JESUS: THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE (JANUARY 22)

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'" (John 14:6).

OF ALL THE REMARKABLE THINGS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST, NONE IS MORE POWERFUL THAN HIS VIEW OF WHAT OUR REAL PROBLEM IS, THE ONE PROBLEM OF WHICH ALL THE OTHERS ARE MERELY SYMPTOMS. Both His mission and His message were aimed directly at the problem of sin. It was the salvation of our souls that He wanted to give us — a home in eternity with the God who created us, the God we cut ourselves off from the first time we sinned by saying no to His will.

FIRST, THINK ABOUT OUR NEED FOR A “WAY.” Having broken the relationship with God for which we were created, we have no means of being reconciled unless God Himself provides a way for us to be saved. That is exactly what God has done in His Son, and Jesus was unmistakably clear that the way back to God would only be through Him. “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

NEXT, THINK ABOUT OUR NEED FOR “TRUTH.” If it was untruth about God that deceived us into breaking His law, then truth is going to have to be put back in its rightful place if the problem of sin is ever going to be fixed. Jesus came to reestablish the truth about God.

FINALLY, THINK ABOUT OUR NEED FOR “LIFE.” Untruth is the means the devil uses, but his objective is our death. And the first time we yielded to his temptation to commit sin, that is what happened: we died spiritually. So it was Jesus’ desire to rescue us from this terrible death and give us back our birthright — life in God.

At one point, many of Jesus’ disciples began to leave Him. “So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’” (John 6:67,68). The truth was becoming clear to Peter: we simply can’t survive without what Jesus came to bring us. Apart from Him, there is no way back to God, no certainty of truth about God, and no life other than the desperate yearning of our earthly existence. Jesus Christ is not one of many ways to return to God. He is not even the best way. He is the only way.

Follow me: I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Without the way there is no going;
Without the truth there is no knowing;
Without the life there is no living.
(Thomas à Kempis)