SALVATION-CHRIST ALONE

True salvation is not to be found through the mere reception of any creed, however true or scriptural. Mere “head notion” is not the road to heaven. “You must be born again,” means a great deal more than that you must believe certain dogmas. The study of the Bible cannot save you! You must press beyond this; you must come to the living, personal Christ, or else your acceptance of the soundest creed cannot avail for the salvation of your soul. Salvation lies in Jesus only!

C.H. Spurgeon

Depend on it, my hearer, you never will go to heaven unless you are prepared to worship Jesus Christ as God.

C.H. Spurgeon

Authentic, biblical Christianity has always been an exclusive religion. This became apparent during the Roman Empire. When the Emperor Alexander Severus heard about Christianity, he placed an image of Christ beside the other gods in his private chapel, just to be safe. The Romans were happy to welcome Jesus into their pantheon. What the Romans couldn’t understand was why Christians refused to reciprocate. If the emperor was willing to worship Christ, why weren’t Christians willing to worship the emperor? Yet the early Christians insisted that in order to worship Christ at all, they had to worship Christ alone. They were even willing to stand up for this conviction by playing “Christians and lions” at the Colosseum.

Philip Graham Ryken

Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 10-11.

On the one hand, Christianity is the most exclusive religion imaginable. It insists that belief in Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for salvation. Jesus is the only way. You must go to Him to get eternal life. On the other hand, Christianity is the most inclusive religion possible because it makes salvation accessible to everyone. Salvation is offered for all people through one Person. Whoever believes in Him will not perish. Anyone who receives or believes in Jesus will live forever with God. There are no racial, social, intellectual, or economic criteria that prevent anyone from joining God’s family. One of the problems with the other religions of the world is that they all smack of elitism… Only Christianity offers salvation to everyone as a free gift.

Philip Graham Ryken

Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 36-37.

Christianity insists that everyone is a sinner through and through. Our minds, hearts, wills, and emotions are in rebellion against God. When it comes right down to it, the problem is not that there is only one way to God (through Christ). The real problem is that human beings will not follow God at all.

Philip Graham Ryken

Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 41.

But I observed that, although I was such a great sinner before conversion, God never burdened me heavily with the guilt of sins committed while I was in ignorance. He only showed me that I was lost if I did not have Christ because I had been a sinner. I saw that I needed a perfect righteousness to present me without fault before God, and this righteousness was nowhere to be found but in the person of Jesus Christ.

John Bunyan

Grace Abounding, Evangelical Press, 2000, p. 143.

If Christ had not gone to the cross and suffered in our stead, the just for the unjust, there would not have been a spark of hope for us. There would have been a mighty gulf between ourselves and God, which no man ever could have passed.

J.C. Ryle

The Cross: A Call to the Fundamentals of Religion.

There are basically only two kinds of religion in the world: those based on human achievement and those based on divine accomplishment. One says you can earn your way to heaven; the other says you must trust in Jesus Christ alone.

John MacArthur

When a person is sick, the doctor may prescribe medicine. What heals the man? Is it the medicine, or his reaching out for the medicine? Christ is the only solution for your problem of sin and judgment. He is the medicine. Who else but Christ can rescue you and bring you into the forgiven family of God? He is the exclusive way to God. He is a narrow way, but a sufficient one. But how do you reach out to Christ? By repentance and faith.

Jim Elliff

Pursuing God – A Seeker’s Guide, Christian Communicators Worldwide, 2003, p. 44, www.CCWonline.org.

The good news is that in the face of Jesus Christ we see the very face of God, the One who has decided to be with us and for us in spite of our sin.

Kevin VanHoozer

This We Believe, John Armstrong and John Woodbridge, ed. Zondervan, 2000, p. 75.

Our faith itself, though it be the bond of our union with Christ through which we receive all His blessings, is not our saviour. We have but one Saviour; and that one Saviour is Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing that we are and nothing that we can do enters in the slightest measure into the ground of our acceptance with God. Jesus did it all.

B.B. Warfield

Jesus is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is He the best of several ways; He is the only way.

A.W. Tozer

Consider the following ways in which Jesus alone qualifies as the exclusive Savior:

1. Christ alone was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14; Mt. 1:18-25; Lk. 1:26-38).

2. Christ alone is God incarnate (Jn. 1:1-18; Heb. 1:1-3; 2:14-28; Phil. 2:5-11; 1 Tim. 2:5-6).

3. Christ alone lived a sinless life (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 7:23-28; 9:13-14; 1 Pet. 2:21-24).

4. Christ alone died a penal substitutionary death (Isa. 53:4-6; Rom. 3:21-26; 1 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:10-14).

5. Christ alone rose from the dead triumphant over sin (Ac. 2:22-24; Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:3-8, 16-23).

Bruce Ware

The One Way, Tabletalk, June 2008, p. 19-20, Used by Permission.

Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; without the life, there is no living (see John 14:6).

Thomas a Kempis

The summary of the gospel is that our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, has revealed the will of His heavenly Father to us, and with His innocence has redeemed us from death, and has reconciled us with God. Therefore, Christ is the only way to salvation for all those who have been, are, and will be.

Ulrich Zwingli

Quoted in: Is Jesus the Only Way? Crossway, 1999, p. 45.

Christ is the only way to God, but there are as many ways to Christ as there are people who come to Him.

Os Guinness

The exclusive claim of Christianity about Christ is not centered on our belief that Jesus was right about God. It is centered on our claim that God was fully present in Christ to reconcile the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:18). It is the theological claim about Jesus (that He is God) that makes the spiritual claims of Jesus potent. Jesus' words are right because those words are God's words (Jn. 14:10b). Jesus’ “way” is not superior because it promotes a higher ethic or because it champions values that resonate with our spiritual sensitivities. Jesus' way is true because in Him we find God drawing us to Himself.

Gary Burge
John, Zondervan, 2000, p. 408, www.zondervan.org.