"By the works of the law (living by God’s moral standards) no one will be justified"—that is, declared righteous, whole, and in right standing with God; accepted, approved, and fully embraced by Him, while also being in tune with ourselves, others, and the rest of creation.
When we truly grasp what Paul means here, we see that our only hope of God's acceptance and our wholeness lies in Christ—His perfect efforts done on our behalf and ¹assigned to us as a gift. There is no other way to be restored to God. Living perfectly according to God's standards (or any other moral code) simply won't work because no one can do it. Everyone falls short.
Every alternative approach—including religion, even some distorted versions of Christianity—involves trying to make ourselves acceptable to God through our own efforts: being good enough or doing enough good deeds. Paul states clearly that this is impossible. ¹No efforts, good works, or spiritual paths of any kind can cause God to receive and accept us.
Christ being the only way isn't about exclusion; it's about necessity.
Christ alone offers restoration and alignment with God as a gift received by faith through recognizing our need for it and accepting the promise of perfect righteousness freely given. There are no exceptions.
Why?
Because only Christ did what was necessary to restore us back to God. No one else—neither we ourselves nor any religious leader—has done or could ever do what He accomplished. Though wisdom can be found in various religions, none provides a complete and perfect restoration to our Creator.
Christ alone perfectly honored God by loving Him with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, even unto death. He then raised Himself back to life as proof of the Father's approval and the Son's accomplishment and His claim to be the way, the truth, and the life. Name another person—religious founder or otherwise—who has done this. No one else ever has or ever will. He alone lived His entire life carrying out His Father's will and desires perfectly.
The good news is that He offers to assign this perfectly lived righteousness to us as a gift, even though we haven't earned it, lived it, or deserved it—and never could or will. For these reasons, Christ is our only solution and only hope i.e. the only way back to the Father.
Without Him doing this for us, we could never be restored to right standing with God. All of us miss the mark of loving and honoring God with all we are and have, as He rightly deserves. We all come up short, without exception. Restoring ourselves to God by being good enough is simply impossible.
To acknowledge this doesn't sit well with our rebellious independence - our desire to be our own god, deliverer, and provider. Pursuing life apart from God began with Adam and continues today; we all do it.
Those who object to Christ's claim (not simply our claim) of being the only way often fail to understand—or refuse to accept—that outside of Him, there is simply no path to God. Only Christ did what no other religious founder, philosophy, or ethical system could ever do.
We are mere creatures, not the Creator; we are not the source of life and love—God alone is. And He has extended His life and love to us solely in and through Christ. This is a gift, not something deserved or earned.
In essence, alternative "ways" reject justification by faith and instead assume we can justify ourselves by finding a path that forces God (or the universe, karma, or whatever) to accept us or make life flourish. They claim the path doesn't matter, only how faithfully you follow it—and if you're faithful enough, you'll eventually achieve acceptance, perhaps through reincarnation until you reach perfection or nirvana.
The problem with this approach is that it's not about how well you walk a path; it's about recognizing you never will walk any path well enough to align yourself with and honor God as He deserves. Only Christ did this, and only He has the right to bestow His achievements on us as a gift. Only Christ can justify us and align us with God - we can never do it ourselves. Through and in Christ is the only way to be restored to the Father.
This is profoundly good news, because the offer is for anyone who humbly recognizes their need and receives His offer. In that moment, they are immediately and perfectly restored to God. He has made a way (the only way) for all of us to be perfect in His eyes and fully embraced by Him.
Yet it's bad news for those who arrogantly insist they can save themselves, gaining God's approval by being good enough or following their chosen path diligently enough. To hear that no path works forces them to admit they (and their efforts) can never be sufficient—something few are willing to face.
This is the real objection to Christ being our only option. Christ's claim of being the only way is not the core issue. The issue is they refuse to admit that they can never do or be good enough to reach God or divinity etc. This is the underlying reason why people are offended by Christs claim to be only the way to God.
This cuts to the heart of our arrogance and stubborn belief that with enough time and effort, we can make ourselves acceptable to and right with God, and outweigh the bad with good, or achieve self-salvation through rituals or striving.
Our deepest problem isn't that Christ is the only way—it's that we refuse to admit restoration must be done for us, not by us. God must do it because we cannot. We resist being told we aren't the captains of our own spiritual fate; that we aren't our own god but must depend on the true Creator and Sustainer of life, love, and all things.
We are not that person—and never will be—no matter what path we take or how fiercely we pursue it - including God's law laid out in the Bible itself.
If Christ were merely another way to God through good conduct, it might make sense to see Him as one option among many. But that's not what He claims or offers. He said He is the way to God. Or, in Paul's words: "By the works of the law no one will be justified." Christ is the only way.
For a discussion of what it means to be righteous, click here
When we truly grasp what Paul means here, we see that our only hope of God's acceptance and our wholeness lies in Christ—His perfect efforts done on our behalf and ¹assigned to us as a gift. There is no other way to be restored to God. Living perfectly according to God's standards (or any other moral code) simply won't work because no one can do it. Everyone falls short.
Every alternative approach—including religion, even some distorted versions of Christianity—involves trying to make ourselves acceptable to God through our own efforts: being good enough or doing enough good deeds. Paul states clearly that this is impossible. ¹No efforts, good works, or spiritual paths of any kind can cause God to receive and accept us.
