The Way

“And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:4-6).

Jesus said, I am the way. . . . What did He mean by that? The word is hodos. Normally the word refers to a road that is traveled, or the journey itself. As a metaphor it can refer to a course of conduct or the manner of thinking feeling, and/or deciding. Jesus used it to refer to the means whereby a person has access into the presence of God, to a relationship with God, to the blessings of God.

Jesus spans the distance between God and mankind. Throughout history mankind has tried to manufacture ways to God, but all have failed. Even today religions have included in their cultus various means whereby a person can access God - through priests and pastors and other ministers, through sacraments, rituals, ceremonies, disciplines, etc. It is even taught that through our prayers and tears and resolutions we make our way to God (remember Ebenezer Scrooge in his prayer to God at his tomb in the cemetery?). Not so. Such man-made avenues lead to a dead end. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).

Quite often it is Satan who is the mastermind behind these primrose paths that lead us to nowhere. It is his desire to keep the sinner away from God and on a self-imposed journey through the wide gate and down the broad way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it (Matthew 7:13). 

Saving faith is not placed in any means man can devise, orchestrate, or manufacture. Saving faith can only be placed in Jesus Christ. He is the only means God has provided for our salvation. All of the ordinances, rites, rituals, sacrifices, laws etc. that God gave Israel in their worship, service, and conduct, point to Jesus; He fulfilled it all. These were the means whereby Israel gained access to fellowship with God and the blessings of God, but they were temporary in nature. (Colossians 2:16-17) So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ (read the Book of Hebrews).

If the Scriptures tell us anything regarding our access to God as sinners, it is that we cannot come to God - it is God who comes to us, and has done so through the Person of Jesus Christ, His Son. He is the Way, the only Way to the Father, the only Way to heaven, the only Way to eternal life. (John 10:7-10) Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. Amen.

Pastor