Day 14, John 14

Blogger: Aaron Martin

In verse 6 we have all of God’s revelation to mankind summed up in one verse: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Those words say it all.

Jesus is the way to the Father who is the giver of life, the sustainer of all things, the great I AM, the merciful, gracious, righteous, just and loving inhabitant of heaven.

Jesus is the truth. He speaks no falsehood. He shows the world what is right and what is wrong. He is incapable of contradiction by other truth.

Jesus is the life. Everything that might under any teleology (end-game philosophy) be considered the supreme good—the ne plus ultra of existence—is found in Jesus. He revives mankind from death. He breathes life into his believers through the Comforter while they are in this world. He greets them into a glorious Paradise when they cross Jordan. He is indeed the end of all things.

This verse is the very test of true faith. In true religion, there is simply nothing but Jesus. He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. Moses gave the law to the Jews, but without the Messiah, it was simply the “ministry of death” (II Cor. 3:7). Mohammed claimed no authority of his own but merely served as the oracle of a distant, unknowable god. Zoroaster, Mani, Siddhartha, Confucius, Plato, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kant, Sartre—all of them spoke of ways, of truths or of lives, but none of them WAS the way, the truth or the life. Jesus IS the way the truth and the life! He rose from the dead without external physical cause—without even so much as a holy man performing a miracle! What more evidence of divine personality or truth could there be?

We should be encouraged by Jesus’ unequivocal claim to truth, but also be spurred on to evangelize our post-modern-American-I’m-okay-you’re-okay-don’t-challenge-my-theology-that-I-claim-not-to-have relatives, friends and neighbors. Without Jesus they won’t see the Father. That’s what Jesus said. So what is our response?

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Study Notes: John 14 begins what is commonly known as the Upper Room Discourse, culminating in John 17 with Jesus' high priestly prayer. This is probably the most intimate conversation between Jesus and disciples that we have recorded.