Way, Truth, Life

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

WAY, TRUTH, LIFE

John 14:5-7

14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going." 

5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 

NIV

We already dealt with verses 1-4, but it is good to include them as so we can see the next words in context. Now that Jesus said that they know the way to the place he is going, Thomas responses that he does not know where Jesus is going so how can he now the way. Hasn’t he been listening? After three years of spending every waking moment in the presence of Jesus, hearing every word Jesus has spoken and it seems he hasn’t heard or understood a thing. Jesus, being the loving Savior that he is, explains it as plainly as it could be. He tells Thomas and of course the others that he is the way and the truth and the life. This is one of the most famous words Jesus has spoken. We know them, we quote them and we believe them. Why is it so difficult for some people to understand Jesus is the only way to get to the Father?  We should not even consider praying to God unless we pray in the name of Jesus. We certainly cannot go to heaven unless we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It is not about being a good person. It is not about acting all holy and righteous. It is not about doing good deeds. Although all those things are good things, they will not gain us access to God or eternal life. Jesus is the only way. There is no other way. It is not as if we wanted to travel to some destination and we took a look at a map and found we could get to our destination several different routes. There is only one route, one path we have to take in order to get to the Father. Whoever said, “there are many paths to God” is simply a liar, or they are just a stupid or foolish person. There is only one path to God, Jesus. Jesus answers the question of the ages, “Who is God, what does he look like?” If we know Jesus, as we certainly can know him, we know God. Besides we have the entire Old Testament where God reveals himself to his creation through so many ways, it would be impossible, if we read with reason, not to know God. We not only know the character of God through his words and actions, we have the Spirit dwelling within us witnessing to our spirit who God is. People simply suppress that truth because they do not want to be accountable to God for their deeds which are considered, by God, as evil. This also does not mean because we know God and have the Spirit testifying within us about God and about Jesus being the only way to the Father, we are perfect human beings either and that we still have sin, which is again considered, by God, as evil. But we know it, we are convicted of that fact and we repent and try to live a life pleasing to him for we know he is the only way, he is the truth and he is the life. We cannot have any of that without Jesus. We cannot go that way, we cannot understand the truth, and we certainly cannot have life unless we go by the way of Jesus. All other ways are wrong, they are lies and they lead to death.