His way or . . .

This week someone told me that a person at her workplace has the attitude “my way or the highway” and manages to get it. People use this narcissistic and dictatorial approach when they feel their authority is being challenged. It also happens to create false religions because “my way” is the very definition of sin.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

I can want my own way in the kitchen, in how I do my housework, in the way I make quilts, and so on, but when under the authority of an employer, that does not work. It does not work in religion either. As MacArthur says, at the heart of every false religion is the notion that man can come to God by any means he chooses—by meditating, doing good deeds, and so on. However, the Son of God said this: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

He did not say He is a way but the way, the only way to have a saving relationship with God. Other Scriptures say the same thing:

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9–10)

The Bible is clear on this, even though some will find passages that seem to justify their ideas of how to come to God rather than by confessing and repenting of our sin, trusting in the atoning death on the cross of Jesus Christ, and affirming His bodily resurrection from the grave. “My way” never works.

Centuries before Christ’s death, God provided a means of worship and sacrifice. It began right after the first sin in Eden. Since then, all people fall short of God’s glory and are faced with God’s way or deciding to try their own way. That began back then as well:

In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. (Genesis 4:3–5)

God required a blood offering for sin. Abel came in faith, acknowledged his sin, and made the appropriate sacrifice. His offering was better than Cain’s because Cain neglected the prescribed sacrifice, thereby demonstrating his unwillingness to submit to God and deal with his sin. His offering was not the problem because grain, fruit, or vegetable offerings were included in the Mosaic Covenant, but the sin offering had to come first. Cain decided to approach God on his own terms and his name later became synonymous with rebellion and apostasy. Jude writes of false religious people with this:

Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. (Jude 11)

Cain didn’t consider his sin problem and tried to be ‘religious’ without dealing with sin. Balaam had a different problem. He “loved gain from wrongdoing. (2 Peter 2:15) much like some of current false teachers.

So did Korah. He didn’t like Moses telling him how to live. He protested, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” After a heated conversation, Moses declared that if Korah was in error, God would deal with him and his family in a way He had never done before. And it happened:

And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!” And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense. (Numbers 16:1-35)

PRAY: Jesus, I know that You are the way to the Father. Today I will pray for those who have not yet agreed or bowed before You. May You be merciful, patient with them and reveal truth with such clarity that they acknowledge their folly and give their lives to You.

PONDER: Jude 17-23 describes how I need to think and act regarding those who are caught in ‘my way’ instead of seeing Jesus as ‘the Way’ — and ask God to enable me to obey this and see Him rescue them.