Jesus Is The Only Way To God

“Live your truth” sounds compassionate until you ask a harder question: what happens when our truths collide, and the damage is real? We start from the ground floor of Christianity and name the problem we keep trying to outwork, outthink, and out-therapy: sin. Not just “mistakes,” but a deep corruption that shows up in everyday anger, quiet compromises, and even the public failures of people who seem to have it all. 

From there, we trace the Bible’s logic for why self-improvement can’t reconcile us to a holy God. The Old Testament sacrificial system, the scapegoat, and the Passover lamb all point to a consistent theme: forgiveness costs something, and sin requires a covering we cannot produce on our own. Those sacrifices are temporary signposts, not the destination. 

Then we tackle the modern push for universalism and moral relativism, where every belief system is treated as equally true and equally saving. Jesus won’t fit into that frame. We read John 14 together and sit with the weight of his words: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” If that’s real, we can’t keep a “my Jesus” custom-built for our preferences, and we can’t claim love while ignoring what he commands. 

We close with what this means on Monday morning: responding to grace with obedience, speaking with humility, and asking God for boldness that actually loves people. If this challenged you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review that helps others find the conversation.

Transcript

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You know, it's interesting coming into the uh the week. Yeah, I feel weird. Not weird, it's probably not the right word, but it is is it is odd for me. So I I can tell you kind of my my process for how I get through like one of my preaching on Sunday. Um I have a group of guys that that I talk with uh that I meet with quite regularly, and we're always kind of praying for each other and looking at sermons and you know who's teaching what. And we we look at the culture and and we try to figure out you know the goal is you know how to how do we use scripture to speak to what's happening in the world around us. Uh because there's a truth, right? There's a truth that we find in scripture, and and there's a scripture for for everything. One way or another, there's there's a way that God, you know, that's what I love about the Bible. People always you know say, well, it's 2,000, some years old, and that's not entirely true. It's much older than that, but put together more recently. But but God in

How We Preach To Real Life

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his great wisdom has somehow given us truth that has transcended generations, right? And then sometimes you just you you pray and and you're asking God, and then I do this a lot, like what am I what do I need to say? What do I need to do? Where where are the people at? And and and what do I need to learn? You know, part of the series before this was the idea of kind of waiting on God and doing the right thing and and having patience, and then God put me some there's some really patient situations. Not my intention. And so to me, it does seem odd, right? How do we come back? We're kind of, I feel like we're at the base level at the the very beginning of of Christianity. And if if you've been a believer for a long time, nothing that I'm saying is new to you, or it shouldn't be new to you. And we talked about this last week that you know the problem in the world is it's not that we're not good enough, it it's it's that sin has corrupted everything. So even our good compared to a perfect God is still filthy rags. And and the hard part is the world doesn't want to tell people that. We we want to convince ourselves that that we can fix the problem with enough self-help and uh enough therapy and enough medication that that we can somehow fix the problem, the problems that that sin has created. And and in truth, it's just it's not possible. And and we see this all the time. People who are successful and have everything and they

