How many ways are there to get to God anyways? I mean, I can drive a bunch of different ways to get to work in the morning, how many roads did God make to get to heaven so that anyone who wanted to get there was able to? The answer given in the Bible is that there is in fact only one way: salvation is through Jesus Christ and that he is the only one who can forgive sins.
Whoa. Now your probably thinking Christianity is just for narrow-minded, stubborn conservatives who think they have it all together, but you also have to think of the other side. Yes, salvation does only come through Jesus, but according to John 6.37 all who believe in Jesus and say sorry for the wrongs or sins they have done are accepted into the faith; and isn’t dependent on what your past or present looks like nor what you do in the future.
The next sola is Solus Christus, or “Through Christ Alone.” If you were to read through the Bible it would be remarkably clear that Jesus is the only way to God and thus we have no need to confess our sins to a priest for forgiveness.
There is salvation by no other means
This is one of the most controversial doctrines in the Bible for many people. To really understand it we have to go back and look at exactly why we are separated from God in the first place. The reason why there is so much evil and pain in the world is because of our sin. In the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis it shows a perfect world free of death and pain. God had perfect fellowship and relationship with his people. But given the opportunity, mankind rebelled against God and chose to bring sin into the world.
The only one who could save us had to be sinless in everything that he did. This man was God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, who 2,000 yeah ago lived a perfect life on our behalf, died a death that we deserved and publicly and historically rose from death three days later. 2 Corinthians 5.21 is probably the most succinct verse that describes this. It states, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus not only died to take away our sin, but when he was executed gave us his very own righteousness and took our sin upon himself.
Because this man was both sinless and God Himself there is no other possible way to get to God. Acts 4.12 and John 14.6 make this abundantly clear. And as seen in Sola Fide and Sola Gratia we could never do enough good things to earn it. Salvation simply comes by grace, through faith in Jesus.
Jesus is the only one who can forgive sins
Based on this truth, we have no need for a priest to mediate and confess our sins to on our behalf since there is only one person who can mediate between God and us. 1 Timothy 2.5 says, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Now don’t get me wrong, we absolutely have need of pastors or priests for spiritual leadership and guidance, but you can simply confess your sins while praying to Jesus and don’t need to drive down the street to sit in a confessional to have your sins absolved.
So take some time this week, and if your a Christian thank God that he even provided a way to be in a right relationship with him. And if your a skeptic, maybe pray for the first time in your life that God would show himself to be real in your life.