03 If All Religions Lead to God, Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

by Krisan Marotta | Feb 18, 2026 | 01 Podcasts, Start Strong

In John 3:14-21, Jesus explains to Nicodemus why belief in Him is essential for salvation. The cross is the only door to forgiveness. This passage reveals why Jesus is the exclusive path to eternal life and what it means to truly believe.

If all religions lead to God, why did Jesus have to die?

That is not a trick question. It is the tension many evangelicals seem to be living with.

According to the 2025 State of Theology survey,

65% of evangelicals say: “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”
63% also affirm: “Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.”

Can both be true? No.

This confusion strikes at the heart of the gospel, and it is one reason why Chapter 3 of Start Strong focuses on the necessity of the cross. If we misunderstand the cross, we risk missing the very heart of the gospel.

What Did Jesus Tell Nicodemus?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

John 3:14–21 contains one of the most famous verses in Scripture. It sits within a conversation Jesus had with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Nicodemus approached Jesus at night to ask him some questions.

You might think Jesus would be encouraged that an important leader is interested in him,especially since Nicodemus appears to be professing belief. But Jesus challenges him and questions his interest.

The section we are looking is part of Jesus’ response to Nicodemus’s opening statement. Jesus confronts him with four challenges. For time’s sake, I will summarize the first two. If you want to go deeper into them, listen to this podcast: Nicodemus: You must be born again (John 3:1-13)

Challenge 1: You must be born again

Nicodemus portrays himself as a truth seeker. But Jesus reminds him that seeking the truth is not enough. You must be born again. Only those who have been spiritually transformed receive life and blessing from God.

Nicodemus is confused because he thinks being a descendant of Abraham and making a good faith effort to keep the law is enough. If being Jewish and law keeping is not enough, how can anyone be saved?

Jesus answers, salvation does not depend on your efforts. It is a gift. God gives you His Spirit. This rebirth is not something you can physically do or see. It is like the wind, something you can’t control.

Being born again refers to the Spirit changing your rebellious nature so that you repent of your sins and seek the mercy of God.

Challenge 2: Jesus is more than a teacher

Jesus confronts Nicodemus with the reality that he is much more than another good teacher.

At times, God revealed some of his plans to prophets like John the Baptist , Isaiah or Moses. But no human being has gone to heaven to bring back the truths of God.

Jesus is different. He came down from heaven in a way no one else has. He knows God’s plans and purposes because God revealed them to him. God sent Jesus to explain those divine plans to us. Jesus is testifying to what he knows.

Jesus says in effect, Nicodemus, if you do not believe me about ideas already revealed in Scripture, how will you believe me about heavenly things, the new truths God is revealing through me? I know the whole story, and I am here to testify concerning it.

Challenge #3: What John 3:16 means in context

John 3:14–17: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whether you receive eternal life depends on whether you respond to Jesus in belief.

If you think about it, that is an audacious claim. Today, we are used to it, but it is bold. If I said, “Believe that I am the best Bible teacher in the world and you will be saved,” you would laugh. Why would believing anything about me change your destiny? That is how Jesus’s claim must have sounded in his day. We are Jews. We have had prophets for centuries. What makes you different from Moses, Isaiah, or Ezekiel?

The Bronze serpent story: God’s pattern for salvation

To explain, Jesus refers to Numbers 21. First let me explain where this story falls in biblical history.

The story of the Jewish nation begins in Genesis when God calls Abraham and promises to bless him and bless all nations through him. Abraham has Isaac who inherits the promise. Isaac has Jacob who steals the promise. God renames Jacob Israel and Jacob’s twelve sons become the heads of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.

The family grows but is not yet a nation with land or a king. They end up in Egypt. At first they are welcomed, but then they are enslaved. God calls Moses and delivers them from slavery through the plagues, Passover, and the Red Sea. This Exodus becomes the defining rescue story of the Old Testament.

After leaving Egypt, they do not go straight to the Promised Land. They enter the wilderness. The Book of Numbers records this period of wandering, waiting, and wrestling with faith.

The story Jesus refers to takes place in the wilderness.

Numbers 21:4–9: From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

When the people rebelled against God and Moses, God sent fiery, poisonous serpents among them. Many died. The people cried out for forgiveness and begged Moses to talk to God for them. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. Anyone bitten could look at it and live.

God sent judgment and also provided a way of salvation.

Joh 3:14 -15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

The world is under God’s judgment. We are guilty and stand condemned. If God does not provide for us, we will die. Just as the Israelites were dying until God provided a way of escape, we will die eternally unless God provides a way of escape. Jesus is God’s provision. If we look to him as they looked to the serpent, we will live.

God’s solution in Numbers was to put the instrument of judgment high on a pole. When they looked, they were saved from the serpents. We are asked to look on Christ offering his life and realize his death is the judgment we are escaping. We will be condemned unless we accept the mercy offered by the cross.

