All roads lead to Rome. Only Jesus leads to God.

Recently, in my Bible study, we came upon the following verse.

 ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6, New King James Version)

If you've never come across it before, this is a verse that bothers a lot of people. The exclusivity of it "gets" folk. It's bothersome that Jesus says he is the only way to God. It's problematic especially if you're not a christian, because Jesus has not left any room for you to say, "Well, what works for you may not work for me."

Jesus doesn't leave any wiggle room here, and although that can be uncomfortable to think about, it does make logical sense. Christianity is unlike any other religion, in that rather than requiring some entrance fee from us, God has made atonement for our sins Himself. Let's look fore closely at Jesus claim here.

"No one comes to the Father except through me."

Now, to have this talk, I'm working off three distinct logical premises.
1. Jesus was a real man who lived.
2. Jesus actually said this.
3. Jesus was God's son, who willingly, and at God's behest, served as an atoning sacrifice for our sin on our behalf.
We can talk about proving those premises later (read: in different posts), but what comes next will be based on them.

God exchanged His son's life for mine. Now, I don't have kids, but I know several parents. I used to volunteer for a support group for grieving children. I've know several families who have had children die. It's painful for the brothers and sisters, but that's nothing compared to the pain of the parents. It's the kind of pain that tears apart a marriage, that wounds relationships, and leaves an empty look in a parent's eyes, like a part of their heart is missing.

God, being God, knows everything. God knew beforehand what he was doing when he asked Jesus to die for our sins. Jesus knew what was coming (torture, pain, death, separation from God). We know this because of what he prayed in the garden the night he was arrested.

 ³⁹Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, "My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?"  (Matthew 26:39, The Message)

and

 ⁴²He then left them a second time. Again he prayed, "My Father, if there is no other way than this, drinking this cup to the dregs, I'm ready. Do it your way."  (Matthew 26:42, The Message)

 Note: In this context, the cup is full of God's wrath about our sin, it's what must be consumed in order for us to have a relationship with God.

Even knowing what was coming, Jesus went forward with the plan. God's pain was doubled, not only would Jesus die, not only would God not intervene to stop it, God himself would be the one to kill his own son. A few minutes later a crowd of people showed up in the Garden to arrest Jesus. Peter tried to defend his master, drawing his sword, and managing to sever the ear of the high priests's servant. Jesus response:

 ^52-54Jesus said, "Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords. Don't you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies—more, if I want them—of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready? But if I did that, how would the Scriptures come true that say this is the way it has to be?"  (Matthew 26:52-54, The Message)

Note: Company here is translated Legion elsewhere. A legion at the time was 5,120 soldiers. 12 Legions=61,440 Angels (we'll round it off to 60,000)

Can't you just picture it? God has assembled the armies of Heaven, ready to send in to the rescue, Angelic special forces commandos, ready to shock & awe the crowd. Ready to extract Jesus and slaughter everyone who deserves it.

You and I deserve it. God knew that. Jesus knew that, and so, rather than call on 60,000 angels, rather than summon the army standing at the ready, He told Peter to put away his sword. He healed the high priest's servant, and went quietly with the mob.

Now we come back to our central point, Jesus says there is no way to the Father except through Him. Jesus gave his life for us. The Father killed his own son in our place, had there been some other way, we can be confident that these things would have been unnecessary, that Jesus would have prayed in the garden, "But Father, couldn't we just direct them to [alternate path here]." If Jesus is the only way to heaven, his sacrifice is noble, a great gift from a loving God to an undeserving people. If Jesus is not the only way, his sacrifice is the cruel act of a brutal God.

Jesus is the only way to God. No other explanation makes sense.