One Way

I travel around the desert a lot for my job and I go into a lot of gated communities. Some of them are guard gated where I’m allowed in only if the homeowner has notified the guardhouse and then he gives me a wonderful pass that says I can enter. The remaining gates are telephone operated and the homeowner answers their phone when I call and press the number 6 and then I hear the treasured command “Access Granted.”

Whenever I’m in the car with Judy and my kids we get such a kick out of it. It sounds so formal, but it comes across in such a way that you’re happy you’ve been accepted. As Steve Martin said in the movie “The Jerk” when the new phone book arrived and his name was in it for the first time, “I am somebody.”

If you know where I’m going with this, heaven is going to be like this someday. Except, the gatekeeper is not a machine or someone wearing a bad uniform, but instead it’s the Lord Jesus Christ himself. This devotion was spurred by a couple of things I saw this past weekend. First was a clip in an e-mail being sent around of Oprah denying Jesus is the only way to God and the other was a conference I attended over the weekend by author Lee Stroebel who addressed this subject as well.

It all stems from Jesus’ claim in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Pretty powerful statement and one that is viewed as controversial by many. In the clip posted on You Tube from an old Oprah show, she was trying to explain that there are many paths to God and that Christianity is just one of many. In other words, we’re being narrow-minded to say we have the only way.

My take on this is we have to look at the source of the person who said it and why he said it. These are the words of Jesus himself. He claimed to be the Son of God, he went to a cross and died a bloody death on the cross for you and me for all our sins, but most importantly he rose from the dead. His death was witnessed by many and he was seen by many after the resurrection. If Jesus says He is the only way who are we to say He isn’t. If He isn’t the only way then He would be a liar and that would be out of His character.

Why did Jesus tell us He’s the only way. I believe He wants our obedience. He wants us to keep our eyes fixed on Him. Oprah was right in her claim that there are many roads that people travel to reach God. Some follow the straight and narrow path of following Him their whole life and others take a much bumpier road, but where Oprah misses the point is that unless Jesus is at the final destination then we have just run into a dead end.

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount He tells us, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. Matthew 7:13-14. Apart from God all our lives lead to separation from Him and the road leads nowhere, but with Jesus at the guard house, thought the entrance is small it is still attainable. We can all make if we don’t give up and lose sight of our final destination.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Access Granted.