John 14:6

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

Questions: The first statement mentions three aspects of Jesus.  What do these mean to you personally?
And how does the second statement work, that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus?

Aspects of Jesus

I am

The term “I am” is used in the Old Testament for the name of God. In using this term for himself, Jesus is identifying himself as God.

The Way

Jesus is literally the path or access to where I want to be. The Old Testament tells the history of mankind falling away from the perfect life in communion with God in the Garden of Eden. Through man’s choice go his own way and put himself in the place of God, sin entered the world and all that follows from separation from God – endless strife and suffering, meaningless chaos, decay, and death. And this choice of sin was repeated throughout each succeeding generation, even while God showed in the Law what was required for reconciliation, and provided endless guidance to draw people back to Him.

Yet I am amazed when I hear people blame God for all this, and question how can He be good if He created suffering.

The requirements of the Law are summarised in Leviticus 19:2, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy”, and this was rephrased by Jesus in Matthew 5:48, “you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Jesus’ teaching showed this was the true extent of the Law given to mankind, which they had reinterpreted in a limited way, and that mankind had completely failed to live according to the perfect requirements of the Law. And not just the succeeding generations of Old Testament times, this applies to our world today, especially to each and every day of my life.

But Jesus has provided in Himself the only way possible to be reconciled to God. On the cross, he took the penalty for my sin and yours; as the only sinless man, only he could be our perfect substitute. On the cross He won the victory over sin and death, and presents us to the Father as perfectly righteous, through the blood He shed for us.

When the Holy Spirit makes us aware of our sin, and we turn to Jesus and take to heart the gift of forgiveness He has won for us, and place our lives in His hands, we are restored to perfect communion with God through Jesus. He is the way, given by God, where no human effort, nor any religion dreamt up by man, could even begin to repair what we destroyed.

A second view is given when we look to Jesus as the only sure and immovable reference for this earthly life. He provides light for us in the darkness, to show us the path or way through the perils and chaos of this earthly life.

The Truth

This world is full of lies and deceit. As God has led people to follow His path, He has provided the wonders of modern medical knowledge, and transport and communications technology, that allows me to meet with people on the other side of the world for bible study. Yet all of that has been misused. Providing free education for all, to teach children basic skills was a wonderful blessing, but the Western Education systems and news media have been largely taken over for indoctrination purposes, and the health systems misused to mutilate the sexual identity of children. Falsehood has infected every aspect of society, and it even affects the teaching of some organisations that go by the label of a “Christian” denomination.

But all this is nothing new. Even in Jesus’ day, Pilate showed how people would close their eyes to truth by pretending to be intellectual and asking, “What is truth?”
Jesus repeatedly condemned the falsehood of his time. In Matthew 6, He said, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray … that they may be seen by men.”, and, “when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases.”

But it’s not just the example of Jesus’ teaching in scripture, He also speaks to us today through His Holy Spirit, as He promised in John 16:13-14, “when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority … He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” When I prepare my hearing by reading His word, I find His guidance continues after my reading, as Jesus speaks the truth to us through His Holy Spirt.

The Life

In restoring us to perfect communion with God, Jesus has restored us to the perfect life which we lost in the fall, so we can know the joy of God’s presence even as we endure the remainder of our days in this fallen body. It’s a new life in God’s presence that will never die, for Jesus has led the way for us to follow as we share in His resurrection.

Except through Me

In my early, very quiet years, I attended a local interdenominational Easter bible study in Blackwood with several mainstream churches represented. Some of the people knew each other, and they were a happy social group that held to nice popular thoughts without much reference to the bible. On one evening the leading voices concluded that a good God would accept every “good” person regardless of which religion they followed. But a guy who arrived late, on hearing this, firmly corrected those voices by quoting this verse.

All mankind has failed to set things right by our own efforts, and every attempt has only showed how far we have fallen. But in His grace, God has provided a miracle to save us, in the only way possible, as only the sinless son of God was able to take the penalty of our sin on himself on the cross. To understand and accept what Jesus has done also shows He is the only possible way.

To demand any other way is to reject God’s grace in Jesus, it is the sin of Adam trying to put ourselves in the place of God, and in doing so we condemn ourselves.

Praise God for His grace in Jesus alone!