John 14:6 (NLT)
Jesus told him “I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No one can come to the
Father except through Me.”
Other than John 3:16, John 14:6 might be
the most frequently quoted and used verse in the entire Bible. These two verses are the cornerstones of the
Christian faith as they both focus on Jesus being the Son of God and that He is
the only way to the Father and the only One through whom humankind can have
eternal life. Of course, many religions
dispute and refute these claims of Christ.
It is up to every individual soul to examine these claims of Christ and
decide whether or not to believe them.
John 14 starts with Jesus telling His
disciples about His departure from this life.
His statements in John 14:1-3 give great hope about heaven and eternal life. Then in verse 4 He tells His disciples that
they know where He is going. Jesus made
this statement as a reply to His disciple, Thomas (doubting Thomas), when
Thomas said, “No, Lord, we don’t know where You are going, how do we know the
way?” Good ol’ “doubting Thomas”! Without him, we would not have answers like
John 14:6 (Thomas also doubted that Jesus was resurrected until He saw the
wounds of Christ from the cross and then exclaimed “My Lord and My God”—John
20:25-28).
Jesus reply to Thomas makes three claims
about Himself. First, to answer Thomas’
specific question, He says “I am the way”.
He is the way to salvation that leads to the Father and the Father’s
house (John 14:2). Second, He is the
truth that means not only that He does not ever lie, but also that He is The
Word that John speaks about in John 1:1 and 1:14 and all His promises and all
His statements are true. Third, He is
the life that is connected to His earlier statement in John 11:25 that He alone
is the source of eternal life to all other human beings.
In Mere Christianity (HarperCollins,
1952) C.S. Lewis wrote on page 50: “A car is made to run on petrol
(gasoline). It would not run properly on
anything else. Now God designed the
human machine to run on Himself. He
Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits
were designed to feed on. There is no
other. That is why it is just no good
asking God to make you happy in your own way without bothering about
religion. God cannot give you happiness
and peace apart from Himself because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
Thousands of pages of books
have explored the meaning of these three claims of Christ. However, they boil down to you either
believing Him and His claims or not.
What do you believe? Is there any
doubt in your mind and heart that Jesus is not who He claims to be? He is the way to salvation, He is the truth
of God, and He alone provides abundant life on earth and eternal life in
heaven. Reflect for the rest of the day
on these great truths.
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