The gospel is an exclusive truth but it’s the most inclusive exclusive truth in the world. – Tim Keller

Though it’s a tedious part of many people’s days, driving is a high-risk activity. More than a million deaths occur on roads each year. Though some accidents are unpredictable, many happen in areas known to be treacherous. Most car trips these days seem to involve some kind of traffic jam, road construction or a random hazard. It could be much worse.   

Recently, I stumbled on an article, “The Most Dangerous Road in Every Country.” Can you imagine edging along a mountain pass with another car coming towards you, where one wrong move could end in disaster? That’s a reality faced in many parts of the world. The only option to get from point A to B is to risk your life when you get behind the wheel.

In the United States, Interstate 45 in Texas is notorious for being nerve-wracking to navigate. This highway connects busy urban areas like Galveston, Dallas, and Houston. Careless driving has resulted in 56.5 fatal accidents for every 100 miles of road. 

Some roads have eerily appropriate names. Bolivia’s Yungas Road, also known as Death Road, takes riders down a 10-foot-wide path overlooking a sheer, 2000-foot drop. Up to 300 people die on that treacherous mountain road each year. In Israel, there’s the Dead Sea Highway portion of Highway 90. It lives up to its gruesome title. Because of busy lanes and poor infrastructure, 17 people died there in just one two-week period.

But the most dangerous road isn’t a physical one, it’s a spiritual one.The Lord Jesus used the metaphor of two roads to illustrate the choice between the way of life or the way of destruction. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13-14). 

The Bible teaches very clearly that there is only one way to heaven—through Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). The demands of the road to God’s kingdom are explicit and uncompromising. Jesus talks about main road living that always ends in destruction as a broad road because a life without Christ has countless avenues. Jesus taught that there are only two roads and thus two kinds of people. You can use different terms: The saved and the lost; the redeemed and the unredeemed; Christ-followers and Christ-rejecters; Believers and unbelievers. The outcome is the same.

These two groups are on two roads, entering through two gates and they will end up at two totally different destinies. Many are speeding along on a superhighway that leads to destruction. As much as we might hope that most people would commit their lives to Christ as their Savior, the Lord Jesus said that many are on the wrong road with a deadly destination. 

Some years ago, many people were upset when President Obama spoke in Turkey and said that America is not a Christian nation. But he was right. While our nation was founded by God-fearing people who embraced a Christian worldview, today we’re a post-Christian nation. Tragically, there are more lost than saved. That’s what Jesus said – most people are on the wrong road. Worst, most of them believe that they’re on the right road. As Proverbs 14:12 says, There is a way [a road] that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

If you’ve driven in Chicago, you know there are expressways with four to five lanes going in each direction. But those are narrow roads compared to the superhighway leading to hell. There are hundreds of lanes as people speed recklessly toward eternal destruction. Here are three of the lanes those on the wrong road are traveling. 

The Unbelief Road.There are many on this road who’ve been exposed to the gospel but have chosen NOT to believe in Jesus. They’re like drivers traveling on the German autobahn where there’s no speed limit. They think they’re on the right road because everyone else seems to be going in the same direction. For them, life is a race, and they’re going faster and faster thinking they are on the road to success, never once stopping to consider where that road is ultimately leading them. No wonder it’s called a rat race. 

The Morality Road.The people on this one are on the road to destruction but they believe it’s really the road to heaven. They’re living under the delusion that if you live a good life, if you’re nice and help other people, you’ll end up in heaven. If you ask the average person what they think they must do to go to heaven the most common answer you’ll hear is, “Be good” or “do good.” The Bible says there is absolutely nothing you can do to earn your way to heaven. Titus 3:5 says salvation is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but because of God’s mercy.

The Religion Road. This lane is next to the morality road. Some think that the religion road will get them to heaven. They’re wrong. Remember that it was the religious crowd who crucified Jesus. 

Religion is a vain attempt to reach God through tradition, rituals and regulations. Salvation though is God reaching out to humanity by sending His only Son, Jesus, to earth and ultimately the cross. A Muslim believes Allah will admit him to paradise if he faithfully observes the Five Pillars of Islam. A Buddhist believes he’ll go to heaven if he follows the Eightfold Path. And Hindus believes if you follow the Doctrine of Karma you’ll be reincarnated as a higher life form until you are like a god yourself. 

There are many roads of religion. All of them finally end in destruction. Are you on one of these roads? Do you know someone who is?

Jesus said, I am the way [the road] and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Notice Jesus didn’t say He was “a way” to God. He said He was “the way.” Jesus had the audacity to claim He is the only way to come to God. To make such a statement sounds dogmatic, harsh, even narrow-minded. But it was Jesus who said it was a narrow road and only a few find it. A bold claim like that makes Jesus either a Liar, a Lunatic or the Lord. Either Jesus is the only way to heaven, or He is none of the ways to heaven. It’s impossible to say that Jesus is simply one of the ways to God. He never gives us that option.  

Robert Frost wrote a short poem about the road less traveled. It begins: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood; And sorry I could not travel both; And be one traveler, long I stood… So, this traveler takes time to ponder both roads—one is a well-worn path, the other has had little traffic. Frost concludes his poem with… I shall be telling this with a sigh; Somewhere ages and ages hence; Two roads diverged in a wood; And I took the one less traveled by; And that has made all the difference.

My friend, if you choose the Jesus-road, even though it’s less traveled, it will make all the difference—for eternity. Which road are you on?