The Way to Heaven
by
Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
Perhaps you have heard the story of the
man who inquired from a mountaineer the way to a certain destination.
The mountaineer stuttered and stammered
and finally said: “You can’t get there from here.”
We may smile at this, but the results
would be even more amusing — and sad — were we to ask the average
person on the street the way to heaven.
What is the way to heaven? It is
interesting to read in God’s Word what many think about this. In
Proverbs 14:12 we read:
“There is a way that seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
What are some of these “ways” that
“seem right” to men, leading them to hope for heaven? Joining a
church? Being baptized? Doing one’s best? Keeping the Ten
Commandments? Loving one’s neighbor as himself? These are a few of
the ways that men follow, hoping to gain eternal life, but they all
come under one heading: “Do good.”
But what do the Scriptures say about
this? In the Gospel according to John there are recorded for us seven
“I ams,” which the Lord Jesus Christ used in speaking of Himself.
One of these is found in John 14:6:
“I am the way, the truth and the
life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”
This passage has a double significance,
since it was not only the declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
at the same time a declaration of the divinely inspired Scriptures.
From this verse we learn not only that Jesus is the only way to the
Father, but also that He is “the truth” to be believed and
trusted in. Thus we can believe the Lord Jesus when He claims to be
the way to heaven.
But according to this passage He is
also “the life.” As we place our faith in Him as the One who died
on the cross for us, we receive eternal life. “He died that we
might live.”
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