No other way

In conversations I often find supposed "Christians" playing with the notion that there are other paths to God. Or, at least, He will accept us if we try really hard. Isn’t God gracious and forgiving? Doesn’t God believe in us? As if Christ came to set an example, and nothing more. He gave His life away for others, and that pleased God. So we need to serve others too. Do what Jesus would do.

The problem with such reasoning is three-fold (at least):

1. First, it makes Jesus merely a good person
2. Second, it rests on the notion that we are good people too
3. Third, it makes Jesus sacrifice in our place merely incidental

We must walk in Jesus’ steps (1 John 2:6), and abiding as God’s children (John 1:12) and Christ-followers is the pathway of a disciple. Because He suffered, we will too (John 16). We are not above our Master. This road will not be easy, even if His burden is light (eternally, Matthew 11:28-30). Following Him is a non-negotiable. He cannot be your Savior if He does not call the shots as your Master.

But Jesus did something you and I cannot do. He satisfied God’s wrath once-and-for-all. No other sacrifice is needed (Hebrews 10:30). In fact, if we come to God with our own good works in our hands we will leave rejected and condemned. We are not good enough, and our motives are mixed. It is not just a record of wrongs, it is a deeper issue. We prefer anything more than God. Our sin runs to the core of who we are. Only the One Son perfectly obeyed the Father and willingly died. Only Jesus was in perfect harmony with God. That is why His death was no accident, for He came for that very reason (Luke 9:51; Luke 18:31-33).

The cross was not a unique experience. Thousands of others have died as common criminals in the horrific Roman way of execution. Jesus’ physical pain in the flogging and scourging, the nails driven through His wrists and feet, was nothing compared the great anguish and pain He would experience from His Father (Matt. 26-37-38).

Today on Good Friday we consider a man who was the Good-est. He was the Best Man Ever. He was pure and innocent. Perfect. God came as a Man.

Our sin condemned Him. He willingly endured the rejection of His friends, the religious and government leaders, and the desertion of His closest followers. But the real pain He was to endure was the fierce cup of His Father’s wrath. This cup of wrath (Isaiah 51:17) was meant for us — disobedient, arrogance, anything-other-than-God-choosing, rebels — but willingly taken by Jesus Himself. It was my cup. It was yours. You killed Him. So did I.

But in the end, the Father crushed His Son. For our sake and for His. To welcome us enemies as friends, us strangers as family. In the Garden Jesus reversed the curse that came upon us in the first Garden. He not only made atonement for our sins (as acts), He made possible a reversal of our identity as sinners (our bent and depraved nature).

Jesus joyfully endured the cross, despised the shame and sat down victorious over sin, death and Satan. He rose again in triumph, the killer of all His enemies. The joy of His Father compelled Him to endure all things (Hebrews 12:1-2). To Him, it was worth everything. The joy of our Father must compel us too. Our good works must be rooted in The One Good Work. More than doing-what-Jesus-would-do, we need WHAT JESUS DID . He did it all, He paid the price. We cannot add to it. Any addition on our part would be subtraction, for we would be assuming that God needed our help to make all things right. Even in all our doing, we must never forget what He Did. We must never stop believing. Flee yourselves; trust in Him alone.

Jesus drank the cup we deserved, so we can freely drink the cup of salvation — offered free and all of grace. Drink His cup to the full. He drank yours, all of it.

He has done it. There was no other way (Mark 14:35).

"Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?" (John 18:11)

"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all …" (Romans 8:32)

"Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer." (Isaiah 53:10)

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)