The point is that Christ has come to save us by being the object of our belief.

John 3:16–17: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

You gain eternal life by believing Jesus was sent by God to be the Savior of the world.

Nicodemus’s statement, You are a teacher from God, is not enough. He must come to terms with the fact that Jesus is the Messiah sent from heaven to save him from the judgment he deserves.

Challenge 4: Belief reveals the heart

John 3:18–21: Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

Unbelief testifies to the inner reality that we are hostile to God and reject the truth. Jesus shines the light of truth on everything. He tells the truth about God and about us. He exposes how sinful and rebellious we are. But we do not want to hear that.

We do not believe because we do not want the truth to be true. It interferes with our selfish desires and our view of ourselves. We want reality to be different than it is. We insist on believing what we want to be true.

As Jesus puts it, we loved the darkness rather than the light because our deeds were evil. Truth humiliates us. Measured by the truth, we do not look so good.

To believe in a Savior is to admit you need saving. It is good news that Jesus has come to save us, but it involves standing in a very bright light and saying, I am unworthy. I need to be saved from who I am.

Joh 3:21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Refusing to believe in Jesus is a symptom of a deeper hostility to God and a rejection of the truth about our guilt. The very act of unbelief shows I refuse to come into the light and let the truth be known.

Likewise belief is a symptom of a deeper spiritual reality. By the grace of God, some of us walk into the light. Some embrace and practice truth.

He is clearly contrasting those who believe and those who do not. Unbelief proves you are hiding from the light. Those who believe are not hiding because they are willing to be honest about who they are, and God is at work in them.

We reach that point because the Spirit changes us from the inside out. God makes us willing to come to Jesus and seek the salvation he offers on the cross. Even our work of faith has been carried out by God.

What Jesus told Nicodemus

I am not just a teacher. I am the Messiah, sent from heaven. What I teach is the truth straight from heaven. I testify to the things of God, and I have come to save the world from condemnation.

You must choose. Your eternal destiny depends on whether you believe that I am that Savior.

Rejecting me is rejecting the truth at the most fundamental level. If you will not believe in me, you have condemned yourself as an enemy of the truth.

Believing in me is evidence of a profound work of God in you. It shows your willingness to come to the light, admit your sin, repent, and be seen as a recipient of God’s mercy.

What it really means to believe in Jesus

The Bible makes a big connection between believing the truth and being saved. The church has made the same connection, which has often led us to emphasize having the right doctrines. If believing the truth gets you saved, then the important thing is to have the right truths. Which doctrines matter? How wide do we make the door? Must I believe the orthodox view of the Trinity? A certain view about the role of women? The inerrancy of Scripture? Where do we draw the line?

What Jesus says here gives us a clue. We have wrongly put the emphasis on knowing the right things as the way you get saved. Jesus does not say, If you do not know who I am, you will not be saved. He says, If you refuse to believe in me, you will not be saved. It is unbelief that condemns, not ignorance.

He is talking about a hostility to the truth, a condition of the heart, not whether I have heard and understood a particular truth. All of us have some crazy doctrine at some point. We do not have to get our doctrine perfect.

But we do have to be receptive to the truth. We have to be willing to walk into the light and let it change us. We have to humble ourselves before God and say, Father, you are right and I am wrong. Teach me.

On one hand, what I believe reflects my inner person. To refuse to believe the truth about Jesus, about God, or about myself in the gospel is significant. To refuse to believe I am a sinner in need of a savior betrays a hard heart.

On the other hand, a person can hold wrong beliefs for many reasons. Maybe I have never been told. Maybe I misunderstood. Maybe I was taught the wrong thing and do not yet know how to rethink it. Maybe I have old mistaken beliefs I am still sorting through.

That is different from refusing to believe because my heart is hard and I do not care what God says.

Unbelief can say a great deal about my spiritual state. But that is the issue. Where are you coming from?

I firmly believe that Jesus is the only way to be saved. The issue is how I respond to the truths I am confronted with. The gospel is the sharpest, deepest knife in God’s surgical toolkit. How I respond to it cuts to my heart.

We may need to be patient with each other as we sort through our goofy beliefs. At the same time, it is right to be concerned if what I believe reflects a heart hardened against the truth. Being born again is not about having all my theological ducks in a row. It is about being willing to embrace the truth when I see it. It is about believing what God says is true when I hear it.

Summary

The cross is necessary because humanity stands condemned. Jesus offers the only path to forgiveness, not through religious effort, but through belief that leads to spiritual transformation. Rejecting Him isn’t just intellectual disagreement; it’s evidence of a heart resistant to truth.

Key Takeaways

Jesus alone can testify to truth from God..
The cross is God’s provision for forgiveness.
Belief in Jesus isn’t about passing a theology test, it’s about your willingness to embrace truth.
Unbelief reveals spiritual resistance, not just lack of knowledge.
God’s mercy is offered freely, but rejecting it confirms our condemnation.