Jesus – the Only Way
You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” John 14:5,6
We are in the Upper Room. John’s account of the events and conversation that took place here will cover at least chapters 13 and 14 and possibly through to chapter 17. Jesus has just explained to his disciples the reason He must leave them, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be where I am.” Only by leaving them could He prepare a home in the Father’s presence for them.
“You know the way to the place where I am going.” Jesus had spoken about the place He was going – to the Father – and the way He was to get there – by the cross and resurrection – and He expected His disciples to understand. ‘Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”’ They wanted to follow Jesus but didn’t know where He was going and so couldn’t know the way He was taking.
Jesus’ response is one of the most memorable of anything He said in any of the gospels, ‘Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”’ This is the sixth of the seven “I am” statements (with predicates) in John’s gospel (6:35,48,51; 8:12; 10:7,9; 10:11,14; 11:25;14:6; 15:1,5).
Jesus is the way to the Father because His death made access to the Father possible for sinful humanity.
He is also the way to God because He is the truth. He brought the truth of God into the world (1:14,17), proclaiming and embodying it. Coming to Jesus is coming to the One in whom the truth about God is uniquely found.
Jesus is also the way to the Father because He is the life. John’s gospel amplifies this. ‘In him was life and that life was the light of men’ (1:14). ‘As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself’ (5:26). In 6:33,35,48 and 51 Jesus speaks of Himself as ‘the bread of life’ and in 11:25 as ‘the resurrection and the life.’ The life of God was found in Jesus. When people come to Jesus they come to the one in whom the life of the Father is found; in this sense then He is the way to the Father.
“No one comes to the Father except through me.” No one else can bring people to God. No one else has seen God or made Him known (1:18; 3:13). No one else speaks and embodies the truth about God as He does. No one else shares the very life of God and no one else has dealt with the problem of human sin to be able to justly bring people back to a holy God. This means that no one can claim to know God while rejecting Jesus His Son (5:23; 8:42).
Peter makes the claim ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). Our world of religious pluralism and syncretism doesn’t find this palatable but the reality of the incarnation leaves room for no other view. If God has come into our midst in person in His Son Jesus to reconcile His rebellious lost world, then the way to God is through Him and Him alone. The uniqueness of Christ’s salvation is inextricably bound with the uniqueness of Jesus Himself.
Don’t be daunted by the cries of some that Christianity is too exclusive. If there is such a thing as truth then truth is exclusively correct in all situations and for all time. That’s what makes it ‘truth.’ Jesus remains not only the way to God but the only way.
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