 

“Now the Lord saw,
And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice.
And He saw that there was no man,
And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;
Then His own arm brought salvation to Him,
And His righteousness upheld Him.
He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.” – Isaiah 59:15-17

 

This Messianic Prophesy written 700 years B.C. develops the idea in more detail:

 

“Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.”

“As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.” Isaiah 53:4-6,11

 

The New Testament writer Paul the Apostle, saved out of a works-based religion by Christ, develops this idea in even more detail:

 

"But now the righteousness of God

apart from the law is revealed,

being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

even the righteousness of God,

 

through faith in Jesus Christ,

to all and on all who believe.

 

For there is no difference;

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 

being justified freely by His grace through

the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood,

through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness"

-Romans 3:21-25

 

So what does this kind of religion produce? According to the Scripture an authentic faith will be highlighted by 3 things.

 

False religion has confidence in flesh and separates from the righteousness from God

Glories in one’s own self (achievements, merit, birthright)

Worships oneself and one’s own conscience and disbelieves God’s report

 

No religion glorifies one’s self above God by prioritizing their own desires

Worships oneself as the ultimate authority in their own life

Has confidence in self by disbelieving God’s report about them

 

True religion is one that will

“worship in the Spirit of God

and glory in Christ Jesus

and put no confidence in the flesh”

– Philippians 3:3

 

*This authentic faith produces repentance, regeneration, and discipleship. But that is not the point of this article. See “Follow Me” for more info.

 

What happens with Jesus’ execution on the cross is God’s holiness and justice meets God’s grace and mercy. And the Son of God was crushed by God’s wrath and justice. Christ was able to take the full wrath of the justice and holiness of God. If God’s holiness demanded that justice and wrath punish sin and therefore crush the Son of God, what will it do to you if you decide to go unprotected by this act of infinite mercy? You not only disdain the attributes of God according to His holiness and justice you disdain His kindness and mercy by offering up His only Son. What will be the correct response to those who disregard His kindness on judgement day?

 

Finally, as always Jesus explains this best:

 

“Most assuredly, I say to you,

he who does not enter the sheepfold by The Door,

but climbs up some other way,

the same is a thief and a robber. "

 

"But he who enters by The Door is the Shepherd of the sheep.

To him the Doorkeeper opens,

and the sheep hear His voice;

and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out." 

 

"And when He brings out His own sheep,

He goes before them;

and the sheep follow Him,

for they know His voice.

Yet they will by no means follow a stranger,

but will flee from him,

for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

 

Jesus used this illustration,

but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

Then Jesus said to them again, 

 

“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" 

 

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." 

 

"I am the Good Shepherd." 

"The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep"

-John 10:1-9, 10

 

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” – 1 Timothy 2:5

 

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” – John 14:6

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now all this having been said there may be some confusion about good works. Since the Scripture declares we will be judged according to our works. Now how does this fit in?

 

Let’s examine to find out.

 

“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” James 2:14-17

 

This Scripture is not alone:

 

“an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” -John 5:29

 

So what do these and others mean?

 

And how do they fit into the plan of God for Salvation?

 

We should let Scripture interpret Scripture. Jesus and John explain in very simple terms:

 

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” John 15:1-6

 

Understand this concept with this key: “Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine” -John 8:31

 

This one as well: "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples." - John 15:8

 

So our works will play a role at the judgement, as God says. Why? Because our works will be an impartial evidence of authentic salvation.

 

In other words, salvation produces good works. Not the other way around. Trees bear forth the kind of fruit demonstrating what kind of tree they are.

 

Want more proof this is what God is speaking about?

 

“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” -1 John 2:3-6

 

So the sum is that authentic salvation will produce spiritual fruit, including good works. This is the role works play in the life of a believer.

 

Still more from the Apostle Paul in case you are wary:

 

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” – Titus 2:11-14