Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(Romans 10:13)
"There is no salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
(Acts 4:12)
There is only one name given by God to save people, and this name is Jesus Christ. There is no other name today, there was no other name yesterday and there will never be any other name tomorrow, anywhere, that can save mankind. No Buddha, no Allah, no Krishna, no Guru of any kind, no one else...
There is only one way to God and there is only one way to salvation. His name is Jesus.
But you see, calling the name of Jesus is not a magical formula that will get you to heaven. It is not because someone once pronounced the name “Jesus” that they are saved. Calling on Jesus means that you put your complete trust in Him. So you need to know who Jesus is to be able to put your trust in Him.
The problem is that in the world today, there are so many different “jesuses” that people don’t know who the right one is any more. Which one is the real Jesus that they should put their trust in?
For example, there are people today, cult leaders, that claim to be Jesus or the reincarnation of Jesus (Wikipedia list of different people who have claimed to be Jesus over the past couple of centuries – so many of them, even some women!). People follow them, give them their money and sometimes even lose their lives because of them.
The Muslims believe in a jesus. They believe he was a prophet. But their jesus (called Isa in the Koran) is not the Son of God and never died on the cross; and therefore never rose from the dead.
To Hindus, Jesus was a man of great wisdom. Sometimes called a guru or an “avatar”, a very special person sent by God who had a universal message of love. But he is just one of many, just one among the thousands of hindu gods.
The New Age jesus is not a person, but a state of mind or a spirituality. This is the “Christ consciousness” that anybody can attain to by way of meditation and other disciplines like yoga. They say that Christ is inside all human beings and all we have to do is get to the point where we get that revelation that He is in us and that we are all gods.
The Catholics’ jesus is being crucified all over again each time they have communion (or Eucharist). They also believe that during communion the bread (wafers) and the wine get turned into the actual body and blood of Jesus, so that Jesus is physically present in the bread that people eat. This jesus also shares his throne with Mary and a host of other saints.
In some churches/cults, Jesus is portrayed as someone that takes away your freedom and puts you in bondage of church rules and regulations. They say you cannot eat certain foods, or you must perform some kind of rituals, or you must only worship on a certain day of the week, or you must go back to the old testament laws to be saved.
In other churches, Jesus is portrayed as a kind of Father Christmas. He will give you everything you want and all your dreams will come true. They tell us to “come to Jesus” and we will become rich, we will have our best life now. With Jesus we can have it all, no strings attached. It is like winning the lottery.
And in yet other churches, Jesus is portrayed as a wishy-washy loving character that is everyone’s best friend. He tells people that they are wonderful and makes them feel good. This jesus never confronts anyone and never calls people to holiness but gives them a licence to sin under the cover of grace, and without any need for repentance.
We could go on and on. There are so many counterfeits today; they are all false jesuses. We can call on these ones till tomorrow and God will not hear us.... Is there salvation in a false jesus? No. We will never be saved by calling on another jesus. So we have to know whom we are calling when we call on His name. How can we know who the real one is? The real Jesus has already described Himself in His Word, the Bible. Anything or anyone claiming to be Jesus that does not fit the Bible's description of Jesus, is a counterfeit. It is a jesus made in the image of man, not the image of God.
The Bible tells us that the real Jesus is the only Way to God the Father. He is God in the flesh and He came to earth 2000 years ago. He died for our sins once and for all, He was buried and He rose back to life. By putting our faith in Him, we get salvation and the forgiveness of sins. And He gives us the grace to overcome sin in our life as we follow Him. The Bible also tells us that He is coming back to earth soon. And when He comes, everyone will see Him and He will judge all human beings.
This is the real Jesus and this is the One we should put our faith in. No other one will do.
Jesus said ... “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”.
(John 14:6)