Talking with Your Kids about JesusSýnishorn

Day Four: The Teachings of Jesus—Is Jesus the Only Way to God?

Scripture: John 14:6, Romans 3:25, 2 Corinthians 5:21

Non-Christians have long claimed that believing there’s only one way to God is narrow-minded and arrogant. But that claim is now increasingly made within the church. Our kids need a clear understanding of what the Bible actually teaches to know how to respond and not be swayed by statements that simply sound good. Today we’ll specifically look at the necessity of Jesus’s atonement, and how His sacrifice on the cross uniquely allowed for the reconciliation of humankind to God.

To begin, we need to understand what the Bible says about the nature of sin and the nature of God. Sin is a transgression of God’s moral law (1 John 3:4). The Bible says that all people have this law written on their hearts (Romans 2:14–15) and are guilty of breaking it (Romans 3:10, 23). When we sin, we rebel against God, and our sins relationally separate us from Him (Isaiah 59:2). This separation from our Creator and Sustainer is the fundamental problem of human existence.

How should God deal with this sin? Two attributes of God’s nature frame what we need to understand in order to answer that question: His lovingness and His justness. First John 4:8 says, “God is love,” and the Bible is filled with references to his loving nature. The Bible also tells us repeatedly that God is just—He can, should, and will judge perfectly between right and wrong and dispense justice accordingly (Psalm 33:5; Isaiah 61:8). Because God is just, He must act in judgment against sin, and He has set the penalty as death (Romans 6:23). Overlooking sin would make God unjust and imperfect because He would be letting people do whatever they want, even if it’s wrong, without any consequences.

God is in the unique position to both set the penalty for and absolve humans of their guilt as He sees fit within His just character—and He lovingly decided to make provision for our forgiveness. Payment for sin was required by His justness, but He made that payment Himself through Jesus’s death on the cross in our place.

Could God have chosen another kind of atonement? This is something theologians debate. The important point to understand, however, is that Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross was, in fact, the way God offered atonement to humankind—and the only way: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Ask your child if they believe people of all religions will have eternal life with God—why or why not? Discuss how Jesus’s atonement uniquely reconciled us to God.