WEDNESDAY November 27th
John 14:6 ‘Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”’
We have arrived to the well-known and important ‘I am’ statement that Jesus made, especially as we consider the multi-faith, and you can believe whatever you like world in which we find ourselves living today.
But before I continue I make it very clear that what Jesus states here is as equally true today as it was when he spoke the words to the disciples as he spent the final few days on earth with them before he went to Calvary to do what he had come to do, which was to be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, and within the context of John 14, to make open the way, the access into heaven and to the Father.
Here, Jesus declares three things about himself, he is the way, he is the truth, and he is the life.
As I was thinking about this verse a little chorus came to mind that is often sung with children in mind:
I am the way the truth and the life
That’s what Jesus said
I am the way the truth and the life
That’s what Jesus said
Without the way there is no going
Without the truth there is no knowing
Without the life there is no living
I am the way the truth and the life
That’s what Jesus said
And because it is what Jesus said, I and I trust we all emphatically believe it.
We will consider each of the three parts individually, but for today remind ourselves that the whole statement is very clear that without Jesus, and without what he has done, there would be no entrance into heaven, and no one would be able to find themselves in the presence of God. ‘No one’, Jesus said, ‘comes to the Father except through me’.
This statement comes as a reply to a question that Thomas asked, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ (v5)
Jesus had just told the disciples that he would be leaving them, and that he was returning to his Father, and that he was going to prepare a place for them, but not to worry, for he would come again to take them to himself, so that where he was going to, they also would go.
So as heaven is being prepared, whether you want to think of it as having a mansion prepared as the KJV says, or a room in the Father’s house being prepared as the ESV, NIV and other newer versions say, the only available way to be able to be there is through the Lord Jesus Christ.