Why Good Still Falls Short

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have more money than they know what to do with, and somehow their life is still falling apart. Somehow the the CEO of a major company ends up being unfaithful to his wife. Or they get charged with embezzlement and stealing of funds. People who have everything they they could ever need. Can you imagine that? Having so much money that you want for nothing, and yet at the end of the day, you're still so greedy, you take from people who have nothing. We constantly, and it's not just rich people. You and I, we we live day to day trying to do the right thing, and and we don't. I believe the best test of someone driving, or yeah, the best test of someone's faith is to drive through downtown Pittsburgh during rush hour. If you don't meet Jesus, you're gonna hope the person next to you does. I mean, I mean, just think about it. Just driving down the road, we get angry, we get mad, we say things we would never say in church. We we teach our kids to hate people based on how they're driving their car. I've seen it. That happened one time. Everett said, I hate that person. I'm like, you don't even know that person. Yeah, but they're an awful driver. I'm like, I need to stop. And at our core, we try to do everything right, but we still fail. We still stumble, we still lie, we still cheat because sin has corrupted everything. And so you and I we try so hard to be good, but we're always tainted. It's never quite right. Even our good is not great, and and the world tells you do better, do better, do better, do better, do more, say this, buy this. And and and and the Bible says, no, no, listen, you have a sin problem that has corrupted everything. Go back to the Garden of Eden and and all of that perfection, they've lost a personal, incredibly close relationship with God because of sin. They were kicked out. Sin has destroyed everything, but that's not the end of this story, right? God did God didn't just kick Adam and Eva out of the garden and say, Well, good luck. Humanity will figure it out. The old testament proves that false. War after war, death after death. Brother, killing brother. Slavery. The the lies, manipulation, you know, sieges on cities. I mean, you just you just see even the nation of Israel again and again, following false gods. They they build a golden calf, and then they justify the golden calf, which was crazy. Because sin has distorted everything. And so God had to make a way to deal with sin. And so in the Old Testament, uh the way is pretty clear. There had to be a sacrifice for what had been broken, right? So uh we see this in the garden. So the moment Adam and Eve sin, they're aware that they have shame. And what's God do first? He makes them a covering by sacrificing an animal. That sacrifice, that that death, which has never happened prior to this moment, that death is symbolic because God kills an innocent animal to cover the shame of Adam and Eve. And so we we see this as you move throughout the Old Testament, we see the idea of the sacrifice. That there's sacrifices of animals and certain levels of sin. If you've never heard the term scapegoat before, uh, that actually comes out of the Old Testament. That Israel would sacrifice a scapegoat

Sacrifice And Blood In The Old Testament

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once a year to cover any sin they might have missed. Right? Or they would actually, they wouldn't sacrifice it, they might as well, but they would cover it and then they would send it into the wilderness where it would die. And it would somehow absolve people of their sin. So there had to be, in order to be redeemed, man had to sacrifice animals. That's how he did it for hundreds, thousands of years. But but the problem was is that sacrifice was still not enough because the animal didn't know what they were doing. It wasn't their choice. They just happened to be the best-looking animal. They are the the ones that had no blemishes. But but man did this, and and so they sacrificed. But the sacrifice was a constant reminder to them that they had fallen away and that there was a they were living in a broken system. So that's what they did. They established sacrifice, and that sacrifice, the blood of that animal. We see this uh if you go back to the Passover lamb, right? Uh when they're escaping Egypt, they sacrifice the Passover lamb, covers the door, protects them from the spirit that comes, the spirit of death that comes. So this idea that something had to be sacrificed is a part of regular life. That's how they dealt with sin, that there had to be the shedding of blood in order for forgiveness to take place. So again, the world tells you you can fix yourself, and the Bible tells us you can't. But God, our creator, has taken a way to deal with that. We made a way. The sacrifice of animals, the the shedding of blood, the the covering of blood. So sin has broken the system. Sin reigns in all of us. It it whether the little or big, it's all the same to God. My kids asked me this before, and I think it's a valid question. They're like, well, a little lie is not as bad as a big lie. I'm like, no, no. Across the board, sin is sin. When God looks down everything that's sinful, everything that's wrong with the world, he sees that is separation us from him. And so God, in all of his magnificent glory, had to make a solution, and he did. He made a temporary one. The temporary sacrifices in the temple early on would eventually pave the way for the final and only sacrifice that would cover everything. And that's that's where we are this morning. Because here's what I've learned, or here's what I see. If you take away the idea of sin in the world, then when people say, well, everyone gets to heaven. If there's no sin, if sin is not really a problem, then everyone can get to heaven no matter what they do. By the way, the the idea, that idea is called universalism, which is kind of a that's a really big topic that I don't want to dive into right now. But the world tells us that everyone's gonna make it. It doesn't matter what you believe, whether you're Buddhist or Hindu or you're Muslim, that everyone's belief system is just as valid as everyone else's, and it's not you and I, it's not our job to tell people they're wrong. Except that's not what scripture teaches. If that's the case, then you and I could go out and live the life that we want, no matter how we live, and we're all gonna get to heaven anyways, so why does it matter? But but the problem is, is that's impractical.

