John 14:6

‘Jesus says to him, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.'

Jesus then explained more fully what He meant. These words of Jesus have filled a multitude of books, and rightly so, for they make Jesus totally central as the way to the Father. Compare Peter's words, ‘neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved' (Acts 4:12). This fact must not be under-emphasised. It is indicating that He is ‘THE Way'. He is the Way to the Father because through His offering of Himself He has opened up access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12), both as a result of His cleansing us and making us holy (1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:26; Hebrews 10:14; 1 John 1:7), and as a result of Him clothing us in His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:17; Isaiah 61:10)' It is through Him alone that we can be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18). But He is also the Way in that He has brought us truth and life. He is thus saying the Way, firstly as the One Who has fully revealed truth both through His being, and through His life and His teaching, and secondly as the One Who imparts eternal life through His Spirit. In other words He is the way because full response to Him, His words, His self-revelation, His offering of eternal life through Himself as the source of that life, is the way to the Father. They who thus receive Him become the children of God and are born of God (John 1:12). Indeed we may take it further. He is the way because once they are in Him they will be carried by Him to their new home.

We notice here Jesus' claim to absolute uniqueness. It has been well said that He does not say, ‘I am one of many ways, I am an aspect of truth, I am a phase of life'. He tells us that He is uniquely THE way, the only way; He is uniquely THE truth, the fullness of truth; He is THE life, the source of life. All is centred in Him. He is pivotal. In the end it is He alone Who can make essentially real in us what truth is and Who can impart life to us. Others can be pointers and signposts. But they must point to Him. He is the final goal. Others can show the way, can impart truth, and can point to life outside of themselves. But He is the way to which they point, the truth imparted is summed up in Himself, He is the life to be received. All the emphasis is on Him.

That is why no one can come to the Father except through Him, for it is through what He is, and what He will do, that men are able to be forgiven, are enabled to be enlightened, and can receive eternal life. He is the complete and total solution. All other great teachers point away from themselves, aware of their own inadequacy. He points to Himself as the One Who is fully adequate. In this statement was a claim to a uniqueness that reveals true Godhood. To any but God such claims would have been both blasphemous and ridiculous.

It should be noted that ‘no one can come to the Father except by me' applies to all ages from the beginning to the end. The Old Testament believers came to God through the way He revealed, through sacrifices. But these sacrifices looked forward to what was to come. It was because Jesus would come and offer Himself as a sacrifice that God could ‘pass over things done aforetime' (Romans 3:25). If those who were not aware of the old revelation, yet responded to the revelation within their own consciences (Romans 2:14) and came to salvation, it was through Him that their salvation would come, even though they were unaware of it. If there are some relatively few who since Christ's life on earth have responded to God in a saving way, without having heard the Good News fully, and there are probable examples of this, they too come through Him. For He is the source of all saving truth, whether revealed through nature or revealed through Scripture. And He is the source of all saving life. He is the One Who ministers it. Through Him alone comes salvation to the saved among mankind. (We can be so used to this idea that sometimes we fail to recognise just how all embracing it is).