How Can Jesus Be the Only Way?

The Doctrine of Exclusivity and John 14:6

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist. One of the most controversial doctrines of Christianity is the doctrine of exclusivity. Now, what is the doctrine of exclusivity?

The doctrine of exclusivity is that Jesus Christ is the only way that someone can go to heaven. That faith in Jesus is required for someone to be able to enter the kingdom of God. This is expressed in different ways depending on how someone wants to say it, but ultimately, however someone says it, if they're saying that Jesus is necessary for heaven, then that is the doctrine of exclusivity.

Because what they're saying is everyone who is outside of Christ is excluded from the kingdom of God. And so there is the title, the name. And so today that's going to be our subject because we're going to be looking at Luke 22.

Oftentimes when people are discussing the doctrine of exclusivity, you have several different issues that come up. First, there are the people who absolutely deny it. I remember years ago watching Oprah Winfrey.

She was having a conversation about religion on her show, and during the show she said very clearly, Jesus simply can't be the only way to heaven because so many people have never heard of him. And it just can't be that belief in Jesus Christ is the absolute necessity for someone to go to heaven.

And so that's a common argument people make. And then, of course, there are people who say, well, what about the people who came before Jesus? What about the people who never heard his name? There's all kinds of issues that come up with the doctrine of exclusivity, and I want to address that, but first I want to address the reason why we believe in the doctrine of exclusivity, those of us who do.

A lot of people believe in it, and they'll usually quote the verse John 14 verse 6, which is a very important passage, and I do think people should memorize it. In fact, I would encourage you to memorize John 14, 1 through 6, because it is Jesus's promise of heaven and him going to prepare a place.

And it says at the end there in verse 6, Jesus says, I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by me. That is a statement of exclusivity. No one comes to the Father except through me.

And so when people are arguing the exclusivity of Christ, people will normally quote John 14 6, and that's that's a good verse. I mean, that's that's certainly Jesus's statement of exclusivity. But one of my favorite passages to point out to people when we're having the discussion of exclusivity is actually in Luke 22.

The Cup of Wrath in Gethsemane

It's in the Gospels in different Gospel accounts, but it's in our account for today, and that's why I wanted to bring it up. In Luke 22 beginning at verse 39, it says,. And he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.

And when he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood, falling down to the ground.

And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Now it goes on to talk about the betrayal and the arrival of Judas and those things, but ultimately we're very familiar with this scene.

This is Jesus crying out to the Father for, in a sense, to have the cup removed from them. And to understand this scene at all, you have to understand the concept of the cup that Jesus is referring to.

When Jesus says, when he talks about the cup, he's talking about the cup of God's wrath. And there's a big debate among some as to whether or not Jesus experienced the wrath of God on the cross. But that's clearly what the Bible teaches, and those who deny it, those who deny what we would call penal substitutionary atonement, I think are denying a central tenet of the Gospel by doing so.

Because the Bible tells us, if we go back to the Old Testament, it talks about, in Isaiah 53, the promise of the suffering servant. What would he do? He would bear the iniquity of the people, that he would, that by his stripes we would be healed, that all our iniquities would be laid upon him.

That's what happens. And this is the scene we have in the garden the night before the cross. Jesus is there with the Father. He's praying, and he says, Father, if it be your will, take this cup from me.

If you're willing, take this cup from me. The cup is the cup of wrath. It's the cup of punishment. Jesus is about to receive the punishment for those who believe on him. He is going to become the substitute.

He is going to become, he's going to make atonement for them by taking the punishment they deserve, by drinking the cup of wrath that they deserve. And he makes a statement, and again, going back to the issue of exclusivity, he makes a statement where he says, Father, if it be thy will, take this cup from me.

Meaning, if there is another way for the people to be saved, if there is another way that your justice can be meted out, if there's another way for the forgiveness to be granted, Lord, Father, take this cup from me.

And what does Jesus, what's the response from heaven? Well, the answer is no, that there's not another way. There's an angel that strengthens him, but strengthens him to receive the cup, not to avoid the cup.

And so here we have a moment where Jesus is saying, is there another way? Not as if he did not know, but this is a moment to demonstrate the massive weight that is about to be laid upon him, the weight of the sin of the world is, and he sweat as if it were great drops of blood.