Christ being the only way isn't about exclusion; it's about necessity.
Christ alone offers restoration and alignment with God as a gift received by faith through recognizing our need for it and accepting the promise of perfect righteousness freely given. There are no exceptions.
Why?
Because only Christ did what was necessary to restore us back to God. No one else—neither we ourselves nor any religious leader—has done or could ever do what He accomplished. Though wisdom can be found in various religions, none provides a complete and perfect restoration to our Creator.
Christ alone perfectly honored God by loving Him with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, even unto death. He then raised Himself back to life as proof of the Father's approval and the Son's accomplishment and His claim to be the way, the truth, and the life. Name another person—religious founder or otherwise—who has done this. No one else ever has or ever will. He alone lived His entire life carrying out His Father's will and desires perfectly.
The good news is that He offers to assign this perfectly lived righteousness to us as a gift, even though we haven't earned it, lived it, or deserved it—and never could or will. For these reasons, Christ is our only solution and only hope i.e. the only way back to the Father.
Without Him doing this for us, we could never be restored to right standing with God. All of us miss the mark of loving and honoring God with all we are and have, as He rightly deserves. We all come up short, without exception. Restoring ourselves to God by being good enough is simply impossible.
To acknowledge this doesn't sit well with our rebellious independence - our desire to be our own god, deliverer, and provider. Pursuing life apart from God began with Adam and continues today; we all do it.
Those who object to Christ's claim (not simply our claim) of being the only way often fail to understand—or refuse to accept—that outside of Him, there is simply no path to God. Only Christ did what no other religious founder, philosophy, or ethical system could ever do.
We are mere creatures, not the Creator; we are not the source of life and love—God alone is. And He has extended His life and love to us solely in and through Christ. This is a gift, not something deserved or earned.
In essence, alternative "ways" reject justification by faith and instead assume we can justify ourselves by finding a path that forces God (or the universe, karma, or whatever) to accept us or make life flourish. They claim the path doesn't matter, only how faithfully you follow it—and if you're faithful enough, you'll eventually achieve acceptance, perhaps through reincarnation until you reach perfection or nirvana.
The problem with this approach is that it's not about how well you walk a path; it's about recognizing you never will walk any path well enough to align yourself with and honor God as He deserves. Only Christ did this, and only He has the right to bestow His achievements on us as a gift. Only Christ can justify us and align us with God - we can never do it ourselves. Through and in Christ is the only way to be restored to the Father.
This is profoundly good news, because the offer is for anyone who humbly recognizes their need and receives His offer. In that moment, they are immediately and perfectly restored to God. He has made a way (the only way) for all of us to be perfect in His eyes and fully embraced by Him.
Yet it's bad news for those who arrogantly insist they can save themselves, gaining God's approval by being good enough or following their chosen path diligently enough. To hear that no path works forces them to admit they (and their efforts) can never be sufficient—something few are willing to face.
This is the real objection to Christ being our only option. Christ's claim of being the only way is not the core issue. The issue is they refuse to admit that they can never do or be good enough to reach God or divinity etc. This is the underlying reason why people are offended by Christs claim to be only the way to God.
This cuts to the heart of our arrogance and stubborn belief that with enough time and effort, we can make ourselves acceptable to and right with God, and outweigh the bad with good, or achieve self-salvation through rituals or striving.
Our deepest problem isn't that Christ is the only way—it's that we refuse to admit restoration must be done for us, not by us. God must do it because we cannot. We resist being told we aren't the captains of our own spiritual fate; that we aren't our own god but must depend on the true Creator and Sustainer of life, love, and all things.
We are not that person—and never will be—no matter what path we take or how fiercely we pursue it - including God's law laid out in the Bible itself.
If Christ were merely another way to God through good conduct, it might make sense to see Him as one option among many. But that's not what He claims or offers. He said He is the way to God. Or, in Paul's words: "By the works of the law no one will be justified." Christ is the only way.
For a discussion of what it means to be righteous, click here
For a further discussion on why Christ is our only way to be right with God, click here.
For a discussion on the unique claims of Christ click here
For a discussion on our alienation from God and the solution, click here.
For a further discussion on the difference between religion and Christ, click here.
For a discussion of the meaning of the "broad and narrow way" click here.
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Footnotes:
¹The honor He rightfully deserves as the Creator, Giver and Sustainer of life, love, and all things.
²We are assuming that there is absolute right and wrong. For those who believe everything is relative, you may find the following two links helpful.
The internal dynamics of our dilemma and God's amazing solution/offer!
³When we accept Christ's free offer of restoration to God, we are acknowledging that the need for restoration exists, and we cannot restore ourselves. This is a posture of humility.
⁴Or at least if I do more good than bad things, it will be enough to offset the bad things. Christ didn't do more good things than bad; he lived for God's honor and glory perfectly. This perfection is what God's perfection calls for and requires to be aligned and right with Him. And thanks to Christ, it has been lived out and fulfilled for us by Christ and offered to us as a gift. In Christ, we are now perfectly righteous (acceptable to our Creator) if and when we receive this gift.
⁵Technically, he is aligned with us as far as his disposition towards us. He now sees and loves us perfectly because he sees us in Christ i.e. fully "clothed" in his perfection.