Universalism And The Myth Of Your Truth

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Because we the world tells us there's no such thing as an absolute truth, right? Your truth is your truth, but but that can't be possible because it doesn't work that way. Like I think about it, and and I had someone ask me this question once, and when I was uh I was in Africa, what, two years ago, and there are tribes in Africa that still believe in cannibalism. And if you don't know what that is, that's basically they eat people. Because culturally, that is acceptable to them, they think it's okay to eat other people. So, based on the idea that everyone's free to do as they wish, I can't be mad at them if they decide to eat me. If I'm in their culture and they decide this giant man looks tasty and they decide to eat me, I can't be mad about it. Except I have scripture which is very clear about killing people. We don't do murder, right? So the Bible, I think culturally, not even just them, but most of the world would agree that eating people is wrong. Now, if you disagree with me on that, we can talk because that's a bigger conversation, but but you and I would look at them and say, well, there's no way that that they should be doing that. Based on what? Because if what's true for them is true for them, then you have to let it be. Well, they're murdering people, right? But that's not what they see. You see what I mean? We can't rationalize by telling people they can do whatever they want, because if everyone's morality was based on what they believed was true, the world would be nuts. There has to be a path, there has to be a truth. There, there has to be that society is built on this idea that there's got to be law, there's got to be order. We see this in the Old Testament. God sets the commandments in place, He tells them how to live, He gives them direction. You and I cannot say that everyone's truth is their truth and not go 100% the whole way. Because if you stand against one person who doesn't think like you do, then you are standing on an absolute, and according to your logic, you can't do that. However, Christianity is founded on one truth and only one way. John chapter 14 says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. This is Jesus talking. Says, My father's house has many rooms, and if that were not so, what I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also me uh may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. What a what an absolute

