None Other

by James MacDonald

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12, esv).

“There are many roads to God.” Have you heard people say that? They say, “As long as you’re sincere, it doesn’t really matter. Every path leads to the same God.”

But have you found this principle at work in any other area of life? Does your experience really tell you that everything is equivalent? Every restaurant, the same? Every coffee choice, all the same? Can every answer to a math problem be considered right? Do all recipes lead to the same quality meal?

What would you say to a young guy who’s ready to buy an engagement ring, but whose plan is just to grab the first one in the case he can afford? “They’re all just rocks. What’s the difference? You’ve seen one rock, you’ve seen them all.”

Or what would you say to someone living in the Midwestern plains who has no interest in ever traveling to see the mountains? “They’re just hills. What’s the difference? We’ve got hills around here. You’ve seen one hill, you’ve seen them all.”

See how silly it sounds to say that? See how dangerous it is to spout the foolish phrase, “All roads lead to God”?

“Enter by the narrow gate;” Jesus said, “for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13–14, nkjv).

The cross of Jesus is not one of many ways to God; it is the only way to God. In fact, the shocking thing is not that there is only one way to God; the remarkable thing is that there is any path at all!

Do you find that too narrow? Too exclusive? No. Truth by definition is intolerant of error, and is exclusive by nature. How many temperatures does water freeze at? How many answers to 2+2 are correct? Drop a five-pound rock off a building, and see if you can make a solid argument for the relativity of gravity before it hits the ground.

Right?

So why would the study of God—who Himself made math and science and the other disciplines which are “intolerant” toward error—be the only subject known to mankind in which truth does tolerate error?

There is but one road to God. And instead of being resistant to that, we should be forever thankful for it. What could we produce as evidence for why the God who created the world should save us? Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense if He just pushed the whole thing over the cliff and into hell itself?

Instead, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, nkjv). “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, nkjv). Only Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Here He is. Follow Him into the narrow gate, for He alone is the Way.

PRAY

Lord, on this day between Jesus’ death and resurrection, fill me with wonder at what You’ve done. You’ve made a way where we don’t deserve one. Help me to not take lightly Your grace and mercy that have opened this one path for me to be forgiven and reborn and to have promised abundant life with You for all eternity. I worship You today in the stillness of this moment, in the mournful hours after the death of Your Son, praying only in His name—my only Way—amen.

The Cost

excerpts from MacArthur's "The Starting Principle of Discipleship" . . . . . . . .

If you want to follow Christ, you want to be a Christian, do you?  Here’s the message.  Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. 

Do you hear that in the contemporary gospel?  Do you ever hear that?  Do you ever hear that in a message given by a television preacher or an evangelist?  Do you ever hear anybody say that?  Do you ever hear anybody stand up in a crowd and say, “If you want to become a Christian, slay yourself, deny yourself all the things that yourself longs for and wants and hopes for, be willing to die and slavishly submit in obedience to Jesus Christ”?  That doesn’t sell.  That’s not smart marketing.  It just happens to be the truth. 

So what do you want to do?  Get someone artificially converted?  That’s the popular way.  Give people the illusion they’re saved when they’re not so that some day when they face Christ they’re going to say, “Lord, Lord,” and He’s going to say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”  The gospel has to be the gospel.  You want to follow Me then?  The principle is, it’s the end of you if you want to follow Me.  It’s the end of you.  You don’t exist anymore.  Paul said it this way.  “For to me to live is - ” what? “ - Christ and to die is - ”  I’ve learned how to be abased and how to abound.  I’ve learned how to have things and not have things.  It doesn’t matter.  If I live I live to the Lord.  If I die I die unto the Lord.  What’s the difference? I’m the Lord’s.”  That’s the attitude. 

Men want glory.  They want health.  They want wealth.  They want happiness.  They want all their felt needs met, all their human little itches scratched.  They want a painless life.  They want the crown without the cross.  They want the gain without the pain.  That’s how people think.  That’s not God’s interest.  The author of our salvation, according to Hebrews 2:10, was made perfect through suffering, and so are we as well taken through the crucible of suffering.  And where we suffer, first of all, is in the death of all hopes, all ambitions, all desires, all longings, all needs that are human.  That’s the point.

So you want to be a Christian, it’s not easy.  You’d think it was easy.  Today, if you want to be a Christian, pray these little words.  Pray this little prayer, and you’ll be a Christian.  It’s not easy to be a Christian.  Let me show you some things.

Matthew 7:13.  This is, again, the teaching of our Lord.  Matthew 7:13, Sermon on the Mount, familiar words, verse 13, “Enter by the narrow gate.”  First of all, become a Christian, you’re going through a narrow gate.  The idea of narrow here means “constricted.”  I mean, it’s one of those things that you have to kind of go through.  It’s very, very tight.  You can’t carry anything through it.  You come through with nothing.  “There is a wide gate, but it leads to destruction.”

There’s a wide religious gate, and people are going on with all their baggage, and all their self needs, and all their self esteem, and all their desire for fulfillment and self satisfaction, and all of that.  They’re going on there, but it doesn’t go to heaven, it says “heaven” but ends up in hell.  And many go that way.

But there is also, verse 14, this very small, narrow gate and it leads to eternal life, but notice this, “Few are those who find it.”  And the idea is it’s hard to find.  And I agree that it’s hard to find.  It’s especially hard to find today.  You can go to church, after church, after church, after church, after church and never find it.  It’s a very narrow gate. 

It’s hard to find and it’s hard to get through.  Why?  Why is it so hard to find and why is it so hard to get through  Answer, because it’s so hard to deny yourself.  So hard.  That’s the reigning reality in human fallenness, that man is the master of his own soul, the captain of his own faith, that man is the monarch of his own world, that man is king and to say he has to slay himself, deny himself, that’s too much to swallow.  You preach a gospel that doesn’t include that and people will flock around to get out of hell into heaven.  You start preaching the true gospel that calls for total and absolute self-denial, the recognition that you have nothing of which you are worthy, nothing of which you can be commended, nothing in you that needs to be salvaged.  But rather you’re willing to slay everything you are, all your hopes, dreams, ambitions for the sake of the pearl, for the sake of Christ and you’re coming on God’s terms.  That’s not easy.  It’s hard, first of all, to find that truth and it’s even harder once you’ve heard it to submit to it because man worships himself.  He’s his own god. 

What we need to be telling people is not “come to Christ and you’ll feel better about yourself,” is not “Jesus wants to meet whatever your needs are.”  Jesus doesn’t want to meet your needs, your worldly, earthly, human needs.  He wants you to be willing to say, “I will abandon all the things I think I need for the sake of Christ.”

And then Jesus told those two parables in Matthew 13:44-46.   He said there was a man who found a treasure hidden in a field and he saw the value of the treasure and he sold everything for the treasure.  Then he said there was a pearl of great price, that the man found the pearl of great price, he sold everything to get the pearl.  It’s the selling everything that is the essence of salvation.  It’s I give up everything, I deny myself, I offer my life both in terms of death, if need be, and in terms of obedience in life.  This is the message of the gospel.  So when you go to preach the gospel, that’s what you have to say. 

Now, you say, “But people aren’t going to buy that.”  Well wait a minute, people aren’t going to buy that, of course not, unless the Spirit of God is working in their hearts, right?  Unless the Spirit of God is doing the work of conviction, and the Spirit of God is awakening the dead heart, and the Spirit of God is generating faith, and then that’s the only true message that connected with the work of the Spirit will produce true salvation.  Don’t reinvent the gospel to suit you.  That’s what’s being done today.