WAY TO GOD?

Another of Jesus' "I AM" statements is another amazing statement! All of Jesus' "I AM" statements are amazing statements about who He is. The next to last is "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

In the context, Jesus is speaking of the fact He is leaving, and He is going where the followers cannot follow Him now. But one day they will go where He is going. Thomas says, "How can we come if we don't know where you are going and don't know the way." And then Jesus says, "I AM the way."

In other words, where Jesus is going, and that is into the presence of God, cannot be gone to unless one goes through Jesus' way. And Jesus is the way. In other words, you have to know the leader and let Him lead you there.

Mapquest will not help me get there. The Bible may point me to the One who can get me there. But only by accepting the One who is the way can I go with Him to where He has (now) gone. It is all about a personal relationship of trust in Jesus, the One who knows the way because He is the way to God.

He is the superhighway to God--the pathway--the road. But He is also the "truth."

Many other paths say they have truth or are truth. Jesus says that also, but He has backed it up through His prediction that He would die, but then rise again. Who else has done that? None. Jesus said He would die, but then in three days be raised from the dead. Followers who knew Him before His death saw Him and recognized Him after He rose. They talked with Him, walked with Him, ate with Him, recognized Him by His voice and mannerisms. If all of this were a hoax, why would many of these same people be willing to die in the book of Acts for this belief that He came alive from the grave. Jesus backed up what He said; He is the truth.

He is also the life--Eternal life--the abundant life--the best life. And He leads, at our death, to a place of eternal living that will have no hardships or trials or death or pain, and that is in the very presence of God Himself.

That eternal life--abundant life--best life begins the moment when one accepts Jesus and lives in trust in Jesus here on this earth. But that is only the beginning of this eternal life.

The way to God, the truth of God, the way to eternal life with God is found in Jesus. What other person ever made that statement and was able to prove the truthfulness of it? Only the One who came alive from the dead--that would be Jesus.

Consider Jesus--consider His teachings--consider His actions in the Gospel of John, and you will find One who is believed by Christians to be the "way, the truth, the life." No one can come to the Father (God) except by coming through relationship with Him.

But the best part of that "hard" and exclusive statement is that He offers that relationship to everyone--anyone--all. He doesn't just offer it to some. And that is good news from Jesus!