“The way, the truth, the life”

April 19, 2021

14:1 – 15:17 Being in Jesus, just as Jesus is in the Father

Read John 14:5-6

Thomas’s reply (5) shows that he and the other disciples had not yet understood the destination, let alone the way to get there! The destination is a place in the Father’s house (14:2) and Jesus himself is the way there (14:4). In view of their slowness to understand this, Jesus now declared to them, “I am the way” (6). This is one of the seven “I am” sayings of Jesus recorded in John’s gospel, each of them pointing indirectly to his deity (Exod.3:14; John 8:58-59).

Another of the “I am” sayings has a similar meaning: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (10:9). Jesus is not just the one who tells people the way; he himself is the way that leads to God. The basis of this is that he is also “the truth and the life” i.e. all the truth of God and all the life of God are found in Jesus. John has already stated this in the opening section of his gospel: “In him was life” (1:4) and he was “full of… truth” (1:14). The reason Jesus came into the world was so that people might know this truth and this life for themselves (18:37; 10:10).

In other words, God’s reality is found in Jesus and therefore that reality is revealed in him and by him. This is why Jesus next goes on to say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”, for he and the Father are truly one (14:9-11). There is no one else who can make that claim – hence his emphatic statement that no one can come to the Father except through him (6; Matt.7:14; Acts 4:12). Only the one who has come from the Father’s side (1:18) can enable us to know the Father, both in this life and the next.