Christianity Isn’t Inclusive—And That’s the Point

Austin Huang:
The gospel doesn’t bend to culture, and that’s exactly why it is good news. Hey friends, I’m Austin Huang, and this is Everyday Radical. Today, David Platt and I are talking about why the claim that Jesus is the only way to God isn’t harsh, it’s life-giving. We’ll unpack what makes Christianity distinct, how to hold truth with humility, and why grace becomes even more amazing when we realize there’s no other name that saves. Let’s get into it.
In a culture that elevates tolerance and inclusivity as the highest virtues, Christianity makes an exclusive claim that salvation is found in Christ alone. That’s offensive to a lot of people, but it’s also exactly what Jesus taught. It’s who He is. It’s what He lives. So how do we hold to the truth that there’s only one way to know God, there’s only one way to get to heaven, and, man, also be loving in that way and not sound arrogant to a lot of people?

David Platt:
Man. I always think about, and I’ll try to make this really quick, but I always think about something I heard, this was from, I think it was R.C. Sproul, years ago, but he described, and I’ve used this so many times in talking with people when I’m sharing the gospel with, so unbelievers, and I’ll say something to the effect of, okay, this sounds like almost unloving of God. There’s only one way to me, but I put it this way, and all this is from Sproul, and he said, “You ever been in one of those conversations where you’ve been talking in depth for a couple of hours through something, and then somebody joins after a couple hours and they start bringing up things that y’all have covered way back here that would inform that? It’s like, who invited you into this conversation? You kind of messed the whole thing up.”
That’s where we need to realize, when you hear Jesus saying, John 14:6, “I’m the way, the truth, and the life,” we’re coming in on a conversation to begin way back here. So I’ll just say to an unbelieving friend, imagine there is a good, perfect, loving God who created a world and created people as the pinnacle of that creation for a love relationship with Him and said, “I want you to experience life forever in love relationship with me. Enjoy me and all these good gifts I have,” and then one day that creation decided, our Creator doesn’t know what He’s doing, and we’re going to do things our own way, and rebelled against him.
And the Creator had said, “If you do this, you’ll experience death, but I don’t want you to experience death. I want you to experience life,” but they did it, anyway. And then the Creator said, “There’s a plan for you to still experience life for me. I told you you experience eternal death, but I’ve made a way for you to still experience eternal life.” And then to kind of go through the story, basically the Old Testament, where God does all these things to show His love for His creation, and over and over again His creation says no, turns their back, takes gold and fashions it into the form of a cow and worships that instead of their Creator, and all these different things. So just kind of to play out that story.
And then after all that, imagine the Creator committing the ultimate act of condescension, coming to the world Himself, bringing good news of His love and the creation, taking the Creator in the flesh and killing Him in the most cruel way that they could. And imagine in light of all that, the Creator saying, “If you’ll just trust that I love you and have made a way for you to experience eternal life with me, I will forgive you of all your sin and receive you to me forever.” If that’s the whole story, are we really going to look at the Creator and say, “Why is there only one way?” No, when you realize the whole story, the question is, why is there any way at all? And you realize that it’s amazing, truly amazing grace that we have a way.
So I do think, in our own lives and when we’re sharing the gospel, that’s part of why we got to tell the whole story about who God is, who we are, because that’s the only context in which Jesus’ statement makes sense. “I am the way, the truth and the life.” You can come to the Father. This is the greatest news in the world. It’s not narrow, not good news, God’s not loving. Are we really going to say in light of all that? Why couldn’t you love us more? No, this is a picture of His love for us, but we’ve got to realize it and share it as a part of this whole story.

Austin Huang:
Beyond the story, what is so offensive about the message that there is one way to salvation, that Jesus is the only way?

David Platt:
I think what’s so offensive is we want to make our own way. I think if there were a thousand ways, we would want a thousand and one. The issue is not how many ways. The issue is our autonomy. That’s the core of our sinful nature. We want to do it ourselves, and the gospel is an offense to that. The gospel says you can’t do it. But I really do think, yeah, it’s not about the number of ways. It’s about, are we willing to trust that God has made the way to us? And that means turning from ourselves and our own attempts.

Austin Huang:
I don’t think it should surprise us that it’s offensive. We see in scripture from the Old Testament that Jesus was prophesied to be a stumbling stone, a rock of offense. It is an offensive thing to tell someone they’re wrong. But we’re wrong. If you’re wrong, I think you would love me enough to tell me that I’m wrong, but I don’t know if we love people enough to actually say that.

David Platt:
Yeah. Well, our sinful nature, we don’t want to hear that. And then, so by God’s grace, He saves us from our sin. We do trust in Jesus as savior, Lord of our lives, as the way to relationship with God, but then yeah, to say to people, “Okay, you’re a sinner. You need Jesus to save you from your sin, from sin and death and hell,” yeah, that’s enough. There’s a reason why we need to remove obstacles to the gospel, but we can’t remove the offense of the gospel.
I think that’s the whole part of the point that Paul is making in 1 Corinthians 9 is, yes, remove any obstacles that are keeping people from hearing the gospel, but the reality is when they hear the gospel, it’s going to be an offense to their sin, to their pride, just like it was to ours, and which makes us totally dependent on the Holy Spirit in sharing the gospel for Him to do what He did in our hearts and lives in others’ hearts and lives.

Austin Huang:
How then do we respond to people who basically say, “Well, all religions lead to the same place. It’s all about happiness. It’s all about live your truth, live your life, and you’ll get there if you’re a good person”? How do we respond to the people who just neglect the salvation aspect? It’s like they think, I guess it’s universalism? Correct me if I’m wrong.

