The Way

Acts 19:23 - "And the same time there arose no small stir about that way."
No small stir about "that way" is true even of today's world. Throughout the Book of Acts you will see the phrase "they way" or "that way," which is what the teachings about Christ were called. Everywhere Christ was proclaimed and taught, there was always a stir, just as today, where we see Jesus is still the most controversial figure of human history. What makes Him so different from other religious leaders? He claimed to be God in the flesh, He claimed to be the only way to God, and as such, He is the only religious leader who dealt specifically with the human heart and the nature of man. His is not a teaching of good works but a call for us to renounce who we are and trust Him for our eternal hope and escape from destruction. It's faith in Christ that makes us citizens of heaven, for when we believe, we become part of "that way." This runs in direct opposition to the foundations of all other religions that stresses man's works as the "saving" power. Whether you hate Jesus or love Him, one thing we cannot do is ignore Him. He is more than a good religious man, He is the Savior of humanity. C.S. Lewis said it well: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." I love the statement by Ravi Zacharias: "Jesus did not come to make bad men good, He came to make dead men live," that is what Christ does.