A reminder from Kevin DeYoung:
All paths lead to God, but only one path will present you before God without fault and with great joy.
Pick a path, any path—it will take you to God. Trust me: you will stand before Him one day. You will meet your Maker. You will see the face of Christ.
There are many ways up the mountain, but only one will result in life instead of destruction.
Greg on why Jesus is the only way to life instead of destruction:
Then I asked him, “Have you ever committed any moral crimes?”
“Yes,” he said.
“So have I,” I responded. “So now we have this difficult situation. We both believe those who commit moral crimes should be punished, and we both believe we’ve committed moral crimes. Do you know what I call that? Bad news.”
I continued, “This is where Jesus comes in. We both know we’re guilty, worthy of punishment. God offers a pardon on His terms: Jesus, because He has personally paid the penalty on our behalf. You can either take the pardon and go free, or leave it and pay for your own crimes yourself.”
This approach gives an accurate sense of why the cross is important and why Jesus is actually necessary, showing God as merciful, not petty. The biblical message is not if you don’t believe in Jesus you go to Hell. Rather the message is, “If you don’t receive a pardon for your crimes, you’ll be punished as you should be.” The former approach confuses the doctor with the disease. If you refuse the doctor’s medicine for your disease, the blame belongs to the disease, not the doctor. The obituary doesn’t read, “Cause of Death: He didn’t go to the doctor.”
It’s the disease—sin—that kills, not the lack of a doctor. Jesus is the only way because He is the only one that provides the cure for what ails us.