The Way to God

Spurgeon takes Christ's declaration "No man comes unto the Father but by me" and applies it with equal force to four different ways people try to reach God: through nature worship (sincere-sounding but in practice an excuse for no religion at all), through penitence and good resolutions without Christ (which only draws down the curse of the law), through ongoing religious performance after conversion (the error of thinking continued acceptance depends on our own good behavior), and through mystical communion with God in creation or prayer without Christ as the explicit channel. He argues that in every case — whether a person is first approaching God as a sinner, living as a growing believer, seeking fellowship with God in daily life, or hoping for heaven at last — the only road is Christ alone, since God's own holy nature makes it impossible to receive sinful creatures except through the one perfect Mediator whose blood answers the demands of justice. He closes with a warm, urgent invitation to every trembling sinner to stop trying every other route and simply come to Christ at the cross, which stands wide open — arms spread, heart pierced, blood flowing — for the worst of sinners who will come with nothing but their need.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on March 27th, 1859.