A Devotional for Talking with Your Kids About Jesus Being the Only Way to Salvation
The following is composed of three daily devotional readings from 10 Questions about Salvation: 30 Devotions for Kids, Teens, and Families, a new devotional written especially for children ages 8–14.
One Road
Sometimes people say, “You can believe what you want, and I’ll believe what I want. We just need to be good and treat people nice.” If you told them that you disagreed, they might get upset and say, “How dare you think that only Christianity leads to God! Don’t you know that all roads lead to God?”
But think about what they just said. How do they know that? If they say that “all roads lead to God,” where did they get this information? Answer: It’s what they believe. So they are simply sharing their faith, just like you are.
And there’s another problem: All these “roads to heaven” can’t all be true at the same time. Islam says that you have to faithfully obey Allah. Buddhism says that you achieve their version of heaven through meditation and good living. Hinduism requires the right kind of knowledge and life choices. And Judaism requires obedience to the law of Moses.
But Christianity is different. True salvation does not depend on how well you obey but on what Jesus has already accomplished. All these other roads are about “doing.” Christianity is about “done.” Jesus is the only road to God.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
10 Questions about Salvation
Champ Thornton
Presenting 10 questions in 30 readings on one important faith topic, this volume of the Ten Questions series helps middle-grade readers understand salvation and find joy, security, and hope in God’s gracious love.
Why is this true? Why is salvation only through Jesus?
Because only Jesus is both God and man. He’s not half God and half man. Jesus is truly human: he had a real body (Acts 2:31), grew up (Luke 2:52), and got hungry and tired (Matt. 21:18; John 4:6). And Jesus is truly God: he receives worship (Matt. 14:33), forgives sins (Mark 2:5), and is eternal (John 1:1). He is God incarnate, which means he is God come in the flesh (1 John 4:2).
But why is it important that Jesus is both God and man? Because only a true God-man could save humans from God’s judgment against sin (1 Pet. 3:18).
Because Jesus is human, he can take our place. He can die taking the punishment for sinful humans (Isa. 53:4–6; 1 Pet. 2:24). (And think about it, if he weren’t human, how could he have died at all?)
And because Jesus is God, he was able to live a sinless life (Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22), something we sinners would never have been able to do.
If he weren’t God, he would have been a bad substitute. And if he weren’t human, he couldn’t have been a substitute at all.
Instead, we have the perfect substitute. Because Jesus is both God and man, he is the only true way to salvation.
Mission Accomplished
You may say, “I believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man. I know that he lived and died as a substitute for sinners.”
But how do we know that what Jesus did actually achieved salvation? And does it really rescue people from sin?
First, you can be confident in his salvation because every detail happened according to plan. Jesus explained—in advance—exactly what he planned to do: “For even the Son of Man came . . . to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
But, second, did Jesus’s plan actually work? Did his death really pay for sins? The Bible says, “Yes!”
Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. (Phil. 2:8–9)
The key is thinking through the word “therefore.”
The death Jesus died was for the sins of other people (Rom. 5:6–8). The sins Jesus was carrying on the cross deserved death (Rom. 6:23). And that’s exactly what happened—Jesus died.
But Jesus didn’t stay dead. The Father raised him from the dead. Why? Because those sins were gone. The penalty for every single one had been fully paid!
When he raised Jesus, the Father was telling the whole world that there was no more sin on Jesus at all. The resurrection declared that he was righteous, the sinless Son of God (Rom. 1:4; 4:25; 1 Tim. 3:16). So the resurrection was proof that he had accepted Jesus’s payment for sin. (And here’s where we get to that key word.) The death of the Son of God paid for every sin he carried; therefore, the Father raised him from the dead (see Phil. 2:9 on the previous page). Jesus’s salvation plan had succeeded!
The resurrection shows that Jesus—as both God and man—is the only true way to salvation.
And this means that you can be confident in Jesus’s salvation. Acts 17:31 says that God “has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” So, if you’re a Christian, all your sin has been placed on Jesus. And when he died, Jesus paid the full penalty for all your sin (Isa. 53:4–6). When God the Father saw that all those sins had been paid for, he (“therefore”) raised sinless Jesus from the dead. And since he was declared righteous, if you belong to him, you are too.
Salvation through Jesus is the real deal; the only true way to God. Through his death and resurrection your sins were truly, completely, and eternally paid for. There’s nothing left to pay. The resurrection proves it.
The resurrection shows that Jesus—as both God and man—is the only true way to salvation.
Truly Alive
But are we sure that the resurrection really happened? Some people think it’s all pretend. Yet here are some facts showing that God truly raised Jesus from the dead.
The tomb was empty. If you read the New Testament, you’ll see that no one said, “You thought Jesus was raised, but look: here’s his body!” Instead, there was no body; the tomb was empty (Matt. 28:11–15). However, someone could’ve asked, “What if someone stole the body?” And that’s exactly what some Roman soldiers claimed.
The guards were lying. The Roman soldiers who guarded Jesus’s tomb said they had fallen asleep. And they claimed that’s when Jesus’s disciples snuck up and took the body (see Matt. 28:13). But that’s not a convincing story. If the guards were sleeping—as they claimed—how could they have seen anybody steal the body? The soldiers’ report is obviously a lie. But what about other witnesses? Is there reliable evidence that Jesus rose from the dead?
The eyewitnesses were authentic. In New Testament times, women were not allowed to give eyewitness testimony in a court case. Sadly, men thought that their words were unreliable. But in the Bible, who is it that gives firsthand testimony about Jesus being alive? Women! (See Matt. 28:1–8; Mark 16:1–8; Luke 24:1–11; John 20:1–2.)
So just for a moment, pretend you wanted to spread a lie in New Testament times. Would you get women to tell everyone, “Yes, this really happened!”? In that time and culture, this wouldn’t help you spread a lie. So why would the disciples claim that women were eyewitnesses of the resurrection in all four Gospels? Because that’s what truly happened. (And also because they and Jesus think that the testimony of women is wonderful and trustworthy!)
There’s other evidence too. Over five hundred people saw the risen Jesus (1 Cor. 15:6). And almost all the apostles were eventually killed for their faith. Would they really die for something they knew was a lie?
So is Jesus the only way of salvation? Yes.
Only someone who is fully God and fully human could provide salvation. Jesus is truly God and truly man. And how do we know that God accepted his payment for our sins? Because God raised him from the dead. And how do we know that Jesus was raised? The evidence from history and from the Bible is incredibly strong!
Since the God-man, Jesus Christ, was really raised from the dead, his resurrection shows that he is the only true way to salvation.
This article is adapted from 10 Questions about Salvation: 30 Devotions for Kids, Teens, and Families by Champ Thornton.
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