There's One and Only One Highway
"What's the best way to get from Denton to…?" Asking directions is not uncommon for must of us. We can follow a map to get us to the general vicinity, but then we frequently need specific instructions to get to our final destination.
Most people want to know how to get to heaven; they wanted to know in Jesus' day, also. Most people have a general knowledge of right and wrong—and which of these they need to practice—but what about the specifics?" Jesus said, "I am the way," in John 14:6.
Notice the distinctiveness and exclusiveness of what He said. He did not say, "I am a way," nor, "I am one way," as though He were but one choice amidst many equal options. Instead, He said, "I am the way." He added further, "No man comes to the Father except through Me." Such an expression eliminates the possibility of approaching God through any other avenue.
The truth of this claim has not kept mankind from seeking other paths. There are other world religions, but if Jess us right, they are wrong. If they are right, then Jesus is wrong. And if Jesus is wrong on being "the way, the truth, and the life," what else might He be wrong about?
Of course, many reject religion in any form; they choose instead to rely on their own wisdom common sense, or natural decency. "There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12). There are many roads that people may choose to travel, but Jesus is "the way" to heaven.
In the New Testament, those who believed the words of Jesus and the teachings of the apostles were referred to as people of "the Way." (Acts 9:2). To be sure, some "spoke evil of the Way" (Acts 19:8); there even "arose a great commotion about the Way" (Acts 19:23). Why? Because all were teaching that obedience to Jesus was the only way to get to heaven and that every other way was a dead-end street.
Demetrius gathered together his fellow silversmiths ("who made silver shrines of Diana") and complained to them that "Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying they are not gods which are made with hands" (Acts 19:24-25). Their greatest concern was that with Paul teaching Jesus as "the Way" their profits and their very livelihood stood in jeopardy because those converted were giving up their idols. They also said "the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed (Acts 19:27). Other religions (which cannot get anyone to heaven) saw Christianity as the threat to them that it is.
Jesus was not a pluralist—nor a proponent of the "do your own thing" philosophy—either in morals or religion. As one who claimed to be the Truth, His concern was not about the theories and speculations of men—but with revealing "the Way" to the Father, heaven, and eternal life. What map are you looking at?