John 14 And Jesus Only Way

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statement. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can get to God unless they go through me. That goes, that flies right into the face of anyone who says that everyone can just believe whatever they want to believe. Jesus doesn't play that game. He he doesn't, you know, pull punches, he doesn't say, well, if you want to believe in me, and he says, No, no, listen, I am the only way to get to the Father. He said, If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and you have seen him. He says, I am the only way, and you have seen God because you have seen me. To which Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and that'll be enough for us. I always wonder how often Jesus rolled his eyes. Jesus answered, Don't you know me, Philip? Even if I even after I have been among you for such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, rather it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. And he continues on and says, If you love me, keep my commands. And I will and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you be, uh to be with you forever. The Spirit of Truth is the Holy Spirit we see come down in the book of Acts. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. And on that day you will realize that I am in my father, and you are in me, and I him in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the f is the one who loves me, the one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. He goes on, he says, Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not the world? Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own. They belong to the Father who sent me. I want to stop here because I think this is so important. Jesus says, If you love me, you will obey my teachings. Those who don't love me will not obey them. So you cannot say that you love Jesus and disregard his teachings. And I would say that encapsulates all of the scriptures. You cannot love Jesus and ignore what he calls us to do and what scripture calls us to do. It is not possible. Said all of this I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid. You heard me say, I am going away, I am coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the Prince of this world is coming, and he has no hold over me. But he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come, let us leave. So Jesus comes to this rag tag bunch of disciples and says, Listen, if you understand who I am, as you gather around, as you listen to what I say, you have to understand that I am the truth. I I am what the world has been waiting for. I'm what the Pharisees are failing to see. I have come. I and the Father are one. If you love me, if you believe in me, you obey me. And don't worry, even though I might leave for a time, I'm coming back. But but take rejoice. Rejoice in my coming back. But but when I leave, understand I'm not leaving you alone. I'm setting the spirit that is now at work in you to change you, to grow you, to mold you, to teach you, to help you understand the words that you read, that you will understand my teachings even better. Jesus stands in the face of a world that has tried to convince the Jews to follow enough rules, and Jesus says, You don't understand. I am the only way to get to God. You and I stand on the other side of the spectrum in a world that tells us that everyone is right. Jesus says, that's not how this works. Somebody is wrong, and it's not Him. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the only way to get to the Father. No amount of good deeds, no amount of money, no amount of sacrifice, nothing will ever be able to deal with the debt of sin that has separated you from me except me. For verse 12. This is Peter and John standing before the Sanhedrin, and they're giving their testimony. And they say in verse 12, Salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which he must be saved. A fisherman stands in front of the Sanhedrin. A disciple of Jesus stands in front of these men who understood the law, who studied it, who knew more than anything. And he said, No one else. Salvation can be found nowhere else except in the name of the one who sacrificed. No other name. Only Jesus. Or maybe it is. Maybe you've never heard that. Maybe someone has told you that if you just go to church, if you just do enough things, maybe if you just memorize enough scripture, but but but Jesus says, listen, you can't deal with sin. I will deal with it. I I can. I I I have sacrificed my life. I will lay down my life for you. But you must follow me. And if you follow me, you'll obey me. And maybe that's new to you. And if it is, I'm telling you right now, there is no other name. There is nothing else I could tell you other than giving your life to Jesus is the greatest decision you'll ever make. Because nothing else will save you. I do not care what the world tells you. If anything in the world tells you that you can somehow save yourself, it's lying to you. Jesus says, you can, but I can. And those who follow me will obey my commands. They'll live the life that I called them to live. That statement in the world today is not well received. People don't want to hear. Taylor Swift here, and it's not my intention to, but I watched her in an interview once. She was talking about something she's supporting the world. She was talking about homosexuality. And she was a big proponent of pride and supporting the LGBT communion and all this stuff. And one of the things she said in the interview is she was talking about how she's okay with it, and the scriptures didn't really speak against it. And she says, Well, my Jesus, my Jesus, what she's saying is, my version of Jesus tells me that it's okay because love is love. But the problem is that that's not scriptural. But but again, her version of Jesus, her version of

When Culture Rewrites Jesus

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religion, whatever she believes, she's gonna support and she's gonna modify it. And listen, I've seen this a lot. People take things out of context or they don't use it properly, or they don't study it correctly. They take Jesus and they mold Jesus into who they want him to be because it fits their ideology. And the problem with that is Jesus says, My job is not to become like you, your job is to become like me. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. The things that I support, the teachings that I have, the the scriptures that that my father has breathed into existence, these things are supposed to shape how you live your life. Me, me alone, not what the world says, not what culture accepts and again we live in a world that doesn't want to hear this because they say there can't be any absolute truth, but that's not true. Jesus is an absolute truth. Sin has broken the system, sin has corrupted everything. We tell people to live, do what makes you happy. Live your truth. And Jesus in response to that says, but I am the truth. I am the way. I am the life. I I am the only way to get to the Father. Me. Because you can't fix sin, but I did. We're gonna talk about that next week, the the need for the cross and and why the sacrifice had to happen, but but I need us to understand that as we continue into this question of why Jesus, at the end of the day, the only answer to the sin problem is only Jesus. He's the only way, the only truth, the only life. There is no other way for a man to be saved other than accepting and following and being obedient to the teachings of Christ. It's all by grace. I don't want to take away from that. He died, he sacrificed, he did it all. But you and I, we have to respond. And we respond by being obedient. I know I've said this before. The way that I live my life is not to earn my salvation, it's because I've already been gifted it. Christ died for me, he gave me this life, he saved me, so my response is to live for him and to tell the world about who he is. And that that's where we we land this today is if Jesus is the only way, if you listen, I I'm gonna say this because I think it's true, I know it's true. If you truly are following Jesus, you cannot just tell people to live how they want and they'll be okay. We we can't just ignore people and tell them, well, they'll be fine. You do you. Yes, it is. If Jesus is the only truth, and if we believe that with everything that's in us, you and I are the only lifeline in a world that is letting people die and go to hell, and no one seems to care. But we have Christ, we have the hope, the eternal hope. We have the one who has overcome sin, the one who has rescued us. We have the one who came into this world

