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John 14:6
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Probably no Christian teaching faces more opposition in our day than the proclamation that eternal life comes only to those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We find this truth revealed throughout the Bible, but the “I am” saying of Jesus recorded in today’s passage certainly ranks among the clearest proclamations of the exclusivity of Christ with respect to salvation.
Since we have already looked at what it means for Jesus to be life in that He is the source of all biological life and the One who grants new spiritual life to God’s elect (John 11:25–26), we will focus on the Savior as the way and the truth. In calling Himself “the way,” Jesus stresses that He is the path or road to the Father. Texts such as Isaiah 40:1–5 refer to a highway in the wilderness by which God would travel to come and redeem His people. Because Jesus is truly God, He is the means by which our Creator has come to save us, and because He is truly man, He is the One through whom we come to God for eternal blessing (John 1:1–18). Elsewhere, the Word of God explains that Jesus is the way to salvation through the blood that He shed in His atoning death and by means of His continual intercession for us that saves to the uttermost (Rom. 3:21–26; Heb. 7:25). Matthew Henry comments: “Christ is the way, the highway spoken of (Isa. 35:8). Christ was his own way, for by his own blood he entered into the holy place (Heb. 9:12), and he is our way, for we enter by him. By his doctrine and example he teaches us our duty, by his merit and intercession he procures our happiness, and so he is the way. In him God and man meet, and are brought together.”
That Jesus is the truth means that He is the One through whom truth comes to the world and the One against whom we must measure all truth claims. As the Logos, or Word (John 1:1), Jesus embodies all that the Father wants to tell us regarding the divine character, and He is the principle of truth in which all things hold together (Col. 1:17). People can learn many truths apart from faith in Christ, but they cannot fully appreciate these truths or begin to see how individual facts are finally reconciled with one another if they do not know Jesus. Christ shows us God, and God is the ultimate Truth to which all other truths point. John Calvin comments that Christ “is the way, because he leads us to the Father, and he is the truth and the life, because in him we perceive the Father.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Some people think they are being compassionate by telling adherents of other religions that they can be saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ. Yet to not stand firm for the exclusivity of Christ is actually the least compassionate thing we could do. To hold out to non-Christians the hope of eternal life apart from faith in Christ is to give a false hope. We must be clear that without faith in Jesus Christ, one cannot be reconciled to God.
For further study
- Proverbs 10:29
- 3 John 2–4
The bible in a year
- Psalms 65–67
- Romans 2
- Psalms 68–72
- Romans 3–4