He was not sweating blood over a Roman cross. He was not sweating blood over the punishment of Pilate or the Pharisees or Herod. He was sweating blood over the wrath of God, which was about to be poured out upon him.

And in that, he said, if there's another way, take this cup from me, if you're willing. But God wasn't willing. Why? Because there's not another way. For God to be just and the justifier, he has to punish sin and exercise justice.

That's what he does in Christ on the cross, and he can then declare the sinner to be righteous, because the sinner's sins have been paid for by Christ, and the righteousness of Christ has been applied to them.

The Apostle Paul tells us that. He says that he has a righteousness not of his own, which comes from the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness that we have is not from ourselves. It's not by keeping the law.

The righteousness that we have is the righteousness of Christ. And so there is no other way of salvation. If there was, the answer would have been different in the garden of Gethsemane. It would have been different when the prayer was made, but there wasn't a different answer.

The answer was silence. Because, are you willing that this cup be taken? No, not willing, because this is the only way. So that's one of the main texts that I use in regard to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ.

Christ Before Abraham and the Promise to the Patriarchs

There is no other way. But then people will ask, well, what about the people who came before Jesus? They couldn't believe on Jesus. Well, is that so? Does not the Bible tell us, does not Jesus himself tell us, that Abraham longed to see his day?

This is John chapter 8. And the Pharisees said, how could Abraham long to see your day? You're not even 50 years old. Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am. One, a claim to his divinity, but also a claim to the recognition that even the patriarchs understood that there was a Savior coming.

I think we could make the argument that even as far back as Adam and Eve knew that there was one who was going to come, who was going to crush the head of the serpent. The promised seed of Abraham. And Paul tells us that seed is not Israel.

That seed is Christ. And the seed is singular. It's pointing to Jesus. Jesus is the point of all of the Old Testament sacrifices. Every time someone made a sacrifice in the Old Testament, it pointed forward to Jesus.

Every time someone celebrated Passover, every time someone celebrated a feast, every one of those feasts and celebrations pointed forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were looking forward in faith in the same way we look backward in faith.

Why the Gospel Must Be Preached to Every Nation

Now, I have addressed this on a previous Coffee with a Calvinist, but I'm gonna bring it up now because it goes along with this and I'm gonna finish out with this. Some people say, well, what about people who never hear?

You know, you're telling us that people in the Old Testament knew Jesus was coming. And I say, yes, they had Jesus in types and figures and symbols and they look forward to his coming. They say, what about somebody who's never heard?

Well, the person who has never heard of Christ is not saved simply because of ignorance. They must hear the gospel. That is why we send missionaries. That's why we go and tell them about Jesus, because ignorance alone is not enough for salvation.

If it was, we shouldn't tell them, because it would be better to be ignorant if you could be saved through ignorance. But you can't. I had this conversation recently with a couple of guys. They said, well, what about a person who never hears the gospel?

And I said, well, that person will not be saved. And they said, oh, and they sort of took a step back. Are you serious? And I say, yes, this is why we take the gospel to every tribe, tongue and nation, and we send out missionaries and we support missionaries and we hold the rope for missionaries, because we believe that they need to hear the gospel.

And you say, well, how can they possibly be judged for not believing in Jesus? They won't be. They'll be judged for their sins. That's the key. You see, we're all damned in our sins. We all deserve God's wrath.

The only way to be saved from it is Christ. No one is going to get unfairness on Judgment Day. You will either pay for your sins by going to hell, or your sins will have been paid for you by Jesus' death on the cross.

There is no other option. There is no other way. Jesus asked, Father, if you're willing, take this cup from me. And the sound from heaven was silence. Why? Because there is no other way. Jesus is the only way, and that is the doctrine of exclusivity.

Closing Encouragement and Call to Subscribe

I hope this has been helpful for you today. Hopefully it has been an encouragement to you in your learning of the word of God. And if this video and these videos every day that come out at 630 on weekdays are a help to you, please take a moment and subscribe to us on YouTube if you're watching on YouTube, or like, comment, and share if you're watching on Facebook.

This helps us to reach more people. I thank you so much for watching Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey, and I have been your Calvinist. May God bless you.