WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY RELIGIONS and so many churches all claiming to be right, how can a person know the right way to heaven?

This is an old question, and millions are still asking it. Many preachers and religious leaders step forward boldly with their opinions. But eternity is too serious a matter to trust to opinions.

A long time ago, a man asked this same question. “How can we know the way?” he asked. The answer was given by Jesus Christ: “I AM THE WAY, . . . no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

Although there are many theories and opinions about the way to heaven, they can all be placed in two categories—man’s way and God’s way. Christ is God’s way, and no one can come to the Father any other way. In John 10:1, Jesus says that if anyone tries to climb up some other way, “the same is a thief and a robber.”

In man’s way, you trust in your own merits, or in your religious and moral standing. But God refuses to accept man’s self-righteous efforts to save himself. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5).

In God’s way, you trust wholly in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for you on the cross. You acknowledge no merit of your own but believe that only the precious blood of Christ can take away your sins. You receive eternal life as a gift from God.

Two men once came into the temple to pray. One came in man’s way, and the other in God’s way. This account is found in Luke 18. The man who came man’s way was likely a good man according to human standards. He was very religious. He fasted twice a week, gave tithes, and was thankful that he was “not as other men are.” He was better than the average. It all sounded reasonable, but it was the human way, and God will not receive a sinner on such a basis.

The other man came God’s way, as an unworthy sinner, crying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” The Lord Jesus said this man went home justified. The man who was good in his own eyes was lost.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait [narrow] is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13, 14).

Friend, are you in the right way? Have you entered the right gate? Are you trusting the right Man? Or are you trusting yourself? Remember Jesus is God’s gift to sinners. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). Jesus is both the right way and the only way to heaven.

Christian Light Publications, Harrisonburg, VA 22802 Phone (540) 434-0768.