John records an amazing saying of Jesus. Shortly before Jesus went through the agony of the Cross, He promised His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them. Thomas asked Him, “How do we know the way?” Jesus replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6) KJV).
All religions do not teach essentially the same thing. They differ in key areas. For example, Buddhism denies the existence of a personal God, while Christianity affirms that there is a God, and that He is knowable. How can both be true? They are not. Further, Jesus Himself declared that He is the exclusive way to God.
When Jesus says that He is the Way, then He is the only access to Heaven. He is the only way to eternal life. There is a great gulf between mankind and God. Jesus bridges that chasm. He did not come to merely show us how to live better lives, or to find self-esteem, or to answer life’s difficult questions. He came to save sinners and offered Himself as a sacrifice to become the perfect atonement for our sins.
When Jesus says that He is the Truth, then He conveys the only accurate knowledge of God. Today, there are many religious claims and ideas, and it can all be quite confusing. Jesus declares the truth that Heaven is a place, prepared for Christians, where they will enjoy eternal fellowship with Him. Jesus tells us that He is the only accurate Truth in which to trust. We need a Saviour, and He is the only Saviour available.
When Jesus says that He is the Life, then He is the only means of a relationship with God. John 5:39-40 is the rebuke to the unbelieving scholars of His day. John asserts in John 1:14, “In Him was life.” There is no real life–no spiritual life–apart from Jesus Christ. People are very religious (as the Athenians were in Acts 17), but spiritually dead. Believers find their life in Christ, who guides, disciplines, and rules their lives.
Some reject this “narrow” position. Yet if we understand what the Scriptures teach about the depravity of mankind, the issue, as R.C. Sproul put it, “is not why there is only one way, but why there is any way at all?” [Objections Answered, p. 43]. God loved us, and provided the way, and Jesus is it.
Ultimately, the proof that Jesus was indeed “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” is that He rose from the dead. No other great historical figure has done this. Their memories may live on, but they have no transforming power as does Jesus Christ. Mohammed lies in his grave, as do Buddha, Marx, and Lenin. Their ideas inspire many, but they cannot truly live in the lives of their followers. Only Jesus can and does.
Craig Alan Myers – CBC Exec. Board
