22nd December, 2005

JIM REIHER

Perhaps you have you heard something like this: "Surely it is time to let go of your obsession with Jesus being the only way to God! After all, we live in a very multicultural society. It is downright embarrassing to try to say that Jesus is the only way. It makes you Christians sound narrow minded and proud. You come across as dogmatic and intolerant. You probably vilify other folk of different religions, and you are generally just 'up yourself'. Other people sincerely hold to their own religion. Who are you to say that yours’ is right and theirs is wrong. Isn’t it more likely that all paths lead to the final end (call it God, or heaven, or peace, or oneness with the cosmos, or Brahman, or whatever you want to call it!). Either that or you are all wrong!"

ABOVE ALL ELSE: Reiher says Christians base their belief on Jesus being the only way to God on Jesus' words themselves - "No-one comes to the Father except through me". PICTURE: Osei May (iStockphoto.com.au)   "For Christians to say that Jesus is the only way to God is to repeat what has been taught from the very beginning. To change that is to change the original message."

So goes the common criticism we endure about our faith in Jesus. How do we respond to such a criticism? Have we got anything we can say in reply? I believe we have.

Jesus said it Himself
Firstly, Christians say that Jesus is the only way to God because Jesus said it Himself. Not only did He say it, but His first followers all said it too. Listen to some of the quotes from the New Testament:

• Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).

• Simon-Peter, the apostle: “Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 recorded by Luke).

•John Zebedee, one of the 12 apostles: “God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. Those who have the Son have life; those who do not have the Son of God do not have life.” (I John 5:11,12).

• Paul, the great apostle: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings, Christ Jesus…” (I Timothy 2:5).

That is quite an impressive list of early Christian leaders. Jesus Himself, Simon-Peter, John, and Paul. So for Christians to say that Jesus is the only way to God is to repeat what has been taught from the very beginning. To change that is to change the original message.

But of course, that won’t satisfy the critic. Maybe Christians are being faithful to their roots, but clearly their roots and all of their history is bad!

There is actually no way for man to reach God
Secondly, we point out that if God was actually just and simply punished sin, then everyone would be rejected and no one could be reconciled back to God. There is actually no way for humans to reach God. No way at all.

What there is, however, is a loving and merciful God who decided to reach humans. We have no way of reaching God, but God chose in His mercy to come into human history and make a way for people to connect back to Him. He sent us Jesus. He initiated a way to Himself. He chose to love us even though we are sinners deserving judgment. In other words, it is only because of God’s grace and sovereign choice, that there is even one way to reach Him. Humans might invent religion after religion and new worldview after new worldview. And we do because there is a “God sense” within us all - put there by God. But human effort alone can’t reach God (Ephesians 2:8-10). There is wonderful news however: God reached down to us. He provided the one and only way.

Now people will choose not to follow Jesus. Many will stay in their own cultural and preferred experience and way. God allows that. (So should we who follow Him, by the way). But they are not reconciled to Him if they reject His sovereignly initiated plan and way. It is the only way, because it is initiated by God, and not by people.

The unusual twist to all this

There is an irony about our apparent narrow-mindedness that I don’t mind living with. The criticism is expressed as we noted in the opening paragraph above. But here is the rub: the apparently small-minded and arrogant Christian is actually the most broadly accepting and loving person on the face of the earth. I am talking about the real Christian here, not necessarily people who call themselves by that name - and who are full time hypocrites. Not people who went out on wars of crusade. Not people who agreed with torturing others who believed differently to themself. I mean people really dedicated to following Jesus.

That person, the real Christian, will love everyone, no matter what their race, creed, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, or whatever shape or form they come in. My narrow-minded philosophy (that Jesus is the only way to God) makes me extraordinarily broad-minded in the way I live my life and love all people in practice. Like Simon-Peter said when it dawned on him: “God has shown me that I can call no person unholy or unclean” (Acts 10:28). He said that about a person who was not of his religion, nor of his race, nor of his cultural background - a Roman soldier. And it was the opposite attitude Simon-Peter had grown up with. But Jesus had woken him up to something much much more important than simply hanging onto cultural baggage.

Christians who are infected with a love for Jesus will be unable to contain that love towards Jesus alone. They become tolerant, loving, caring, sacrificial servants of God and of others - and they have no prejudice or discrimination towards anyone. We will be like the Good Samaritan who showed unusually practical love to his cultural enemy, a Jew. We will be like Jesus on the cross when He prayed to God for those who had nailed Him to it, saying: “Father forgive them because they really don’t understand what they are doing.” We will be like Stephen when his own people killed him, and he prayed a similar prayer just before he died. We will be like Mother Teresa who exhausted her life serving others of a different culture, a different creed, a different socio-economic grouping, and a different world-view. We will support worthwhile projects that care for anyone, anywhere, who needs help. We will set up orphanages in Muslim countries to help AIDS victims. We will send generous relief help to Hindus after an earthquake. We will give our lives to causes that care for the poor of the world, even if they never become Christians themselves. We become the light of the world! And those people are not only the most incredible servants of humanity and God but they freak out everyone around them and inspire some others to a higher way.

Of course, there are hypocrites in the church. There have been and always will be weeds among the wheat (as Jesus clearly said in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). But when people meet the wheat - to continue the metaphor - they know they have met unusual people. Here are some who love their enemies, who turn the other cheek, who give without expecting anything in return, who spend their energies caring for others - very peculiar!

I’d rather be tagged narrow-minded while being in reality a genuinely broadly accepting person rather than the other way around. I can live with the criticism about being narrow-minded. It doesn’t phase me any more. I have had an encounter with the most loving person who ever walked the face of the earth - and no shallow criticism will ever stop me from loving everyone in practical ways. My obsession with Jesus makes me accept all people. My conviction that Jesus came from God, on God’s initiative, to provide humanity with a path of reconciliation - this narrow-minded sounding belief changes people who really get it. It makes us want to be like the one we follow.

Jim Reiher (BA (double major in history), BA in Theology, Dip Ed. MA in Theology (Hons)) is a full time lecturer for Tabor College Victoria, lecturing in church history and New Testament; and also has speciality interest areas in women’s ministry, creative ministry, and the New Age movement. His views are not necessarily those of other Tabor faculty members or of Tabor College.

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