“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

-Jesus of Nazareth 

There is only One.

So many step forth with hollow claims. That there are many paths to trod. That there are certain steps that must be kept upon these paths. That each foot must fit perfectly within the stepping stones. Not to veer outside of the prescribed lines. In time some celestial being takes note of how well you keep in step. Of how perfect and precise the pace. This being gives you the key at the end of your arduous journey, so long as you didn’t have to return it because you stepped out of bounds. You then will unlock the door to glory. One of many doors. Of many options. Of many paths. The key to your Salvation. The door to your Heaven. Meet thy god.

But there is an opposition. A voice that brings to ruin your path. A voice that invalidates the worth of your key. A voice that tells you that your door is nothing more than an illusion. It is not real. None of it. This opposition is labeled as Hate. As Murder. A selfish close minded bigotry against the ecumenical thought of a god that is pleased to offer us our own path. Our own created way created by our minds. By our means. Whatever way we desire. Whatever fits us. It is a voice not of its own. For it is a voice that is an echo of one spoken before. It is a voice that is a reflection of, and a deflection to, The Christ.

Aside from pouring Light into Darkness to expose and chase away the Demons of Midnight, this is the other reason why He is hated by The Broken and Unredeemed. He is The One. The Only One. The Path. The Key. The Door. He is The Kingdom of Heaven. He is thy God. So close minded. So exclusive is He.

There can only be One. What God offers many different ways to His throne, yet only reserved one as a beautiful tragedy? All the others are rooted in the works of our hands. Do this. Do not do that. To veer initiates his anger, for their god is an angry god. Follow this list. Written by the hands of men. Added to through time until the rules were unbearable. Until it’s breaking was, and is, inevitable. You do well, child, to perfectly adhere to this list and you will finally stand before his throne. Then and only then will he be pleased as you stand before him, breathlessly exhausted from a life worn down by the fear of The List and a god’s anger. Meet your angry god!

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

-Paul to The Church in Galatia 

But the One. He is more than a list created by oppressive hands. He is more than the balanced scale that we should be careful not to tip. He is more than rules and perfectly placed stepping stones. For these men carry upon their shoulders the weight of their “path” to the throne. A weight that they have to live into. From the outside in they must try and try well for an anger kindled just to see the god of their path slight a grin. But The One. He is greater than these paths. These false gods that somehow lead to or sit upon The Throne of the True God of Heaven and Earth. They and their paths bow in submission to The One at the end of our time. Because their gods and their gods’ path are ultimately unloving. They do not recognize the broken nature of man and the need for Love to birth Mercy to birth Grace to birth Forgiveness. These gods rely on broken men to write broken words that lead them down broken roads to gods that are ultimately broken. Man must work his way up to the presence of this divine, all the while begging “What is right? What is wrong?” It depends on the path that you have chosen and who authored it.

But the One promised a gift unique. A gift that The Redeemed can attest to actually exists. He is the foundation of our continuing faith upon The Path. He is the foundation to our Regeneration. To our ongoing Sanctification as we slowly watch a part of our Darkened selves die daily. This gift is the third person of Trinity. The Holy Spirit. For The One spoke, “[The Father] will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” The ultimate purpose of this gift is to change us from the inside out. To not need The List of “do this, don’t do that” because our renewed desire is to be holy so that they may see The Holy. It becomes less about religion and more about life. A new life. A new vision as our Gray turns to Black and White. As the scales from our eyes collapse. As we see ourselves as Life after Death. Only The One can cast this outpouring of change into and from our hearts. That which isn’t can only force us to choose change from the flesh inward in order to achieve an ultimate goal. For some it’s inner peace. For some it is the afterlife.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

-Paul to The Church in Galatia

This question still remains: What God offers many different ways to His throne, yet only reserved one as a beautiful tragedy? All other paths are rooted in works. Yet The Way is rooted solely in faith upon the atonement of Christ’s blood sacrifice and His defeating blow to Death from the Cross. His death is tragic, yet The Salvation that He offers is more beautiful than the grandest display of the sun upon dusk or dawn. To say that One must die for Salvation, yet to say that the others can follow The List and earn it is quite the paradox. It is to say that all the others are correct and that The Christ was a fool martyr who suffered a meaningless and unnecessary death, or that for whatever reason The Father chose to watch His Son die for no reason when there is a plethora of paths to choose from. Why have so many paths full of struggling men struggling with rules available for The Throne, as well as only one path for one “religion” that requires death as men struggle against the sin that they have grown to hate? All of which lead to the same door. Either The One is set apart because it is the only way, or The God of Heaven and Earth is insane and has no idea what He is doing. 

Which is it?

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

-God