Response #1: Your Argument Is With The Bible

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
–Romans 10:9

What do you say when people deny that there is only one way to God? First of all, you can say, “Your argument is with the Bible, not with me.” It is important to remember what the Bible itself says about this topic. For example, in John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Or consider the words of the apostle Peter in Acts 4, when he was preaching to a group of Jews: “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead–by this name this man stands here before you in good health. . . . And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (v. 10, 12). And in Romans 10, the apostle Paul said he was praying that his fellow Jews would be saved. He wrote in verse 2, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.” Then he continued, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. . . . For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him” (vv. 9, 12). The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is the only way to be saved.

When you point out what the Bible says, some people will say, “That is just your interpretation of the Bible.” Of course, you can always ask them to suggest some other logical interpretation of Jesus’s words in John 14:6. If He did not mean He is the only way to God, what was He saying in that verse? Most people will not be able to come up with an explanation. But more likely, people will say, “Who are you to decide who gets to go to heaven and who gets to go to hell? Only God can decide that.” They are absolutely right–only God can say who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. But God has already made that decision, and it is found in His Word.

Imagine you get a memo from your boss that says, “I want everybody at work an hour early tomorrow. Anyone who is not here early is going to be docked a full day’s pay.” A coworker of yours is out sick, so you call him to let him know about the memo. “That is so unfair!” he says. “Don’t you know I am sick? How can you demand that I come in an hour early? Why are you threatening to dock my pay?” You say, “Hey, I am not the one who made up this rule; I am just delivering the message. I am trying to help you, not hurt you.” It is the same way with sharing the gospel. We are not concocting our own way to be saved; we are repeating what God has already said. And we do so not to hurt people, but to help people. When you tell people that Jesus is the only way to be saved, you are simply representing the words of Jesus Christ Himself.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “What To Say To Those Who Deny There Is One Way” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2008.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.