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

Jesus had just finished telling His disciples that He was going away to prepare a place for them. He tells them that He will come back and receive them to Him so they may be with Him. But Thomas, the doubter of the bunch, is skeptical. He asks Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going. How can we know the way?” This is a reasonable question when you think about it. God had started this scripture passage with telling them not to be troubled, but to believe in God.

Jesus simply tells him that He is the way. Notice that Jesus does not say that there is any other way to heaven. He does not say that Him plus works or Him plus rituals, or Him plus anything else gets us there. He says that He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life. He is all we need.

My friend, if you have gotten into a church that is telling you that you need Jesus plus something else to get you to heaven, get out of there. This is not what Jesus said. Jesus said very clearly that it was Him and Him alone that gets us to heaven. All we need is Jesus. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are saved by faith through grace and that this is God’s gift. God has presented this gift to us. We didn’t earn it, we certainly don’t deserve it, but it’s His gift to us. All we have to do is accept it. We simply have to believe in Him and have faith in Him and we are saved by His grace.

Your good deeds will not get you into heaven. Your random acts of kindness will not get you into heaven. Your volunteering will not get you into heaven. Your good behavior won’t even get your there. Jesus and Jesus alone is the way.

If you are unsaved and you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, then you may be thinking there is no need for service if it doesn’t get us to heaven. But, once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we want to serve Him. We want to obey His commands and be good to others. We show kindness to others to show Christ’s love to them. We do good things because we have God’s Holy Spirit filling our heart and simply put, it just spills out. We want to imitate Christ.

If you are in a church that tells you by accepting Christ your world is going to be all lollipops and gumdrops, get out of there. The Bible clearly tells us in 1 Peter 4:12 not to be surprised when we experience fiery trials to test us. We are told in James 1:2 to consider it joy when we experience trials for we know that this kind of testing produces steadfastness. Exodus 14:14 tells us that God will fight for us, we need only be silent. Trials and tribulations are simply a part of life. But, we are assured in Romans 8:28 that all things work for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.

I read in Tony Evan’s commentary this morning that there is a flip side to Romans 8:28. If we oppose God we will be on the receiving end of his wrath. If we live according to His will for us, we will receive His blessing. But, that’s a whole other blog.

I want you to understand that if you are religion hunting or church hunting that you need to steer clear of any church that tells you that there is more than one way to heaven. The One and only true God is the only One that can get us there. Stay away from any church or religion or religious leader that tells you that it takes Jesus plus something else to get to heaven. Jesus said it Himself that He is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one goes to the Father except through Him.

We can’t “work” our way into heaven. We are told in Isaiah 64:6 that all of us are unclean and all our righteous acts or our works are like filthy rags.

Turn to Jesus. Accept the gift of grace he freely offers to each and everyone of us. Believe in Him and trust in Him. Obey Him and enter into a close relationship with Him. He has a job for each of us to do and will provide all we need to get that job done. Know that it is His blood that saves us from our sins. We are saved not because of anything we can do, but because of what He has already done for us. Don’t trust anyone who tries to tell you differently.

Have a great day!