“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” John 14:6
We live in a pluralistic society that believes that all religions lead to the same God. But that just does not make sense. If all religious beliefs lead us to heaven, then why did Jesus, God Almighty Himself, leave His royal residence, descend to earth to live in a poor man’s house, follow the pattern of a vagrant’s uncomfortable life, suffer the rejection and ridicule of His own creation and end up being tortured and dying an excruciating death on a Roman cross? There would have been absolutely no point or reason for Him doing what He did, if all roads lead to heaven.
In this statement Jesus is declaring that there is only one way and one truth that leads to eternal life. You can ignore this truth, misinterpret this truth, or ridicule this truth, but you cannot change it. Jesus made this statement in one of the last teaching sessions He had with His disciples before He was crucified. He states that, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” These are Jesus’ own words, recorded by His disciple John, so that we can know and believe that He is the Son of God.
There are only two conclusions you can make regarding this statement: either Jesus was the most wicked and deceitful man that ever lived, or that He was God Himself. Only a wicked person would tell those sorts of lies and deceive the innocent and vulnerable people who were captivated by him. We’ve read about people like that, who gain a cult following that leads to mass murder. Jim Jones a cult leader in the 1950-60s ordered a mass murder/suicide of his 909 followers (304 of whom were children) by drinking cyanide. In 1993, the cult leader David Koresh, set fire to the compound in which he was living with his followers, killing 76, (25 were children) and himself. These were wicked self-deceived men, claiming to be a messiah type figure who knew the way to heaven.
Some people say that Jesus was nothing but a good teacher, but a good teacher would not tell deliberate lies. These cult leaders were known as “good teachers” too. Jesus claimed that He was the Messiah, God Himself and that His way was the only way that would lead to heaven. These cult leaders claimed that they were the ones who knew the true way to heaven. Jesus lived a perfect life. The only thing that He was accused of was saying that He was God. These cult leaders were found to be involved in all sorts of illegal activities including drug smuggling, sexual abuse of women and children, stockpiling illegal weapons, tax evasion etc. Jesus laid down His life so that all humanity would be saved from the punishment due to sin. These cult leaders murdered their own followers, causing horrific painful death, even of young children, before killing themselves.
All religions claim to be the way to heaven, but only Jesus the true and living God offered Himself to be crucified, so that all men could know peace with God in an eternal home ready prepared for those who will seek out the truth, and be willing to follow in the way He was made for us.
Christians do not shut their eyes and accept a blind faith. They open their eyes wide, seek out the evidences for the truth and then follow that truth, which is Jesus Christ Himself the only one who can give us everlasting life.