difference

Friday May 23^rd, John 14: 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."  This text is often interpreted as exclusive rather than inclusive.  From Fredrick Buechner’s wishful thinking we get the notion that when it says that not everyone who cries Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom, perhaps the corollary is that not everyone who wouldn’t be caught dead saying Lord, Lord, will be damned either.  If Jesus is the way, does that mean that only those who lift high the name of Jesus or even call themselves Christian will be saved, or does it mean that only through the grace of God as manifest in Christ are all saved?  It is through the grace of Christ that even if someone wouldn’t be caught dead uttering the name of Jesus in a positive way or claiming Christianity as their own, they could still be saved.  On our own, it just won’t work, with Christ all things are possible.  One way lifts high the name of Christ; the other lifts high the teachings of Christ.  In the end is there really a difference?