David Platt:
Yeah. Yeah, all roads lead to the same place? In my conversations with people who are not followers of Jesus, I always just say, “Okay, let’s think about that. Is that true? Are all religions the same?” Islam and Christianity, for example. Christianity teaches Jesus is God. Islam teaches Jesus is not God, just a man. A prophet, but just a man. Christianity teaches Jesus died on a cross. Islam teaches Jesus did not die on a cross. We’ll just take that one. I’m not even saying you have to say which one’s true. They’re not both true. Either He did or Ge didn’t die on a cross. Similarly, Christianity says Jesus did rise from the dead. Islam says Jesus did not rise from the dead. Okay. This is the whole hinge around which Christianity revolves, His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave. If this is not true, then Christianity’s not true, and I don’t want to believe it if it’s not true.
So that’s where, to really get back to, okay, what’s true? Because there are some things… They can’t all be true, and so what is true? We all live based on this. None of us wants to go to the bank today and have somebody behind the counter when we say, “I want to withdraw $100,” say, “You don’t have $100,” and you’re like, “Well, no, I know it’s true. I’ve got $100,” and they’re like, “Well, it may be true for you, but it’s not true for me.” Nobody lives that way. We don’t live that way, so why would we throw out truth when it comes to the most important things in life? This is where we need to be in continual dialogue with people around us about what is true and what really matters forever. Instead of just sports and weather and the news, but what really matters forever, that needs to fill our conversations.

Austin Huang:
Yeah. When we talk about objective truth, like Jesus being the only way to salvation, have you experienced in ministry, in churches around the world, in the US, have you experienced churches that compromise on saying that truth and being bold in that truth just to feel more welcoming to non-believers, to people coming in?

David Platt:
For sure. In the name of inclusivity to say we want… But that’s where we need to distinguish between… I always talk, I think about in all my conversations with people who are not followers of Jesus, I want to communicate, I respect this person. I honor this person. I respect their freedom to believe what they want to believe and can love them, genuinely love them with differences. But that doesn’t mean we agree exactly on everything. That’s where I want to say, like in our church family, for us to be saying to the whole city around us in Metro DC, “We love you, we honor you, we respect you no matter what you believe.” ecause this is straight from 1 Peter 2, “Honor everyone, even the emperor,” Peter says. Even the people who are persecuting you, there’s a way to honor them as people made in the image of God, and we love you enough to tell you what is true according to God and His word.
It is not loving to say, “Welcome in and we’re going to keep truth from you,” or “We’re going to not communicate that which God has said.” That’s not loving at all. It may feel loving in the world. It’s a little different, but 1 Corinthians 5 is really helpful because it’s talking about church discipline there, but basically the church at Corinth was saying, “Okay, this person is in serious immorality, but we’re just going to love them and not confront them in that.” Jesus, in His word, God says, “You are arrogant.” To think that it’s loving, to let someone continue in sin and not warn them to turn from it, that’s not loving. That’s arrogance. It’s actually humility to say, “Turn from sin, trust in Jesus.” It’s arrogance to say, “Just continue on in the route you’re on.” So, yeah, we can’t fool ourselves into thinking we’re loving people by not sharing truth with them.

Austin Huang:
Yeah, and it’s just like you touched on a little bit just there, it’s not that we’re an us-versus-them situation. We’re not somehow better because we’re Christians, we are in right standing with God, which yes, that is way better than not being in right standing with God, but you still bear the image of Christ. You still bear God’s image. You are still worthy of respect and value because God chose to make you like Him.
I just hope if a non-believer is listening or watching this, that you know that you are loved by God, that Ge chose to put His face on your face, and you have value because He says you have value because He gave you value. And it’s not that we are just trying to win an argument. We’re not trying to win our point. We are just trying to invite you into something that… and He’s already started in you. He was faithful to begin the work, He’s going to finish it. I’m believing that for people who are listening to this right now.

David Platt:
Well, that is the starting point in any conversation with anybody. Yes, you are created by God in His image, you’re loved by God, He desires relationship with you. You are made for life, eternal life in relationship with God. For us to start there, and then, yes, the problem is we’ve all turned from God and turned from the life He has for us in relationship with Him, but God loves us and has made a way for us to be restored to life with Him through Jesus. He’s paid the price for our sins against God, our rebellion against God. He’s made a way for us to be reconciled to God forever. It’s not because He’s unloving that He’s done that. It’s because He loves you so much and He’s made a way for you to experience life with Him. At the same time, He’s calling you and me to turn from our sin and ourselves, to trust in His love and to trust in Him as Lord of our lives.

Austin Huang:
David, to summarize everything that’s been said so far in this episode, why is it good news that there is one way to salvation?

David Platt:
It’s good news that there is a way, period, to salvation. It’s the greatest news literally in the world that anybody on the planet, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, can be reconciled to relationship with God for life eternal with God forever and forever and ever, not based on what you do or a way you make, but based on what He has graciously done for you. He has come to us in the version of Jesus. He has died on a cross for our sins. He’s risen from the grave. He’s conquered death so that we can have eternal life through trust in Him. That’s really good news that salvation is possible, salvation, satisfaction, eternal life is possible in Jesus alone.

Austin Huang:
Amen. Thanks so much for joining us today on Everyday Radical. We pray that this conversation stirred your heart and strengthened your faith. There’s so much more ahead, so go back and catch any episodes you might have missed and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s ahead. Let’s keep making Jesus known everywhere. Until next time.