Behind the Velvet Rope

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:16 (NIV)

Have you noticed these days how important the word “exclusive” has become? We want to be part of exclusive groups, live in exclusive gated communities, and go to exclusive Ivy League schools. We put unborn children on the waiting list at exclusive daycares, drive exclusive automobiles, and on and on. People stand in line at exclusive clubs to get in to party with the rich and famous and to see and be seen. Everyone wants exclusivity in their lives until it comes to spirituality. We like our religion with a little less exclusivity and a little more leniency. No one wants “old fashioned authority, guilt trips, accountability, or moral absolutes” (MacArthur).


Christians are cursed for claiming that Christ is the exclusive way to Heaven. Yet Jesus himself says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:16). He also says “for I did not come to judge the world, but to save it” (John 11:47). Christ died for our sins that we may freely receive his grace and compassion. We are not worthy to enter into the presence of our Almighty God if it were not for the saving grace of Christ. So our “exclusive” religion is open to all. Christ is standing at the velvet rope of salvation to enter into eternity. All we must do is accept him and trust him and then he will open the narrow gate for us. What makes Christianity so exclusive is that so few people actually accept Jesus, not that He is unwilling to accept us. Jesus said “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:26).


Once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become sanctified, or “set apart” in our lives. God takes us into a group that becomes “exclusively” His. Paul writes in Romans “through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (5:2). And Acts 20 says “now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (32). Our reward and inheritance is God and eternal life through Jesus. We become exclusively His.