Bible Studies for Life: November 5

Confident in the Face of Hard Questions: Is Jesus the Only Way to God? • 1 John 5:1-13

By Becky Brown

First, here at my house, enduring Day Nine of my first bout with Covid, I would like to take a moment and answer the question presented to us in our lesson title with one word: “YES!!!” Then, I would like to get back to these recuperation skills I have come to practice for more days than I would like to count. “Yes” is the one word final answer.  However, the world always seems to want further explanation. In fact, tragically, current research statistics indicate that 19% of Bible believing church attenders contend that Jesus might NOT be the only way to the Father.  

We have been dealing with how to answer the hard questions that are sometimes posed to us about our faith. I have shared two verses with people through the years that confirm the answer to this question. The answer Jesus Himself gave to the disciples after Judas had left the Upper Room should close the issue forever. John 14:6 records Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” As they say in the country, “yah can’t make it much plainer that that.”  

The other place I go to help people grasp this truth is to Acts 4:12. Peter explains to the Jewish elite leaders of the Sanhedrin that, “Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Just the fact that they were hearing this amazing truth from the mouth of a common fisherman should have sealed the deal. That truth does seal every deal! For the believers who accept it, they are sealed inside forever by the Holy Spirit in an eternal relationship with the Father. Those who reject that truth are sealed outside forever by their own choice.

My cajun friend who loves the Lord and His Word has always said it like this, “Well, wit God, Jesus was Plan A an thare ain’t nevah been no Plan B an dats dat.”  

In the very first century, shortly after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the enemy sowed seeds of discord right away in an attempt to abort the birth and growth of the early church. False teaching was abounding as Paul wrote many of the letters to churches that became the books of our New Testament. They denied the deity of Christ and maligned the Gospel. Jesus could not be the Son of God and have a human body.  

John wrote his gospel to prove that, “…these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name,” John 20:31. John wrote three letters positioned toward the end of the New Testament to continue his irrefutable eye witness report of the life and times of Jesus. These passages of scripture preserve eternal truths inspired by the Holy Spirit. 

Ask Nicodemus (John 3) if he understood being born again from above. John’s record of that conversation might have been a seed thought in his writings in 1 John 5. The proof of being born again is that we believe that Jesus is the Christ. Our love for God and our love for one another are also signs that Jesus came from the Father to teach truths to those who would follow. The outflow of God’s love for us is shown when we respond in obedience to His commands. We don’t “do” things to earn His love. We follow our belief in Him with actions that please Him and make His heart glad.

Jesus came to pay for our sins and pave the way for us to spend eternity in heaven with the Father. Like a trial in a courtroom, witnesses are needed to confirm truth. Jesus brought His own proof with Him: Himself! He came by the waters of the womb of a human mother in a miracle birth with no human father. In Luke 1:35, the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High overshadowed Mary and she conceived the Son of God. 

Jesus also gave us the example of water baptism. The Holy Spirit gave witness as well when Jesus was baptized (see Mark 1:10). The Spirit descended like a dove upon Jesus. A voice came from heaven giving blessing to the moment. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The trinity. I like to use the word Tri-Unity. We can be sure that Jesus is the way to the Father. The only way. He completed the task at Calvary and the empty tomb. His shed blood saved us. His resurrection conquered death forever.  

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life,” 1 John 5:13. Jesus is the one and only way.  

Brown is minister of missions at First Church, Richland.