Tuesday, October 02, 2007

One Way

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

I think this verse is both one of the most beautiful, grace filled verses and one of the most divisive verses we have in our scripture. On the one hand it can be used to suggest that you need to line up in a certain way to be saved. Often that means you need to look like Billy Graham, James Dobson, or some other well known conservative Christian. Now that might be the case, but I'm suspicious. Some want to use this verse to suggest that you must be a Christian to be saved, and that we have all of the right answers. Again, that might be right, but I think that's dangerous.

You see, when I look at this verse I don't see exclusivity, but inclusiveness. I don't see Jesus saying who is in and who is out. I see an opportunity for all to be saved, it's just that when it happens it's because of Jesus. I like to look at it this way. When I was in college we had an old two door beater of a car. At one point the passenger door couldn't be opened because of an issue with the window. Consequently you could only enter the door through the drivers side door. There was only one way to enter the car. Anybody was welcome to ride along with me, but they could only get in one way.

I think this verse is suggesting something similar. It doesn't say that Muslims, Jews, and others can't be saved. It doesn't say that you have to be a Christian to be saved. However, I do think it says that Jesus does the saving. Therefore I see that it is my job to love, to love my neighbor and to love my enemy, and it is Jesus' job to do the saving.

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