CHRIST'S LOVE - JESUS IS THE WORLD'S ONLY SAVIOR
No one can come to faith, and no one can remain in faith apart from the means of grace.

Why are there so many religions? How can Christianity be the only true faith? Aren't all religions in reality merely different ways to the same God? Will God really send unbelievers to hell? Many ask such questions, but the questions also sometimes arise in our own hearts and lead us to wonder about the exclusive claims of Christianity. But the Bible provides the answers for us.

People by nature know that there is a god or gods to whom they are accountable (see Romans 1:19-23). From nature people can know that God is powerful and wise and that he punishes sin (see Romans 2:14,15). But they cannot know the true God from only nature. Nor can they know what he has done to save them. So they have many different ways to picture him. Every religion except Christianity teaches that people must do something to save themselves.

But the Bible reveals that in spite of their most valiant efforts, human beings cannot save themselves. God demands perfection (Matthew 5:48). Even if a person could keep all of God's commands and stumble only at only one point he or she would be guilty (James 2:10). Since every religion other than Christianity teaches salvation by human effort, every other religion leads people away from the true God and the salvation God provides.

GOD'S WAY TO HEAVEN

In eternity our merciful God planned a way to rescue sinners from their predicament. He provided a perfect Savior. He sent his Son to become a human being to live under the law in our place. "When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law" (Galatians 4:4,5). Our Savior was "tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus fulfilled God's demands of perfection for us.

That perfect Savior also offered a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).

God's Word reveals to us that Jesus is the only Savior. Jesus himself tells us, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). The apostles insisted that "salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

BY FAITH IN JESUS WE RECEIVE GOD'S GIFT

If the world's only Savior is a perfect Savior who atoned for the sins of the whole world, we might conclude that everyone is saved. Yet just as the Bible tells us that Jesus is this world's only Savior, it also tells us that there is only one way to receive salvation—through faith in Jesus.

Our Lord in his infinite wisdom determined that salvation is to be received by faith alone. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).