“The Way, the Truth, and the Life”

John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

The mood among the disciples was one of anxiety and sorrow. Jesus was now preparing them for His soon departure from this world, to return back to His home in Heaven. Jesus explained that He was going to Heaven to prepare a glorious place for them to dwell in– even “Mansions”, and that He would surely come again to take His people home.

Often times the Lord told His disciples about the way He must die, and that He must afterward return to His Father in Heaven. But like Jesus’ disciples today, they just couldn’t accept some of the Lord’s teachings! Many times human thoughts, feelings, and emotions stand in the way of simple faith in the plain, revealed Word of God.

Sometimes like Thomas, when overcome by emotions and sorrow, we doubt or lose sight of those precious truths that we have been taught from the scriptures. With Thomas we say “Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). Our home in Heaven and the way we must go to get to there, may become obscured by emotional circumstances and bad feelings. But emotions and feelings can be deceitful and treacherous— we dare not trust them. We must simply believe God’s Word and commit our emotions and feelings to Him Who is greater than our heart (1 John 3:20).

“The Way, the Truth, and the Life”

The following words of Jesus, although spoken to Thomas, are words whereby we all must place our faith and hope of heaven and eternal life:

….I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

The words “I am” are reminiscent of the great “I AM” in the book of Exodus where God first revealed Himself to Moses as Jehovah (or existing one). “I am” signifies the self-existence and eternality of God Almighty. Thus Jesus Christ is the “I am” of the New Testament. He is the self-existent, deified Son of God. Therefore His word is to be received, believed, and acted upon as it is in truth- the very Word of God. My friends, the only hope of heaven for anyone anywhere, is through receiving and believing the Gospel of Jesus.

Jesus is the Way

Jesus is the only way to God the Father and into Heaven. He is not merely a way, or even one of many ways, but the only way. This truth is the death blow to the majority of this world’s religions- even to some which profess to be Christian. “The way” is not Jesus plus our good works, or our religious rites and rituals, or our holding out faithful to the end. Jesus alone is the way!

The way of Jesus is the way of:

1) Obedience

It was by the disobedience of one man that we were all made sinners, but it is through the obedience of Jesus that we are made righteous (Rom. 5:19). The obedience of Jesus was to do the will of His heavenly Father– to keep His commands, and to accomplish the work of redemption for His people. Jesus was not partially obedient, or occasionally obedient, or mostly obedient– but He was perfectly obedient. There was not a time when Jesus ever failed to do His Father’s will. It was essential for Jesus to be perfect in obedience- otherwise He could not have been our Savior. (Heb. 5:8, Phil. 2:8). We as God’s people need to follow Jesus’ example by living lives of obedience to Him (1 Pet.2:21, Matt.16:24).

2) Sacrifice

All men are sinners, and as such are unfit to enter into the presence of God or His Heaven. By His sacrificial death for the sins of His elect, Jesus made the way into Heaven for each one (Heb. 9:12,14,26; 10:19-20). We partake of His sacrifice by faith in His death, burial, and resurrection for our sins.

3) Mediation

Jesus is the Great High Priest and Mediator for His people. He sits at the Father’s right hand making continual, daily intersession for them. Believers continue to sin and fall short of perfection, thus we need continual cleansing from our sins as we travel through this life. (Heb. 7:25; 9:24, 1 John 2:1).

4) The Resurrection

Finally, the way to the Father and into Heaven is by way of the resurrection. Soon Jesus will return for all His saints– with a shout he will raise them from their graves and catch them away to heaven along with all the living saints in that day.

Jesus is the Truth

Jesus is very truth personified. He is the very truth incarnate. All truth is in Jesus, and Jesus is all truth. If there is any truth in this present evil world, it is owing to Jesus. In contrast to Satan who is the father of lies (John 8:44), and to mankind who “go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Ps. 58:3), Jesus is the author and dispenser all of truth, and no lie ever proceeded out of His mouth or ever entered into His heart. What we as sinful mankind need more than anything else today is to know the truth “as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21).

As “the truth”, Jesus is true to all His promises. He promised in John 14 that He was going to prepare a place for His people, and that He is coming again for them. We can trust Him as He is truth!

Jesus is the Life

Jesus is life, and all life comes from Him. All physical life, including all the earth creatures and mankind, received their life from Jesus. All created spirit beings including both the elect angels and the fallen angels along with Satan, all received their life from Jesus (Col. 1:16). Jesus is also the author of eternal life. Jesus gives spiritual life to spiritually dead sinners and enables them to repent and believe in Him as their Savior (John 4:14, 5:21-26, 17:2).

In our natural state we are all dead in trespasses and in sins (Eph. 2:1). We have no spiritual life, no faint spark of life, or least inclination toward the Lord. We are totally dead to the things of God. Lost men show their spiritual deadness by their total inability to understand spiritual things. They can not understand or believe the Gospel of Christ, because the Gospel is foolishness to them. They can not receive even the least spiritual truth because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 1:18, 2:14).

The ability to understand and believe the Gospel comes from Jesus, when He gives the lost sinner a new, spiritual birth. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that a man must be born again to see or enter the kingdom of God. The old nature is oblivious to the realm of the Spirit, until the Spirit of God blows on one’s soul and imparts new life from above (John 3:1-16).

Thus we see that Jesus must of His own good will and pleasure, give us spiritual life.

Not only is Jesus the cause of our physical and spiritual life, but He is also the sustainer of life. The apostle Paul said that the life that he lived in the flesh, he lived by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him (Gal. 2:20). In Colossians 3:4 Paul said that Christ “is our life”. It is Jesus Who gives us life and sustains our life by His very existence within our souls!

Conclusion

We have seen in this message our dependence on Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the life”. If we know Jesus as our Savior, we can take comfort in knowing just how great a Savior that He is! Remember, our confidence is not in our feelings, but rather in our Savior!

If you are not a believer, we invite you now to believe on Jesus as your personal Savior– for:

“….no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

(Sermon preached by Pastor Burke at the Faith Baptist Church of Lawtey, Florida)