I AM THE WAY

It was the night in which our Lord was betrayed. He was alone with His own in the upper room; His imminent departure to the Father has been intimated and soon will be clearly announced. In response to a question by Thomas about the way He was going, the Saviour replied, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’, v. 6.

‘I am the way’; what blessed words these are! For only through faith in His sacrificial work can anyone have sure accep­tance before the Father, Eph. 2. 18. Yet, how solemn are His words to those who reject His offer of mercy, thus losing any hope of coming to God! He is the way to peace with God, Rom. 5. 1, and the only hope of being with Him in His heaven. He is not just the guide to the way, or even a lawgiver like Moses, but He, Himself, is the way. Men may invent other ways that seem right to them, but the end of them is the way of eternal death, Prov. 14. 12.

Through His sacrifice on the cross He has opened a new and living way into the presence of God, Heb. 10. 20. And, while we see the first Adam, through his sin, causing the way to the tree of life to be guarded and closed, the last Adam opened that way to those who come by faith to Him.

He is the truth, for to know Him is the root of all true knowl­edge. He is the truth, in whom are fulfilled all the figures and shadows of the Old Testament revelations, Heb. 8. 5; 10. 1. He is the truth, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Col. 2. 9. All the glories of the Father are in Him most per­fectly expressed, Heb. 1. 3, because He is in the Father and the Father in Him, vv. 9, 10.

He too is the life; the root, the fountain and giver of eternal life, ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent’, John 17. 3. Those who believe on Him are passed from death unto life, John 5. 24. All that come to Him by faith have life, 5. 40.

No prophet, teacher or apostle could ever use such language of himself; they were all mortal men. Only He, God manifest in flesh, can truthfully use such words about Himself.