Grace That Demands A Response

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and understood that we were broken and somehow has offered us a way back to being restored to the graces of God. Colossians 1, 15 through 23 says, The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of our all creation. For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusations. If you continue in your faith established and firm, and do not move from the hope you held out in the gospel, this is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and I in uh of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Paul writes this letter and says, Listen, in Christ, you and I have been set free. Because of his sacrifice, because of his death, that you and I are presented to God without blemish and free from accusation. And then he says, if you continue in that faith, established and firm, do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. If you and I really believe that Jesus is the truth, that he is the way, that he is the life, then the only response is to live a life obedient to him. And that means going into the world. And listen, I'm I'm not I'm not telling you to go into the world and start smacking people over the head with the Bible. It doesn't work. But if you truly love someone and they have and they've walked away from Christ, or if they're choosing to live in the world, if they're choosing to to believe in this hype of you do you and and everyone's right, if you really love someone, you can't stay quiet. We can't just let people continue to live in sin and hope that they'll figure it out. You and I have an obligation to tell them yes, you're broken. But yes, you can be rescued. There's a savior who has come. There's there's a man named Jesus who walked among us. He was born on Christmas, or so that's what we tell people. He died around Easter. That's what we tell people. But but but outside of that, there's a man who loved you enough. God loved you so much that he knew that you couldn't figure it out on your own. And so he provided a way for you to come back home. Jesus is that guy. The way that he lived, the things that he did it, like he wasn't just a good life coach. Jesus isn't just some good pop psychology. He's the savior of the world. He says it himself, no one gets through to the Father except through me. God makes us more bolder than the day we were before. And he goes, I know all of you walk into rooms every day with people who believe I'm good. I can live the way that I want. You know, I'm not gonna bother you, you're fine. You know, you do you to each their own truth. Not only do I pray for boldness that we stand on the truth of who Jesus is, that he is the only way, but I pray for a burden. That when we come across those conversations, our heart breaks. Because those people have been lied to. They have bought into false ideologies. The world has convinced them that somehow they're gonna be okay. And Jesus says, no, you won't. But if you follow me, I'll give you what

Prayer For Boldness And Humility

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you need. God embolden us and empower us to walk into the world and to stand on the truth of your son. I I know there's gonna be hard conversations with with loved ones and family members. There's gonna be hard conversations at work and at school. There's gonna be times when when we feel like we're the outcast, God, and and we're standing on the outside and and we're just trying to make sense of it all. God, I pray for that not only are we bold to stand on your truth, but God, that we are loving and graceful and trying to help help people know who you are, that we're burdened by the fact that they're lost, and all they need is someone to show them what we already know. God, I pray for those that that have already made that decision to follow you, that they get it out of their mind that somehow they still have to earn it. That as we stumble through this life, sometimes we keep walking away from you because we're not good enough. And and God, the truth is that's that's that's that's the reality. We're we aren't good enough. But in you, because of the sacrifice of your son, because of the filling of the Holy Spirit, we are being transformed, God. We are are being molded into the men and women that you're calling us to be. So keep us humble. May humility reign in every conversation we have, that that we're not better than you. We just know the way. We know the name. We know the man, we know the only way to salvation. So Jesus Christ, our Savior. Make us humble, make us bold, make us loving. Refuse to let us be silent. Thank you, God. Thank you for being the light of the dark. May we shine brighter than we've ever shined. May the world see us, see you. Love you and thank you. Sunday.