Lesson 29 · Unit 5 · Roots of the Gospel
Christ Alone — What About Other Religions
The most exclusive claim comes from the most open arms.
Open
Your grandmother keeps a small shrine in her room, dusted until it shines. She has eaten vegetarian for decades, chanted the sutras for decades, and lent a hand to anyone in the neighborhood in trouble; when the family group chat mentions her, everyone gives her the thumbs up. Since you came to faith, every visit home tightens something in your chest when you see that shrine. You know John 14:6 by heart — "No one comes to the Father, except through me."
Read in church, that sentence is a comfort. Read in your grandmother's front room, it is a weight. Isn't "all roads lead to the top of the mountain" more generous? Why insist there is only one? This lesson takes the most exclusive-sounding sentence in the Bible, puts it back in the room where it was spoken, and asks what is actually being held out — a wall, or a hand.
Scripture
"There is only one road" was said in a room where people were about to be parted by death; Peter later took it all the way in front of the council. (WEB) John 14:1-6 —
1“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.
2In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
3If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
4You know where I go, and you know the way.”
5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
10may it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands here before you whole in him.
11He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’
12There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
See
It was said inside a comfort
Many people assume John 14:6 is a declaration of war. Go back to the scene: it is the night of the last supper, Jesus is about to die, and the disciples are distressed. His opening line is "Don't let your heart be troubled"; Thomas asks, in a panic, about the road; and only then does he answer, "I am the way." This is not comparative religion in a public square — it is a signpost handed to frightened people in a small room. The most "exclusive" sentence is a word of comfort. Remember the setting and you will not get its tone wrong.
Why there can only be one
Because salvation is not a competition, it is a rescue. The religions of the world are mostly humanity's effort to feel its way upward — and there is moral wisdom in them worth respecting. The gospel runs the other way: God came down. If being saved were a matter of climbing, then by all means compare routes and judge which is higher; but if a person has fallen down a well, what he needs is not more theory of climbing, it is someone willing to come down. Notice the wording in Acts 4:12: "no other name under heaven that is given" — given is the language of a gift. Christ alone is not a Christian's arrogance; it is that he alone died and rose, he alone paid the price. The road is narrow in that there is only this one person, and wide in that anyone who will may come — regardless of ethnicity, education, or record. The exclusive claim comes from the most open arms on a cross.
Then what about grandmother
This question is real enough to hurt, and no one should be allowed to brush it off lightly. Scripture has not handed us other people's names, but it has given us two certainties: first, that the Judge of all the earth will do right (Gen 18:25) — he is fairer than you are, and he loves your grandmother more than you do; second, that salvation is in Christ, that this road has been made known, and that it is still open — the thief beside the cross walked through the door at the last possible moment. So our part is not to decide the case for God, but to do what can still be done while there is time: witness, pray, love. Leave the verdict to God, and leave the opportunity to love.
When a friend asks you this
Colleague: "Don't all the religions teach people to be good? Why insist that only yours is right?" You: "I'll grant you half of that — a lot of religions carry wisdom I respect. What I believe isn't that everyone else is entirely wrong; it's that something happened that hasn't happened anywhere else: a man rose from the dead." "What if that's just a legend?" "That's exactly where the gospel invites you to check it: the dates, the places, the hundreds of witnesses — all written down. If he didn't rise, I should be the first one out. If he did, then 'I am the way' isn't a boast, it's a sentence he has the standing to say." "And the people who never heard, their whole lives?" "Honestly, God hasn't handed me that list, and I won't judge the case on his behalf. But I do trust one thing: the Judge of all the earth will do right. So what I can do is point out the one road I actually know about to the people I can reach — you, for instance, right now." Do not belittle what someone else believes, and do not water down who Christ is — respect and clarity can live together (1 Pet 3:15).
Deeper
The uniqueness of the incarnation
the dividing line is not moral teaching but a historical event: God became a man, died, and rose (John 1:14; 1 Cor 15:14).
The name that is "given"
salvation is handed over, not achieved; that verb is itself the grammar of grace (Acts 4:12; Eph 2:8-9).
A narrow gate and a wide mercy
one road, but a door open to all: "whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved" (John 14:6; Rom 10:13).
Those who never heard, and God's justice
Scripture does not give us other people's names, but it promises that the Judge will do right; witness is our part, the verdict is his (Gen 18:25; Deut 29:29).
Story
Nabeel Qureshi grew up in the United States, a devout Muslim and a medical student. He loved his faith and he deeply loved his family: he prayed at the set hours, could recite long passages by heart, and was glad to defend what he believed to anyone. At university he met a Christian classmate named David, and the two became inseparable friends — and each other's most serious opponents. For four years they turned each other's faith over and over: historical documents, manuscripts, the evidence for the resurrection, neither of them letting the other off easily.
What finally pressed him down was not a clever line, but the weight of evidence accumulating inch by inch, and the sincerity of a friend that did not wear out year after year. The hardest part was the cost: to be joined to Christ meant, very nearly, losing the acceptance of the family he loved most. He came to faith in tears. He later wrote: I thought I was searching for the truth; in fact the one who is the Truth had been searching for me all along. When he died of cancer in 2017 he was only thirty-four, and he kept what he believed to the end.
(Historical figure: Nabeel Qureshi, 1983-2017; see his memoir "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus"; his story is in the Modern Testimonies section of this site.)
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1In what setting was John 14:6 spoken? How does that differ from how the sentence used to sound to you?
2"Religion is people feeling their way up; the gospel is God coming down to rescue" — are you persuaded by that distinction? Where do questions remain?
3Who is your "grandmother" — the name that makes this lesson ache? What is one thing you can do for that person today?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
Lord who is the way, the truth and the life: thank you that you did not wait at the summit for us to feel our way up, but came down into the well and carried me out. This road cost you your life; I dare not talk about it as though it were my own cleverness. When I speak your name, give me both reverence and gentleness — belittling no one, diluting nothing of you. I entrust to you the names I love who are still on another road: the Judge of all the earth will do right, and the Lord who seeks the lost will not stop seeking. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 15 min
Write down the question you most dread being asked (for example, "what about people who never heard the gospel"), and using the thinking of this lesson write an honest answer in five sentences or fewer. Say it out loud to your companion and ask them to poke holes in it.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Pray once a day this week for one name that is still on another road — not for a quick result, only that God would open the way, and open your mouth.
Memory verse · John 14:6
Iamtheway,thetruth,andthelife.NoonecomestotheFather,exceptthroughme.
Walk further
How Paul spoke in an Athens full of idols, the life of Thomas, Nabeel's full testimony, the theme of salvation, and the long essay "Christ and Other Religions."